You know what it’s like. You find yourself standing outside high garden walls, catching tantalising glimpses of what lies beyond. All the while wondering what must it be like on the other side of those gates and hoping to someday get the opportunity to look around the place!
This became reality for us recently, when we managed to get through the gates of the working estate and gardens of Villa Bologna in Attard on Malta. I’d been intrigued by the place for a while, and was keen to discover more about the history of the fine 18th century Maltese house, gardens and grounds. The visit proved an ideal opportunity to learn more about the ongoing efforts by a small team of staff and volunteers to restore the gardens using organic growing methods.
On arrival, we were met at the Villa’s imposing gates by Emanuela, the enthusiastic estate gardener and our “tour guide” for the morning. She accompanied us around the gardens and introduced us to the team of volunteers helping with the many and varying tasks that maintaining such a large garden demands. We were also joined by unofficial tour guide, Lula, a rescue dog found living rough under cars outside the Villa.
Aside from the gardens we also hoped to take a look around Ceramika, the onsite pottery, along with the gift shop and Baroque Nymphaieon currently undergoing restoration! To those of you back in the UK belonging to the National Trust, Villa Bologna would have been familiar territory – think small Stately Home in need of lots of ongoing TLC, an overgrown walled vegetable garden, impossibly long formal borders, extensive water features, sunny terraces, large lawns, lots of lemon trees and of course the onsite Air Raid Shelter (this is Malta after all!) .
The gardens are divided in to two distinct areas (the old and the new) with a ‘baroque garden’ built alongside the main house back in the mid 18th century. Landscaping records dating back to 1747 show it was created in the traditional style with a symmetrical layout and citrus trees throughout. Later on lawns were added to create more space for entertaining and also some mature trees, which were planted after being brought back from Australia by Lord Strickland in the late 1890s.
Aside from the wide array of flora, the garden is also renowned for its exceptional large and small nymphaion (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphaeum) and a baroque gateway, which are quite unparalleled in Malta. The statues around the large fountain pay homage to the four seasons, while the baroque gateway is home to statues depicting Anthony and Cleopatra.
The ‘new garden’ meanwhile, to the rear of the Villa, was added by Lady Strickland in the 1920s, and with a large team of gardeners extended the “English Style” gardens by arranging for new fountains and Dolphin Pond, adding climbing plant-covered walk ways and establishing a large vegetable patch and citrus orchards. Sadly the fantastic glasshouses from this period are still in a poor state of repair, but it hoped these will be fully restored to their former glory in the near future.
The high walls surrounding the gardens offer protection from the cooler, strong North East winds and provide ideal structure to train and grow stone fruit trees. Combine this with a deep and well composted soil, onsite water reservoirs, and you can see why the estate has future potential to yield a wide range and plentiful supply of tasty, organic Mediterranean produce. Currently, the fruit and citrus trees give good harvests of delicious lemons, oranges and other fruits such as Peaches, Apricots and Avocados. Pesticides are avoided and only natural fertilisers are used, complimented by liberal use of on-site compost, mulches and leaf litter.
The tour ended with refreshing glasses of estate-made lemonade and biscuits enjoyed adjacent to some very fine beds of early season Purple Artichokes and Broad beans. Here, Emanuela explained in detail some of the future plans for the gardens. To date, the volume of produce for sale at available at Villa Bologna is very modest. In part this is due to the extensive and ongoing restoration work across the site. A developing vegetable box scheme/ shop is starting to take hold, with additional sales from seasonal gluts of fruit and vegetables. Occasionally homemade jams, marmalades and lemon curd etc are also on sale. An ambition is to extend the range and quantity of organic produce on offer involving local organic (MOAM*) growers, Permaculture schemes and other Slow Food producers based on the Maltese islands.
The size of the task to restore the historical gardens at Villa Bologna means it is currently very much a “work in progress”. In the meantime, Emanuela is about to start running “Grow Your Own” courses with Malta-based FAA (http://new.faa.org.mt/events/grow-food-emanuela-de-giorgio/), with perhaps opportunities to link up with more Maltese growers and local volunteers keen to help out and learn how to “grow organic” for themselves.
For more details and some useful links check out the following
Villa Bologna’s website at http://villabologna.com/
For details about The Veg Box scheme see https://www.facebook.com/thevegboxmalta/
https://www.facebook.com/SlowFoodMalta/
https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/permaculture-action-bahrija-oasis-malta
*MOAM is a totally independent and voluntary organisation set up in November 1999 to promote Organic Agriculture in Malta. Visit their website for more details http://www.moam.org.mt/
Simon & Mary Wallace, Gozo
April 2017
