Living the dream in Puglia, Southern Italy!
Living the dream in Puglia, Southern Italy!
We (Pete & Sally) sold up in the UK and moved to live at La Bolla in Puglia, Southern Italy, in 2022. La Bolla is a traditional stone farmhouse (called a 'lamia') sitting on 4 acres of land with 120 olive trees and various fruit trees which Sally has owned since 2006. It needs total renovation, having been abandoned for about 12 years. Pete is designing the renovation to include solar energy for electricity and harvested rainfall for water supply. Part of our waterwise ethos is to create a dry mediterranean (drought-tolerant) garden in various areas around La Bolla, providing plant interest all year round. These videos bring you with us on our Italian adventure so you can share in our excitements, our ups and downs, learning curves and inevitable adjustments to Italian life in the countryside!
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Nice to see your dedication to the trees and the land on your property.
Thank you. We are trying really hard, we don't know whether it will work but we are giving the trees the best possible chance. If it looks like we will lose them then we will try grafting next spring.
Your garden looks absolutely amazing now at the start of summer! I love the contrast of the white stone gravel pathways with the beautiful flowers in the gardens! It looks almost 100% weed free! I'm super impressed by the number of fruit trees that you have on the property! As far as sustainability goes, you are going to be all set!!! Thank you for another video! Keep up the fantastic content...as always, it's fun to see your humor pop through in between the descriptions...Have a lovely month out of the EU! See you in the next video!
Thanks, Jaqueline, we're heading to Azerbaijan and Georgia for 3 of the 4 weeks, with the first week in the UK catching up with family...we've managed to record and set up for the next 3 scheduled KZreads (one of the challenges we have as a result of not being able to be here for more than 50% of the year!). We're quite pleased with them and hope you enjoy them!
So I promised that I was going to watch this video because I am genuinely interested in Solar. My father has done a lot with solar to also put power back into the grid...I think sustainability is an extremely important issue especially as we move forward to a carbon neutral future. You did warn us that this would be a very "boring" video but actually, I found it intriguing and very informative! I'm super glad you have managed to design your solar system for your house and property in Puglia! Good luck going into the next months! Can't wait to see how this works for you long term!
Is your spreadsheet available for us viewers?
Good morning, I have several spreadsheets that I would be happy to send. If you send an email to [email protected] then I will send them to you. I mounted the inverter last week and have made my combiner box. Yesterday the electrician came in and installed the AC wiring and reconfigured the circuit breaker panel. Concrete ballast supports are here, just need to get them onto the roof! After that, panels and batteries. Thanks for watching. Pete and Sally
I like what you do !! Beautiful garden !!
Thank you so much :-), we're glad you're enjoying it! Sally & Pete
looks great, where in Puglia are you?
Hi, we're just south of San Michele Salentino...
@labollapugliaYT lovely, my mum is from Bari, I've spent a lot of time in that part of the world. I learned to swim at Torre Canne
Here in Umbria I have also switched completely from burning to chipping prunings but am not as cautious about rogna/occhio di pavone as I'm primarily using the chips around other (non olives) trees. Particularly apricot is very poor in our area but the others (particularly peaches) have produced very well. Wanted to ask a question about the re-planting of trees. Would you consider cloning/taking cuttings from surviving trees or from trees at a friends a property? Might be more likely that they will survive and could also save you a bit of money. I'll do that for my next planting of peach/nectarine trees because the only one we have currently was completely destroyed by leaf curl this year and I see many trees in our area that were far less affected.
Hi and thanks for the feedback and ideas. We're so time compressed at the moment that it's more convenient to just buy a 2-year old sapling tree for 8 euros or so, but I'm sure in the future (if we can get residency and be here full time) that we might well consider it. Best of luck with your trees too!
Lovely olive & fruit grove! Just curious, if you're only there 1/2 the year what do you do with all the harvest? Especially the fruit.
Aha, we've managed to hit lucky with all the harvests so far except for the pear, which we might just catch this year if we're lucky because we've eeked our 'Schengen Shuffle' calculator out till the end of July! The figs all get eaten fresh, most of the persimmon also (although I froze some of the inside flesh in the autumn from last year's glut). We caught the almond harvest last year and hope to catch this year's too and those don't last long in our house! We've harvested all the olives two years in a row and intend to keep that going. All the rest will be from the new young fruit trees and we've picked fruit that we know will harvest in the periods we're here. The situation with residency will hopefully get sorted next year, which will probably coincide with when the new fruit and nut trees start producing...fingers crossed! Thanks for watching and for your feedback :-)
What an informative video!! You are both so kind to share your knowledge! Grazie mille!!
Our pleasure! :-) Thank you for watching it!
Wow! Amazing bringing the older trees back to life and very exciting to see the survivors after last years heat… well done xx
Thanks Karen, it's good to have you with us! Sally & Pete
I love tools so you had me hooked.
Thanks for watching. All our machines are worked REALLY hard. I have had to do quite a bit of maintenance as well as regular servicing to keep them going at the pace we need. I now have essential spares to cater for most breakages because we found out the hard way, if it breaks down it is always at the most difficult time constrained moment.
Wonderful and so informative… thank you Pete!
We have expanded and improved our water collection system. We can now store 20000 litres for the house and 4000 litres for irrigation but I will increase that to 6000 litres before the winter arrives. Thanks for watching.
Love seeing your process… magical, fun and a lot of time too! I’m very excited to see how the gardens each thrive over the coming years!
Thank you, Karen, it's been a real adventure for us and we're glad you're enjoying it from afar! 👍
Fascinating and really helpful video Sally, thank you so much. Will go through it again with pen and paper!
Or you could wait to get my spreadsheet and save yourself the trouble?!🤣 Glad you found it useful, I needed a 'project' to keep myself busy after stopping paid work!
@@labollapugliaYT Oh! Ok… I’ll do that, thank you again!
I read: "we're installing it ourselves)". I kindly advise you not to install new electrical systems, especially a photovoltaic system with hybrid inverter and battery, if you are not a licensed electrician in Italy because it is against the law (Ministerial Decree 37/08) and regulations (T.I.C.A. Active Connections Integrated Text ). And if, due to the insufficiency of controls in Italy, in any case you want to install it, I would advise you not to publicise or advertise it online. 😇
Thank you for your comments. We will be installing the hardware but the electrical connection work will be carried out by a qualified electrician. We completely understand the importance of the system having to meet all the legal requirements.
Wonderful that these methods could be the first drop in the ocean of change that could Ave the way things are farmed in this area .only when people see how wel your producing and how other crops are failing will they start being curious...until then they will probably think you outrageously mad. This year our neighbors planted herb pasture and sunflower in a few of their paddocks as soil improvement, people came from everywhere to walk the lane withe the sunflowers...and I have noticed other farms doing it also, it is so benificial to protect the soil from drought. In the 80s our neighbor were organic and my ft her gave them endless hassle about the time and energy they worked on their farm , but they were the pioneer game changers. Here is a wonderful movie documentary you may like to watch , if you haven't already called the biggest little farm .very inspirational dealing with the same issues as yourselves. Look forward to watching more of your chanel. From NZ
Thanks so much for your encouragement and for joining us, all the way from NZ! We will take a look at the video you suggest 👍, Sally & Pete
Thanks so much for your encouraging comments and for joining us, all the way from NZ! We will take a look at the video you suggest 👍, Sally & Pete
Very good work and information. I was just south of Bari and so many Olive orchards.
Thanks and glad you found it interesting 👍. Xylella is gradually making its way north towards Bari...if only they could find a way to stop it or the landscape will change completely 😥
Poorly furnished room to offer for booking or air B&B.
Good evening, Totally agree but that video was made over 9 months ago. We have, since then, furnished the room for friends and family visits. If we ever do decide to rent it commercially then it will definitely be furnished fit for purpose. We have both worked in the hospitality sector. We have no immediate plans to do so at present, we are just enjoying the fruits of our labour. Thanks Pete and Sally
Just an idea for the heat pump in the separate unit. Perhaps you could build a cupboard around it and line it with egg cartons. They make excellent sound insulation apparently. Another point, would portable solar panels (2, 4, perhaps 6) be a handy addition in the colder months? If it can be connected (and I have no idea) they could be placed anywhere. They can be folded back up when not required. You have certainly thought ahead. You should get great results. Best wishes.
Good morning, thank you for your comments. I will look at sound insulation for the smaller boiler, the location above the washing machine is a little difficult. I am building my own solar combiner box for the 2 six solar panel strings. If I could fit another 3 panels somewhere I could make the system 3 strings of 5 panels which hopefully would be enough for the winter. I am building the combiner to accept the 3 strings but will only use 2 initially. Just have to figure out a place for another 3 panels. In the combiner box I am also putting in the ability to switch strings off, mainly for any extended times we are not in the house. We will be doing 1 or 2 episodes as we install the system and when we have been running it for a while an update on how it is performing. Thanks Pete and Sally
Such an interesting episode. I learned a lot! Keep the videos coming!
Thank you for your encouragement. We will be covering the installation at some point in the future. Pete and Sally.
Thanks so much you guys. That was interesting. Some things over my head, but it's so genuine how you do your videos, so regardless of all the tech it's a joy to watch. How wonderfully you care for your piece of land, with all the thoughtfulness and joy! Looking into buying a house in Southern Italy as well... so, maybe, one day we meet.
Hello Barbara, don't worry about some of it being over your head...Pete's been running ideas past me about electrics and water for two years now and most of it doesn't register. Apparently it's something to do with us having different parts of the brain 'in gear', which is why we make a great team 🤣!! We're glad to have you on our adventure with us and would love to meet you one day if you end up over here 👍
Re: the production/consumption figures in the table and the graph (kzread.info/dash/bejne/hn2nkrajk7TAaZs.html), I see two issues. Firstly, surely you want "kWh", not "kW". The latter is the rate of production of energy (i.e. power); the former is the quantity of energy produced (the product of time and power). Secondly, regarding scaling, the numbers in both places appear to be in units of "Wh", not "kWh", contrary to their labeling. Even by my American (energy spendthrift) standards, monthly production of 28 kWh is huge for a residence (mine about breaks even, with a rated 5.5kW PV system and a gas furnace). 28 MWh (per your figures) is unimaginable!
Hi Davide, Thanks for the comments. We are away from La Bolla at the moment but return on the 9th. Will look at all the items raised and get back to you as soon as I get back to my laptop. Thanks Pete and Sally
Good evening, Just looked again at the solar production slide. The figures are daily production and consumption in Wh. I did these as daily figures because my consumption was worked out as a daily figure. I used this site with our exact location to work out production. re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html#PVP I ran the figures with 6 panels 17° inclined and with 6 panels 11° inclined, 41° latitude. These were then added together to get the total, per day. In the Summer time, 7.6 solar hours at 4000W output from the 4920W array gives the daily figure of about 28000 Wh. I did play with various inclinations from 35° to 5° but had to settle for 11° and 17° to ensure that the panels would not shadow each other, I based that on when 800W/m2 was achieved in the morning until it dropped below the figure at night. When I get back I will try to add Daily into the slide title. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for this! I bet you are saving a lot of money on the installation because Pete is so knowledgeable on the subject!
Thanks for watching. Our savings will be considerable. We were quoted double the price for a lower specified grid tied system using little known, new to the market Chinese inverter brands. We will be doing a full cost breakdown after the system is up and running. Will be filming the installation as we progress. Thanks for your support. Pete and Sally.
Will you try replanting the same plants to give them a chance as the next dry season may not be as harsh or as long. If the next severe dry comes in a couple of years time, they may have time to establish good enough roots to survive even that. Just wondering. Regards.
That's a really good question and the answer is 'yes' in some cases. Examples are the Common Myrtle and the Capparis spinosa inermis, which I replaced in November because I'm convinced from everything I've read and seen that they're drought-tolerant but just weren't given the chance to get their roots established before the summer...some just take longer than others! I'm also tempted to get another batch of plants from Olivier Filippi's nursery for autumn planting which might include some that we lost first time around. Fingers crossed, we might get permanent residency next Spring so the plants won't get abandoned for their first summer either! 🤞 Thanks for joining us and for your comment 👍 Sally & Pete
I’ve just stumbled onto your channel and I love it! Keep the videos coming.
Hello and thanks for stumbling across us! We've got quite a variety of videos lined up, so we hope you enjoy them all 🤞👍! Sally & Pete
Great stuff. Best wishes
Wow. How interesting. Lovely to catch up with your vlog. Will backtrack for the others. Best wishes from Australia.
Thank you, Shirley, it's good to have you with us! 👍
Nice work and thanks for the information. Because we are still building, we cannot intensively maintain the trees ourselves and we have outsourced this. Our agronomist follows more or less the same method, pruning away what is infected. He also sprays with a mixture of foliar fertilizer and copper and fertilizes the soil. Jan & Marjolein (l'Abbraccio).
Hello both, we remember what it was like at the building stage - hang onto that vision! Good to have you with us, we're chuffed that you're enjoying the videos 👍
i'm not sure what you are all allowed or able to grow in Italy. but a lot of people use clover and short grass mixture around trees, or a thick bed of wood chip mulch. tilling the land kills the microbes, and hurts soil health. definitely look up no-till and low till practices, and permaculture.
Absolutely agree! We've started mulching around the 54 young fruit and 18 established almond, fig and persimmon trees (needs 3 wheelbarrows of mulch per tree, so it's going to take us a while 😀!) and our aim is to not rotovate at all under those trees. Unfortunately, due to the Xylella being spread by infected spittle bugs, we are required to rotovate as a minimum the circles under the olive trees (most locals still till all their land, not just do circles under the trees 😞). Luckily we can still add to the soil in the meantime with green manure and bokashi, but we'd love to be able to stop rotovating too. Thanks for the comment, Sally & Pete 👍
Very interesting. I instinctively don’t like rotovated earth but if you say it’s against an imported pest... I think a bit more relief on the land, with a shrub layer would be nice. Ah and poultry is freat against ground pests and flies qround trees. Free range in a net. But you’d want to live there permanently
You are seeing great results of being more careful with touches of cultivation instead of rough techniques.
Thanks for commenting. We planted 38 shrubs along Zone 1 (the 100m stretch of land at the front) which is more than has ever been here before (!) and about 10 'ornamental' non-fruiting trees and shrubs (like pistacia Atlantica, cercis silaquastrum, Montpellier maple etc) have been dotted around between the fruit trees. We're hoping the birds might like the permanency of these trees and shrubs, as they won't be subject to pruning like all the others! This time next year, we will also have wild flower sections all over the 4 acres, in anticipation of their seeds spreading into the unrotovated parts - we will obviously need to do a follow-up video then! Hopefully 2025 will see us being able to get residency, so we won't have to try and run the place on just 50% of the year too!!🤞
Just found your channel via this episode, and subbed! Love what you are trying to do! Are you still having to leave every 3 months?
Thanks for watching. Yes we are having to work within the Schengen 90 day rules but we are confident that we will only have to do that until late this year or early next year if all goes well. Full time is our aim and it will certainly help reduce the aches and pains!!!!
I just found your channel and subbed! #421! I need to binge watch your other episodes but really enjoyed how your hard work and more natural way to farming is paying off!
Hi and we're delighted that you found us! It's a new way of life for us and we're relying on our instinct a lot of the time, so it's great to get positive and encouraging feedback, thank you! 👍
Absolutely brilliant.
Thank you so much. It really has turned out as good as we had hoped. Our friends that have stayed in "The Lavanderia" have really liked it as well.
@@labollapugliaYT The lavanderia name seem like it's going to stick.
Hallo from New Zealand, I am stunned/impressed to the point of emotional happy to listen to what you have achieved !!!!! WOW WOW, you achieved wonders and thank you for what you do for the olive trees as I love them and all the best ahead. I will watch all you video's.
That's such lovely feedback, thank you for taking the time to comment 😊! We're working so hard in the 6 months a year that we can spend at La Bolla that we often forget just how far it's come on since we got here. Comments like yours make us glow with pride, thank you 👍
Wow!!!
We say that quite a lot along with "help" or "crikey"
I just stumbled across your video. I admire your courage to move to italy only because of the language barruer but know you will overcone this hurdle. Looks like a nice piece of land. Good luck with all your projects and hope to see more videos.
Thank you for watching. We are doing our best with the language, it's very challenging at times. Our Italian friends and neighbours are so helpful, kind and supportive in so many ways that it is a real pleasure to live there. Hope you enjoy future episodes. Pete and Sally
@@labollapugliaYT I'll definitely look out for the videos.
Nice to see others out here, too. 😊
Hope we're doing it justice. If only we could be here full time!! Running 4 acres on 50% of the year is quite the challenge :-), are you in the same boat as us? Sally & Pete
Thank you for your videos! I'm from New York City but I have a hectare in Francavilla Fontana's countryside on the way to Ostuni. I've been wondering about this till practice that I don't care for so much for all the reasons you point out in the videos. We are about to do the spring till but after seeing your video, I'd rather do what you have done with the circular till just around the trees. Do you then mow the grass on the remainder? If so, how often. I know the weather would make a difference. I would like to make the rest a meadow of dandelions, poppies, etc. Best, Dale
Hi Dale and thanks for watching & your comments. We mow about 4 times a year and the piece of kit we use for that is featured on episode 12, it's the first one in the video even though it's number 5 in our 'top 5' pieces of equipment. We bought it in Ostuni (from the shop opposite the recycling centre if you're familiar with that, which two old men brothers run, it's a bit of a 'man cave'!): Tekna TR70 brushcutter strimmer (cost about 1100 euros), and it does the job brilliantly. It does 1.6 hectares in about 3 days and is self-propelled, which makes it much easier. We've got to be patient with the meadow flowers part of what we want to do, as we seem to have inherited a lot of high grasses which are what needs mowing most, but that's okay, it will just take time to introduce field meadow seeds. We've got loads of wild calendula (marigolds) and the red poppies like the areas we've rotovated more, so it does look pretty and the bees/pollinators love it too :-)
Hi, guys! Thank you for sharing your journey with us! Watched all your videos already Can't wait for the next one From Ukraine 🇺🇦 with ❤❤❤
Hi Vitalii, and Ukraine :-), lovely to have you with us on our journey! The next one's all about Pete's planning of our solar system...let us know what you think when it comes out, it's a bit different to everything else we've done - lots of calculations going on!!
@@labollapugliaYT Solar, rain water harvesting, land regeneration & reforestation are my favourite topics. Whatching your videos together with my wife. We bought property in similar climate as yours but Russians invaded it. We are happy you can follow your dreams even though it takes lots of effort and dedication. It's a joy to see such a progress. P.S. You have great aesthetic taste in planting and renovation!
Just watched every episode, brilliant job guys, your garden is just delightful & your pool looks so inviting. I’m a horticulturist that lives in a Mediterranean climate in Western Australia & you’ve inspired me to get back into the garden. I battle with kikuya an extremely tough grass that’s difficult to manage so it gets a bit beyond me at times. You’ve handled your garden design like a pro but love how you’ve gone about selecting & discovering what’s going to survive harsh conditions when you can’t be there. Also I’d be planting more stunning bougainvillea & pomegranates should also do well & are so beautiful. Keep up with the videos guys, you’re doing great.
Wow, we're chuffed that we've been able to entice you back into your garden!! It is a lovely spot here and what you don't see is our very stubborn and deep-rooted couch grass which might be a bit like your kikuya? It takes a lot of work to get it out and even then we have to revisit whenever we see shoots come up. We've been reassured that, so long as we're on top of it, we might just win the battle...eventually! Thanks so much for your feedback, we might consider more Bougainvillea (I have a climber variety which might finally feature when the fence goes up onto the wall) and already have 6 young pomegranate trees around the land (4 different varieties). Can't wait for them to get bigger so we can share what promises to be some fantastic blossoms! Hope you keep enjoying the videos and thanks again, Sally and Pete :-)
I feel your joy! What a fabulous farm! I so hope that you can fend off that disease! Perhaps some of the locals will start implementing some of your techniques, once they see your results!? I would love to be able to grow those lovely lemmons, for cooking, Lemmon ice sherbet, and even limoncello!
It's our happy place, and I've made a start by buying some California poppy seeds for our Italian friends who live close by and who stopped to admire the flowers out the front! We've got Limoncello coming out of our ears, have done lemon curd and limonata...hadn't thought of lemon ice sherbet, however!
Why not get a irrigation system that you can manage from your cellphone. Love from South Africa❤❤
Sounds like a great idea! Unfortunately the internet in the Southern Italian countryside is less than reliable...would work in theory, though :-)!
Hi Guys... just wanted to say hello.. just stumbled across your chanel and we've now binged watched every episode.. great stuff.. looking forward to seeing what comes next..😊😊 you keep filming and we will keep watching. All the very best. Chris.. x
Hi Chris, that's pretty impressive if you made it through all of them!! Welcome onboard :-), Sally & Pete
We have acidic soil that benefits from additions of alkaline materials. We started making simple biochar by quenching our burning brush piles with water. The biochar is then spread back on the orchard. This is much less work than shredding and it still retains the carbon for the soil vs burning the branches completely. However, the suitability of this method depends on your pH needs.
Thank you for that idea. We don't know about the acidity or alkalinity of the soil here so that could be worth looking into in case it would benefit from biochar, although we're trying to keep burning to a minumum. Will explore further...
Do you know what these trees need? More life, not chemicals and not tilling. Give it the cycle of life, namely the by-product of animals. It was a revelation when my RV waste tank overflowed and within two weeks everything in the flowed area was growing like crazy.
Agreed!!
Nice to see some thoughtful practices being used and considered. That said, I don't understand why you'd cultivate the soil at all? You're simply disturbing whatever beneficial fungi that poor soil might have. Why not simply mow the ground? With so many trees, I'd invest in a commercial-grade chipper and use it all as mulch/chips. I spread 4-6" of chips everywhere in our garden and it makes a huge difference during the summer keeping moisture in the ground and a place for beneficial insects to live, as well as depressing weed growth. It also keeps the soil from compacting when using equipment - the chips act like a sponge. We get local tree services to drop off truckloads of chips every year.
Hi! To answer your question, we are required to rotovate the ground under the olive trees by the agricultural agency here in Puglia. Rotovating the ground makes it harder for the infected spittle bug to reach the tree and they are responsible for the spread of Xylella fastidiosa, which has so far killed 11m olive trees in the region. Unfortunately, other trees are also prone to Xylella, including almonds (of which we have 12), peaches, cherries...seems to be anything with a stone in :-(. So, while we'd rather not have to rotovate, we also don't want to put the trees in more jeopardy than necessary from Xylella. Once that risk has passed, we may be able to stop... Shredding is not widely carried out here, most people just burn, so we're doing the best we can to shred as much as possible but it really doesn't look very much atm! You make a very good case for it, so we will simply 'Carry on Shredding'!! Thank you for your comments :-)
We invested in a semi-industrial Honda-powered shredder which we bought second-hand when we first arrived. If they rented equipemnt here then we'd rent a larger one occasionally, but unfortunately equipment rental doesn't seem to be a 'thing' here! So we are pondering about investing in a larger one, - the sensible time to do that will be when we can get residency, as we're currently not here for 6 months of the year :-( PS when we use the shredder, we've been asked by the locals what it is...they're not commonplace around here, they just burn, and burn, and burn!!
Just found your channel, just lovely! We are currently living in a fire region and just to mention traditional firebreaks are 10 feet wide here. Best of luck, look forward to following along!
Thank you, and wow, that is much bigger! When we say we 'think' it's a legal requirement here, that's what we've been told in the past but don't see many others (who don't rotovate their whole terrain) doing it, but that may just be lack of enforcement and too much work!!
Once you get some mulch in these beds your property will flourish even more
Thank you, that's what we're aiming for :-)
I read somewhere a tree has 2 choices energy to growth or energy to seeds. Distress = seeds. Relax = growth
Hi, that would certainly tally with what happened on the plant side...at least two of our 550 or so dry garden plants didn't even survive their first 2 months but somehow managed to sprout babies around the area where they'd been planted and now we're swimming in them!! Thanks for your comment and also for watching :-)
Have a look at charles dowding and no dig methods. Might be worth a look if youve time to experiment...
Thank you, we'll look into that because we'd like to use the no dig methods in our allotment and cropping area down the side of the land. The soil is so poor here that we need to build it up a bit first to make it usable with the no dig approach, but we'll get there...eventually! :-) Thanks for the encouragement, Sally & Pete