There’s always an opportunity to learn from the garden. Through trial and error, pass-along knowledge, and community, we continue to evolve our gardening understanding and deepen our relationship to nature.

We also expand our connection to food when we produce our own. We join those who have come before us, using the same heirloom favorites or trying something new, just because we can.

For cultural foodways renowned for their heritage and quality, we turn to Italy to see gardening and, of course, cuisine, done right. The wisdom of the Italian grandmother weaves the garden into everyday life, a practice infused into daily ritual and each meal.

So, if you want to garden like an Italian Nonna, listen to yours (or someone else’s) and maybe some of their tricks of the trade and inherent knowledge will rub off on us. The Italian vegetable garden, or l’orto, is a labor of slow, regenerative richness, ripe for the picking.

Garden Location

Keep your Italian Nonna garden close by for easy harvesting.

A kitchen garden in close proximity to the house makes for easy tending, especially for a quick harvest before preparing dinner. Plan to grow the crops you use most often (herbs, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, etc.) nearby for easy access throughout the growing season.

This makes for a convenient pattern of regular tending and picking. A daily sweep lets us know what’s thriving, what’s not, and what’s ready to harvest at peak flavor.

A site in full sun (six or more hours of daily sunlight), or at least mostly sunny, suits most crops. Ample morning sun is especially beneficial. The sun-drenched Mediterranean garden yields full, juicy fruits. In hot southern climates, some crops enjoy afternoon shade protection during the most intense hours. 

Taller specimens, like vining gourds or beans on an arbor or trellis, create shade structures. Place them strategically to direct shade where you want it as the sun moves across the space.

Make sure there’s ready access to irrigation or a tap for hose-watering. A sun-filled position means plenty of moisture as seedlings establish and during high summer temperatures.

Make the most of usable growing space in your Italian Nonna garden. On travels through Italy, you’ll discover garden plots along train right-of-ways, between homes, and on balconies, in addition to countryside farmhouses.

Grow vertically to expand the room to grow and lift crops off the ground. Use pots and containers (terra cotta allows good air flow around roots) as additional growing options.

Look to the Moon

Track your planting and harvesting times to match the moon.

The well-planned Italian Nonna garden turns to the cosmos for the best time to plant and transplant. Just as the moon has the power to impact the tides, it affects the draw of water into and away from the roots. A full moon means water-filled roots and stems. A waning cycle means water withdraws.

What to plant with the moon phases in the Mediterranean garden becomes the inherent knowledge studied and passed down for centuries. Bulbous root vegetables like garlic and onion do well with a waning moon, while others like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants need a waxing cycle to pose the least stress during planting or moving. Water pulls toward the plant for ease of acclimation.

When to harvest relies on the moon phase, too. A waning cycle is good for drying, pickling, pasting, and preserving, as moisture draws out of the fruit. Otherwise, harvest during a waxing phase for those turgid, water-filled stems and fruits.

Grow What You Enjoy

Grow crops you know you’ll love to use in the kitchen.

Honing in on selection helps concentrate our growing efforts and maximize space. Opt for crops with the same cultural conditions to grow together, including companion plants. Add flowering perennials, herbs, and annuals to attract pollinators and beneficial insects.

Bank on what you love, and grow multiples to optimize the harvest rather than have a vast cross-section. Crops we like are easier to use and incorporate into an Italian Nonna garden and daily cuisine.

But leave a little room to check out new additions to broaden our garden horizons (there’s always room for a little kohlrabi or other funky fruit).

Preserve the Bounty

Make the most of your harvests by preserving excess produce.

It can be easy for time to get away from us during peak harvest season or with the final flush of warm-season bounty. The Italian Nonna doesn’t let the hardworking garden go to waste.

Make a point of preserving some of the yield for future enjoyment. Not only does it increase our self-sufficiency, but it also supplies nutrient-rich options to enjoy all year round.

Pickling, canning, or making pastes and sauces work well for many vegetables and fruits. From peaches and blackberries to corn, okra, green beans, peppers, and tomatoes, there’s a preservation method ready to capture the essence of the harvest. 

For a simple and quick way to save the yield, opt for freezing. Most fruits and vegetables benefit from blanching first to deactivate enzymes for preservation, to maintain flavor, and to soften skin. Flash freezing first lets us easily add the desired quantity at the time of cooking.

Add in Herbs

Herbs are essential additions in the garden and the kitchen.

Bring in Mediterranean herbs, among others, to complement the cuisine. Some, like lavender, oregano, thyme, and rosemary, perennialize for years of rewards.

With fall’s flush of fresh growth, plan to clip and dry favorite herbs for use all winter. From savory dishes to herbal teas, leaves and blooms are easy to bundle, dry, and use.

Drying trimmings is an easy way to preserve herbs. Hang sage, parsley, thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint, and others in a warm, dry, sheltered spot. Keep them accessible for easy pinching and cooking during the cool season.

Some herbs, like basil, live in water indefinitely. Stick a few clippings in water on a sunny windowsill for winter use.

Don’t Leave Beds Bare

Mulching brings many benefits for soil health and your plants.

The Italian nonna creates a four-season garden. Even in winter, cool-season crops are growing for a winter harvest.

In mild climates, leeks, garlic, beets, fennel, artichoke, carrots, parsnips, and other root vegetables work well with a fall sowing. In cold climates, prepping beds in the fall to overwinter enriches soil for spring planting.

Specialized cover crops help improve and nourish soils while beds aren’t actively producing. They suppress weeds, build nutrition, and support pollinators. Cover crops like fall-planted grasses and legumes work with microorganisms to protect and enrich soil between primary crop-growing phases.

Leftover seeds from root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, beets, and turnips also serve as short-term cover crops, improving soil in the cool season through aeration.

Scatter cover crop seeds generously after harvesting and clearing the beds. Choose cold-hardy varieties for your USDA growing zone, or opt for a quick cover to die back with heavy frost.

Cut the transitional crops back before they go to seed, leaving the cut material in place or adding it to the compost pile. Let it become organic mulch by folding them into the soil or seeding directly into the leftover material. Cover crops benefit raised-bed soils, too, during quiet times.

If you plan to have empty beds over the winter and want to skip planting, consider mulching to enhance natural processes. Leaf litter and leaf mold provide a natural mulch from fall’s renewable resource: natural leaf drop.

Cover the beds with leaves to enrich the soil as they decompose, and to suppress weeds. Leaf litter also creates overwintering shelter for pollinators and other garden inhabitants.

Our Favorite Italian Heirlooms

Whether fresh or cooked, these Italian heirloom selections won’t have us leaving many on the stem. The historic selections, passed on for generations, bring the finest in flavor and garden performance.

Tailored for specific uses, the Italian Nonna-approved garden favorites stand the test of time. While this list could go on for days, here are a few highlights of easy-to-grow and use Nonna-approved garden heirloom picks.

Broccoli ‘Di Cicco’

This variety matures quickly for easy harvests.

Broccoli packs the nutrition and is easy to grow in the cool season. ‘Di Cicco’ is an Italian heirloom broccoli from 1890 with numerous blue-green, small- to medium-sized heads. It matures quickly, in only about 48 days, with a central three-inch crown and numerous smaller florets.

Try ‘Rapini,’ a broccoli raab (Brassica rapa subsp. rapa), for a delicate twist. Stems and small crowns are tender, mild, and slightly peppery. They reach only 12 to 14 inches tall and are ready in 45 days. In addition to the florets, the leaves of both broccoli and broccoli raab are edible.

With these fast-growing vegetables, a round in late summer or early fall produces a harvest before heavy frost. In mild climates, sow them in the fall for a winter/early spring harvest.

Beet ‘Chioggia’

Striped beets are fun additions to salads.

This 1800s Italian heirloom originates from an island fishing village in Northern Italy near Venice. A candy-striped variety, ‘Chioggia’ is not your average beet. The interior has a peppermint swirl of white and pinky-red rings.

It has a mild, sweet, and slightly peppery flavor. The roots and their leafy greens are rich in vitamins and minerals, including A, C, iron, potassium, and folic acid, with antioxidant benefits.

‘Chioggia’ is an early producer maturing in 55 days. The cold-tolerant, frost-hardy root vegetables grow best in the cool weather of fall and spring.  Harvest them early at one to three inches for the best flavor and texture. The roots have pink, orange, and red-hued skins, and the flesh is relatively free of bleeding and staining.

Bunching Onions ‘Italian Red of Florence’

Mild onions add flavor to any dish.

Also called spring, bunching, or green onions, scallions are an easy-to-grow cool-season favorite, fresh or cooked. Cold-hardy and frost-tolerant, they bridge seasonal fluctuations.

‘Italian Red of Florence’ features deep red stems for a beautiful, flavorful contrast among fresh salads, garnishes, and antipasti. Start sowing before spring’s final frost and sow successional rounds until warm weather arrives (ideal soil temperatures are between 60-85°F or 16-29°C).

In mild climates, sow bunching onions in the fall for a cool-season yield. ‘Italian Red of Florence’ is ready in 60 days.

Kale ‘Lacinato’

Tolerates frost well, making it ideal for colder climates.

Dinosaur kale, also known as black Tuscan kale or ‘Lacinato,’ is a flavorful heirloom that masquerades as an ornamental. Its heavily crinkled leaves are handsome in deep blue-green.

While aged leaves are leathery, broad, and heavily crinkled, young leaves are tender and tasty as fresh greens. Mature leaves have a sweet flavor cooked in pastas, stews, and pestos, perfect for an Italian Nonna garden.

A culinary favorite, the rich blue-green leaves reach nearly black in crisp conditions but stay a dusky green indoors. Young leaves are ready 21 days from sowing. 

Fennel ‘Finocchio’

This tough crop withstands a range of environmental conditions.

Fennel boasts tall, feathery, anise-flavored foliage and bulbous roots. ‘Finocchio’ is a compact variety with airy foliage and bloom clusters. Its anise-flavored roots reach three to four inches and mature in 90 days. 

Fennel has yellow flower umbels in summer that draw numerous pollinators and beneficial insects. The herb is also a host plant for swallowtail butterflies. Opt for a fall planting in mild climates for growing as a cool-season crop.

The Mediterranean native adapts to a variety of conditions and relies on well-draining soils. The species readily self-seeds, escaping and naturalizing to become invasive in some areas. Deadhead spent blooms to prevent unwanted volunteers.

Squash ‘Tromboncino’

Grow this unique squash up a trellis or arbor.

‘Tromboncino,’ also called ‘Zucchino Rampicante,’ has long fruits that mature in autumn. The versatile squash is also delicious when picked young, green, and tender earlier in the summer. They’re a flavorful stand-in for zucchini and develop butternut characteristics in the fall.

The robust vines grow beautifully on a trellis or arch, where the long and narrow fruits hang as they develop. The shapely squash is a conversation piece that reaches up to three feet long if left on the vine.

C. moschata species are more resistant to squash vine borer infestations than other squashes. Their thick, smooth stems make them less accessible during egg-laying and larval cycles. If you live in an area where squash vine borer is a problem, you may have more success with C. moschata varieties like ‘Tromboncino’ over traditional summer squashes.

Sweet Pepper ‘Jimmy Nardello’

Add some peppers for an extra kick to your meals.

Reliable and sweet ‘Jimmy Nardello’ pepper hails from the Basilicata region. Mr. Nardello’s mother and father brought seeds to the U.S. when they immigrated in 1887.

The peppers have a sweet, mildly spicy flavor with a hint of roasted apples. The productive plants produce five- to ten-inch-long glossy red fruits, perfect for frying, cooking, or adding to fresh salsas. 

The well-adapted heirloom grows across various summer climates. Due to the vigorous growth and loads of peppers, plants may need staking or caging.

Tomato ‘San Marzano’

These crops are a must-have in an Italian Nonna garden.

‘San Marzano’ tomatoes are among the best paste tomatoes. The plum-sized fruits boast a robust and complex flavor prized for pastes and sauces. A hallmark of southern Italy, ‘San Marzano’ brings the heirloom qualities of vigor and exceptional flavor. The rich taste is ideal for preserving, canning, and fresh eating. 

True ‘San Marzanos’ originate in the Campania region of southern Italy, in the volcanically rich soils of Mount Vesuvius. The superior paste types are a prized export and protected under an official governmental convention, the Denominazione d’Origine Protetta, or Protected Designation of Origin. This designation protects significant foods and foodways of Italian origin. Nonna-approved! 

‘San Marzano’ yields clusters of six to eight plums. Sweet with low acidity, they have less water and seeds than other plums, making them meaty, thick, and good for pasting. In addition to their delicious flavor, the indeterminate vines produce all season. They have good disease resistance to Fusarium and Verticillium wilts.

Basil ‘Genovese’

Harvest the leaves often to encourage more growth.

Basil brings the bright, fresh summer flavor that complements diverse culinary applications, from fresh wraps to pestos. The herb relishes the sun and warm conditions, forming a bushy habit with leaves ready to harvest in three to four weeks.

From Genoa, the seat of pesto, comes ‘Genovese’ basil. It features large, sweet leaves with a classic flavor profile. The dwarf ‘Piccolo’ has a compact form with petite leaves and the same delicious qualities.

Grow basil in organically rich, well-draining soils and harvest the leaves regularly. The tender herb dies back with light frost. One of the easiest herbs to grow, some gardeners have luck growing it indoors on a sunny windowsill.

‘Rocket’ Arugula

Adds a peppery kick to salads.

Rocket arugula adds punch to fresh leafy greens with a uniquely rich and peppery flavor. Dark green, slightly lobed leaves are ready in as little as 20 days from sowing. Red tinges highlight the veins of young greens that resemble oak leaves.