Autumn in the "Secret Garden", Giudecca

Some of the vineyards behind Le Zitelle, whose fruit was crushed at the cantina on San Michele I featured in 3 posts at the end of September

What I'm calling a "secret garden" isn't really a secret at all, though it is walled and well out of the way of any tourist routes. It's a large community garden behind the church of Le Zitelle that I first found out about (and posted about) last March (http://veneziablog.blogspot.it/2012/03/secret-garden-giudecca.html), when I was determined to become a regular volunteer there. It hasn't worked out that way. Jen and Sandro worked there a few times, until SpiazziVerdi--the excellent organization that runs the Giudecca garden--helped create another community garden in the large rather unkempt yard beside Sandro's pre-school near Sant' Alvise in Cannaregio, to which Jen and Sandro then devoted their energies.

I'm hoping, though, to work tomorrow in the garden behind Le Zitelle during SpiazziVerdi's "Aglio Day": a day devoted to planting that potent bulb. More information about the day can be found here: http://spiazziverdi.blogspot.it/.

What struck me about the Giudecca garden when I recently visited one late afternoon, was that the community that benefitted from the garden was not limited to gardeners. At the far end of the large walled lot in which the garden is located is a casa di riposo (rest home). There were no gardeners at work when I visited, but a number of residents from the rest home were walking with a family member or friend or caretaker among all the growing things. None of the residents I saw looked to be in any condition to garden themselves, but even those of diminished lucidity seemed to enjoy the plants and flowers, to enjoy being among the real tangible verdant world at a time in life when, unfortunately, it's all too easy and common for their world to shrink to the dimensions of their lodgings and a television. 

Of course at any time of one's life these days it's not uncommon for our world to shrink to the dimensions of our ubiquitous electronic devices. One's very standing in the world often seems to be reflected in the number and sophistication of the electronic devices to which one is wedded--or even welded, so to speak. It makes me appreciate organizations like SpiazziVerdi all the more, and their commitment to community which is not merely virtual.