The approach to Giardini Pistola is along a winding drive, through vineyards, in the unspoilt valley of Canale di Pirro in the Puglia region of southern Italy, with a backdrop of gentle hills covered in downy oak woodlands, where wild boar roam free. These terraced gardens, designed by Urquhart & Hunt, were carved out of a sloping meadow four years ago, and are an exciting experiment in planting that combines Mediterranean and English garden styles.
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Designers Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt − best known for winning Best in Show at RHS Chelsea in 2022 for the beaver-inspired A Rewilding Britain Landscape − were invited by owner Constant Tedder to create the garden below the restored farmhouse and connected trulli (Puglia’s distinctive cone-shaped stone huts). The top section of the 8m slope had already been landscaped as three interconnecting terraces, while the rest was still an expanse of bare soil.
The design ensures that the visitor’s journey up and across the terraces is one of discovery.
“There’s a magic to the landscape here, a permanence, a history, with field after field of ancient olive trees, some over a thousand years old,” explains Adam. “The owner wanted to create something absolutely beautiful that provided a series of different experiences across six terraces.”
It was intended to make it an open garden for the public to visit, and as well as a space for functions, the wishlist included an amphitheatre, a child-friendly water feature, a maze, pergolas with edible and ornamental climbers, and elements of discovery. While Adam started to conceive the masterplan, the planting design team (Valerie Bond, Petra Ulrik and Lulu) researched possible plants for Pistola’s challenging temperature range of between -10°C and 40°C, and its recent increases in springtime rainfall.
We wanted people to meander and on occasions be surprised about where they came out; to take time to experience the landscape of this special place.
With feedback from local nurseries and inspiration from French nurseryman Olivier Filippi’s drought-tolerant catalogue, they drew up a list of plants that should survive with no irrigation once established. “We found it hard to judge the exact hardiness when it comes to heat and frost, and no irrigation,” says Lulu. “The hardiness charts often don’t reveal that.”
The greatest challenge, however, was using only plants that are not affected by or host to the Xylella fastidiosa pathogen that has already devastated olive plantations in parts of southern Italy. Banned plants include other star players of Italian gardens such as lavender and oleander. “This is where our passion for ecological balance and future-proofing gave precedence to our design,” explains Lulu. “Every plant we selected would not be a host to Xylella.”
Finally they drew up a very detailed planting plan and handed it over to the gardening team at Giardini Pistola. Covid restrictions at the time meant that the designers could not travel to oversee the planting, but with project manager Ollie Stroud and a skilled team of Italian landscapers on the ground, the results
were beyond their expectations, and in June 2021, the garden opened to the public.
There’s a magic to the landscape here, a permanence, a history, with field after field of ancient olive trees, some over a thousand years old.
A wander up the garden from the bottom of the terraces reveals the fascinating mix of plants that made the final list. In the majority of the terraces, which are all 80m x 22m, the planting palette comprises between five and 13 species that are used in simple, repeated combinations to soften the linear nature of the garden.
The design also ensures that the visitor’s journey up and across the terraces is one of discovery. “We wanted people to meander and on occasions be surprised about where they came out; to take time to experience the landscape of this special place,” explains Adam.
Crushed limestone paths provide a network of different ways to navigate the terraces and the interlinking slopes. The same white stone, luminescent in the southern Italian light, has been used to pave the steps and build the walls.
The first level is conceived as a Play Terrace, with a maze of clipped Italian buckthorn (Rhamnus alaternus ‘John Edwards’) and an in-ground trampoline. Banks of planting are used to create the level changes between each terrace. “The bank plantings have their own identity,” explains Lulu, “with reference plants from the planting choices of the terraces above and below.” This helps to blend
the transitions between the terraces and gives cohesion to the whole scheme.
The bank between the Play Terrace and the Naturalistic Terrace above it, for example, combines white-flowered Mediterranean gum cistus (Cistus ladanifer) with white gaura Oenothera lindheimeri and statuesque Leonotis leonurus with its zingy orange blooms, with the cistus repeated in a simpler planting with Erigeron karvinskianus in the next terrace up.
This level, which features a series of organically shaped beds, is a celebration of form and texture. Exotic-looking trees such as x Chitalpa tashkentensis Summer Bells (= ‘Minsum’) and foxglove tree (Paulownia tomentosa) emerge from mounds of grey-green and silver-foliaged plants, such as Artemisia abrotanum, Pseudodictamnus hirsutus and Santolina pinnata subsp. neapolitana ‘Sulphurea’, many sourced from Olivier Filippi’s nursery.
Next, the winding paths give way to the formality of the Canale. On this terrace, an elegant central rill made from local Rici limestone is shallow enough for children to play in safely. Set along an east/west axis, the water provides stunning reflections from the sky. The lines of mastic trees (Pistacia lentiscus) in the linear borders either side are underplanted with a romantic mix of English roses in peachy shades, alongside whites, blues and purples from pale Agapanthus ‘Nana Blue’, Russian sage, Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ and G. sanguineum ‘Album’. Plumes of golden grass Stipa gigantea in the bank leading up to the next terrace anticipate this plant’s dominant role on the upper terraces where, as summer progresses, it arches ever higher, providing playful vertical accents.
The Tunnels Terrace features a pair of mild steel pergolas that support various climbers, including roses and edibles such as bottle gourds and kiwis. In contrast to the straight paths through the pergolas, the routes through the central beds wind and turn, providing a jungle-like experience, especially in late summer when the matrix of grasses rises to a crescendo of green, gold and bronze. Above this lies an open space shaded by plane trees, where large-scale events are held, and at the top of the garden, planting in the Grasses Terrace provides a bold screen in shades of red and gold between the public garden and the holiday accommodation above.
On the west side of the terraced garden is the grass amphitheatre planted with drought-tolerant Cynodon dactylon, while on the east side a romantic mount offers an elevated view across the whole garden, revealing myriad pathways that ensure that visitors can explore every corner of this exuberant garden.
In brief
Name Giardini Pistola.
What A public garden consisting of six interconnecting
terraces, grass amphitheatre and viewing mount.
Where Puglia, Italy.
Size Roughly ten acres.
Soil Fertile mix of sand, limestone and red volcanic soil.
Climate Mediterranean, with winter temperatures
dropping to -10°C with occasional snow. Low
summer rainfall, with temperatures reaching 40°C.
Hardiness zone USDA 10.
Urquhart & Hunt’s top 12 dry garden plants for the area
Artemisia abrotanum
This Mediterranean native is a useful grey-green, textured vertical whose leaves burst with southernwood aromas, though it rarely produces its light-green flowers in the UK. Height and spread: 60cm x 60cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-8b†.
Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus
A robust, drought-tolerant evergreen that forms pretty, woolly mounds. Tiny, pink-purple, tubular flowers emerge in summer along the stem. Prefers poor, well-drained soil in full sun. 70cm x 80cm. AGM*. RHS H4, USDA 8b-10a.
Bulbine frutescens
This South African succulent, with its spikes of star-shaped flowers, is used to inject joyful tones of yellow across the garden alongside orange from the selection Bulbine frutescens ‘Hallmark’. The clumps of narrow leaves provide excellent groundcover. In the UK, grow in well-drained, sandy loam in full sun and keep dry in winter. 50cm x 1.5m. RHS H3, USDA 9a-11.
Teucrium marum
A compact, wiry, evergreen subshrub, with grey-green aromatic leaves that have downy undersides. It is covered in tiny pink flowers on short spikes in late summer and autumn. Grow in full sun and cut back after flowering to maintain its shape. 40cm x 40cm. RHS H3.
Vitex agnus-castus
This deciduous Mediterranean native has an open habit with aromatic, lance-shaped leaves and panicles of violet flowers in autumn. Grow against a warm wall in full sun, and in well-drained soil. 1.5m x 1.5m. RHS H4, USDA 6a-9b.
Coleonema pulchellum
This South African evergreen shrub bears fresh-green, needle-like leaves and small, star-shaped, pink flowers with reflexed petals from late spring to summer. It has an upright shape and prefers full sun. 60cm x 60cm. RHS H3.
x Chitalpa tashkentensis Summer Bells (= ‘Minsum’)
A hybrid of Catalpa and Chilopsis, this small deciduous tree has willow-like leaves and is covered with exotic, frilly pink flowers in summer. In the UK, it is best planted in a sheltered spot in full sun on well-drained soil. 4-8m x 2.5-4m. RHS H4.
Agapanthus Twister (= ‘Ambic001’)
This unusual form of African lily opens from white buds to produce clusters of white trumpets, tinged with dark-blue at the base. It stands well in summer heat, flowering throughout July and August in the UK, where it needs protection from winter frost. 60cm x 40cm. AGM. RHS H4, USDA 8a-10b.
Phyla nodiflora
This pretty, mat-forming perennial, covered in purple-centred flowers with white petals through spring and summer, makes excellent groundcover. A density of three plants per square metre at Pistola creates a lush, drought-tolerant lawn replacement. 15cm x 20cm. RHS H4.
Cistus ladanifer
This aromatic, evergreen gum cistus has distinctive maroon blotches at the base of the white petals and bright-yellow stamens. It grows well in poor, well-drained soil,
in a sheltered site in full sun. 1-1.5m x 1.5m. RHS H5.
Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’
This fountain grass forms a compact mound of narrow leaves and long-lasting sprays of fuzzy, pinkish flowers that fade to buff. It is planted en masse across the bank leading from the Tunnels Terrace to the open space for functions at Pistola. It is underplanted with species bulbs of Iris ‘Harmony’, Iris ‘Alida’ and Tulipa humilis var. pulchella Albocaerulea Oculata Group for spring interest. 60cm x 60cm. AGM. RHS H3, USDA 5a-9b.
Santolina pinnata subsp. neapolitana ‘Sulphurea’
Pale-yellow, button flowerheads cover this evergreen dwarf shrub from midsummer onwards. More compact than its cousins, it shows less tendency of flopping over from the weight of the blossoms. Its silver foliage plays well in a border of silvery-blue hues. 75cm x 75cm. AGM. RHS H5.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Address Giardini Pistola, Strada Provinciale 1, Canale di Pirro, 72015 Fasano, BR Italy. Tel +39 (0)327 109 2505. Web giardinipistola.com For more information about Urquhart & Hunt’s work, go to urquharthunt.com
