Following my site visit to Yvo Zanev's plot in Sardegna, I took the ferry over to the Port of Rome - Civitavecchia and then a train into the capital. I'm working remotely on a project, that I'll introduce later in the year but between work, I spent some time admiring this ancient city.
Street Trees of Rome
Other common avenue plantings include Robinia pseudoacacia - Black Locust, Morus alba - White Mulberry (a non-fruiting cultivar), Celtis occidentalis - Hackberry, and Platanus sp. In the Celio district, it was remarkable how pleasant the shade cast by the non-fruiting mulberry trees was. You could feel the cool moisture in the air.
The narrower roads feature Nerium oleander and Cercis siliquostrum - Judas Tree and Laurus nobilis - Bay Tree is planted in green spaces throughout the city. I noticed that Alnus cordata - Italian Alder is being newly planted along streets in some areas of the city but did not see any mature specimens. Alnus cordata - Italian Alder is a quite popular street tree in the UK and many urban developments in the past few decades have used this plant. The conical crown, nitrogen-fixing ability, and drought, wind, and pollution tolerance make it a great option for a city street tree. Laurus nobilis - Bay Tree is often planted as an understory plant and seems to grow very well under Stone Pine as you can see in the below picture
There is a lot of graffiti (all over Italy it seems) I guess that's why everyone else uses the Italian word Graffiti. The old olives and bay trees really compliment the work :)
While trying to identify Oak trees in Rome, I found an interesting reference by Cornelius & Elbourne who had been studying oak-tree rings across the Roman frontier, to gain a read on the weather patterns during the roman empire (thin rings signify little rain during the growing season, wide rings signify seasons with high rainfall) and they cross-referenced this data with assassination dates of emperors. They identified a strong association between rainfall patterns and the duration that Roman emperors would hold power and found that a decline in annual rainfall significantly increased the probability that an emperor would be assassinated the following year. Interestingly about one in five emperors were assassinated in those days, worse odds than Russian roulette
Desire Paths
When planning access within a site it's often beneficial to deliberately leave land fully or partially un-pathed, waiting to see what desire-paths are created, and then creating permanent access in those areas. This is how we establish the majority of secondary access routes within our gardens. The below desire path caught my eye.
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2022.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.

Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2022 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
![]() |
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2022 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
Support Our Project
If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay