As I write this I am thinking of the arrival of the glorious crisp days of late autumn and early winter in Polizzi Generosa; spring gardening on a Sicilian terrazzo and our first guests of spring (in May this year), at Palazzo Notar Nicchi.

After the cold of the winter months, when the mountains surrounding Polizzi Generosa are green from the melting snow and spring has arrived The Sicilian House loves to replant the terrazzo on the top floor of Palazzo Notar Nicchi.

The terrace adjoins the top kitchen and looks out over the roof tops of the village to the mountains in the south.

Our first guests of spring this year were two enthusasitic young women travelling with their animated  grandmother; from the east coast of the US; they were holidaying at The Sicilian House staying at Palazzo Notar Nicchi in Polizzi. They spent days exploring the village, Palermo and The Madonie Mountains and enjoyed discovering their Sicilian roots.

The terrace, after the winter, was in need of the colours of spring before their arrival.

We choose geraniums, roses and margherita daisies; purples, pinks, whites and reds and summer herbs: basil, parsley, oregano and thyme to plant in the long planter which runs the length of the terrazzo. Filled a metre deep with rich volcanic soil from the slopes of Mount Etna it grows plants well.

The western end of the terrazzo we screened with three oversized terracotta pots filled with glorious agrofoglio trees 1.5 metres high.  (Agrofoglio is a holly tree, native to the Madonie Mountains with dark shiny leaves; it is an evergreen with bunches of red berries in the winter).

The holly trees grow densely in the Madonie and to huge heights; some are over 300 years old. Not far from Polizzi, at Piano Pomo, near Castelbuono there is a valley filled with a grove of pure holly trees.

They were the suggestion of an exotic nursery in Palermo on Corso Calatafimi and they suit the elevation of Polizzi.

I like the fact that they are almost like 'enchanted trees'; the red berries, I came to know, represent fertility during the deep winter months. And the trees will be always green throughout the coming wintery months.

I enjoyed the planting this spring and look forward to the 2015 replanting.

The big pots were filled with the agrofoglio and watered, and the long planter was bursting with the colours of a Sicilian spring last May, in time for our American guests.

Salve,

Suzanne