On the occasion of Earth Day, Coldiretti unveiled data from an interesting survey involving precisely the "prince" element of the celebrations: the earth. The one worked by men and women, driven by the desire to spend more time outdoors but also to have a direct relationship with nature. According to the survey, 6 out of 10 Italians, about 62 percent, grow fruits, vegetables or herbs in gardens, terraces and urban vegetable gardens.

Among those with a green thumb, just over 50 percent of people use their home garden or vegetable garden, 32 percent take advantage of their balcony or terrace instead; a 15 percent who make do with their window sill stands out, while the rest resort to small plots.

Years and habits change, as do needs. In the past, people chose to grow a vegetable garden for economic reasons, while the recent trend also sees people's desire to want to spend more time outdoors in contact with nature and the pleasure of offering their family and friends the fresh produce that is the fruit of their labor.

Private greenery, gardens, and balconies are thus being used to become "do-it-yourself" gardens of lettuces, tomatoes, herbs, chili peppers, zucchini, eggplant, as well as peas, fava beans, and chickpeas to be harvested as needed.

Then there are also those who, out of passion, have at least one hectare of land available for family use. "These are largely families who have inherited farms or pieces of land from parents and relatives whose ownership they wanted to keep in order to practice their role as farmers and breeders, rather than selling them as was often the case in the past," Coldiretti explains. "But there are also many who have bought land or small farms, even in disadvantaged areas, in order to restructure them and start small production activities, from oil to wine, from raising chickens to horses.

Not to be overlooked is the aspect of urban gardens, an opportunity made available by local authorities from the north to the south of Italy. In almost 3 out of 4 provincial capitals (73%), according to Coldiretti's analysis of the latest Istat data, which shows the presence of as many as 2.17 million square meters allocated to urban gardens in these realities. The municipalities of Bologna with 165,000 square meters, Parma with 142,000 square meters and Verona with 137,000 square meters take the podium of the most virtuous.

In Trentino, in the valleys mainly, it is not uncommon to see expanses of vegetable gardens, even not close to homes. The habit of having a "piece of land where you can grow your own vegetables" is a true identity character.

"The passion," Coldiretti retorts, "is spreading even among the youngest and among people completely unfamiliar with cultivation techniques. A need for knowledge that has been filled by word of mouth and specialized publications, but which has now fostered the emergence of the new figure of the garden tutor that the Campagna Amica urban gardens network makes available."
From the portable garden to keep with you even in the office to the vertical garden to save space in the home, from the "ecological" garden to recycle materials and not pollute to the raised garden for those who have more difficulty bending over, there are many opportunities for DIY growers.

Making it is relatively inexpensive. Suffice it to say that to make a "traditional" one in the garden costs around 300 euros for 20 square meters including potting soil, pots, fertilizer, tools, nets to delimit crops, various supports, seeds and seedlings. Identifying the right space and seasonality, knowing the soil you have, carefully choosing seeds and seedlings according to the cycle, and ensuring water availability are some of the basic rules for good results.