THIS time last week, I was marching with the Romans. I was philosophising with the Greeks. I was playing dare at the crater of a live volcano. This time last week, I was eating sun-sweetened tomatoes bathed in freshly crushed herbs. I was sucking on warm olives coated in exotic spices. I was squeezing the life juice out of large gnarled lemons. This time last week, I was in Sorrento.

To the Italians, it is still very early spring. They are still walking the streets in jumpers and jackets. To me (and the rest of the tourist pack) it was high summer, a chance to air the legs with shorts and the toes with sandals. An opportunity to sit out long into the evening and take in the scent of jasmine, magnolia and orange blossom.

Whatever the seasonal interpretation, it was the best time of the year for the horticulturalist. I was refreshed and rejuvenated by the absolute abundance of locally grown produce. The large chain supermarkets still buy from the small farmer. The vegetables have a well-loved and tended shine. They scream "eat me and I will make your skin glow, I will make you feel healthy". They are all organic.

I had the chance to visit one of the local farms, not more than five miles out from the throbbing centre of Sorrento. It was a smallholding of about four acres clinging to the hillside. The business was run by three sisters and their immediate family (ten workers in all). They all lived on the premises and made enough money selling their produce to keep them all in a comfortable manner.

The secret to their success was diversity. Because of the steep location the whole site was made up of a series of terraces. This created a plentiful supply of sun-bathed strips of land. Rather than fill each space with one type of crop, they mingled and mixed them all together. They grew lemons, oranges, peaches and grape vines all in the same field. The tomatoes grew amongst the herbs that they would later be served up with. Olive trees shared the ground with artichokes and asparagus. Peppers, pumpkins and courgettes scrambled together over tumbled down walls. Peas, beans and passion-flowers raced up outbuildings.

This follows some of the principles of organic and permaculture methods of planting. It prevents what has become known as 'McDonalds' syndrome in pest control.

Imagine that you are a hungry insect on the lookout for lunch. You spot two fields full of potential foodstuff. In the first field is growing a whole selection of plants, all jumbled up together. It is going to take you some time to figure out what is where. It will also mean that you will have to keep moving on to find more of your particular favourite food, thus using up more time and energy. In the second field is just one crop. The whole area is crammed full of your fantasy food. Which field would you head for? Insects are just as lazy as we are. If they have to work harder for their food they will seek the easier alternative.

On the negative side though, this type of mixed growing does make cropping harder. You have to hunt through other vegetation to get enough of what you want. However, you don't need to grow and pick as much, as the fruit or vegetable tends to grow much bigger, healthier and tastier.

It is all a matter of quality, not quantity, and my holiday has not only given me a healthy tan, a week off work and clean finger nails. It has rekindled my enthusiasm to get back to the basics of growing.

JOBS TO DO

* KEEP an eye on the gooseberries. Check your gooseberry bushes on a regular basis. It seems to have been a good year for fruit to have set. However, now is the time that saw fly will begin decimating the leaves. Look out for the caterpillar-like insects and pick them off (or spray). Watch for signs of mildew. Spray the bushes with a mixture of milk and water (nine parts water to one part milk), or bicarbonate of soda and water.

* Trim hedges. Most privet hedges will have grown quite considerably thanks to the warm and wet conditions. Hunt through the hedge first just to make sure that you don't have any nesting birds. You can cut it back fairly brutally at this time of year if you need to.

* Restock the pond. Now is a good time to introduce new fish and aquatic plants. Remove or thin out anything that looks as though it has taken over the pond. Let it lie beside the pond for a day or so. This allows any insects caught up in the weed to return to the water.

Published: 01/06/2002