TRein of career and a clientele that includes entrepreneurs, fashion brands and names of international Olympus. Anna Scaravella is an Italian landscape of Chiara Fama, who does not like to get on the pedestal. For her, her creations and vision speak, told in the books that contain her design philosophy. Anna Scaravella has recently come out. Between garden and landscape. Mediterranean views from North to Southern Italy (Rizzoli), which presents ten gardens you signed.
With two children now adults who live in New York, Scaravella works in her country studio in Piacentino, her homeland. “In addition to private gardens, I also designed public parks,” points out. “The gardens of via Deganani, in Piacenza, gave me great satisfaction: it is nice to see how people are happy to cultivate their vegetable garden, exchange information, live this form of sociality”.
There is not only Italy in its horizon: the landscape player has worked from Paris to Kuala Lumpur and the Balearics, Around the world. He is currently creating a garden on the Seine in the French capital.
Scarade combines botanical knowledge with aesthetic sense: He has a degree in Forestry Sciences, at the University of Florence. “My passion for the garden was born at five years,” he says. “Lowing the catalog of Sgaravatti nurseries, I started asking my mother the plants I wanted to put in the garden.” After graduation, he feels he must integrate his knowledge of plants and land with an architectural idea, which is the starting point to design the garden.
Anna Scaravella works and finds inspiration between the Piacenza countryside. (Photo: Matteo Carassale)
“I asked the Japanese architect Haruki Miyajima, specialized in gardens, to be able to practice luthe. I have always been passionate about architecture and design. There are those who love the garden as a place of contemplation, those who prefer it as a place to organize parties. There are spaces in which to appreciate the change of the seasons, or glimpses to the shelter of the wind, but to create them you need to know the place, the landscape ».
After this practice, did you open your study?
Not immediately. It was equally important to know the trees, the shrubs, the installation and the logistics live. A garden is an artistic creation that needs certain knowledge. If you do not have, you risk failing. Within the same space, there are completely different situations for shading, type of soil, ventilation, exposure. For about seven years I was a consultant of a nursery in Tuscany, making projects and following their realization on the field. It was a fundamental school. For example, if I have to create a garden in Siena, passing through a door of certain size, I have to know which truck to use, which type of plant to put and how to do it. It seems trivial, but it matters.
A garden designed by Anna Scaravella in Passignano sul Trasimeno: the olive trees “dialogue” with the lake. (Photo by Matteo Carassale)
Where does his passion for Mediterranean plants, fil rouge of his work derives?
It was born in those years. I love Mediterranean plants very much. I have been using them for a long time, and well before climate change, in places where there were conditions that allowed it.
Is climate change a reality?
Yes, I found it in my work over the past thirty years. The oleanders that once in the Po Valley placed themselves in the greenhouses are now planted in the sparotropic flower beds. Or again, the olive trees are present in the roundabouts. Trees that were used before in the plains have disappeared, such as birch or beech trees. The white carpinian, typical of the Po Valley, is suffering a lot.
How did you condition your vision of the garden over time?
There was certainly a change of botanical choices. Having a knowledge of the plants, for some time I could have evaluated if there were areas with microclimates that allowed me to dare. An example? The garden of Villa Bellaria in Piacentino. Those who created it at the end of the nineteenth century were already passionate about Mediterranean plants, were the only place in the area where the cypress, the strawberry tree and the olive tree were already there. Strengthened by this experience, I saw the garden that had been abandoned by placing many other plants that work very well today. I made other olive trees plant and the Nespolo of Japan, in the lower decoration I placed the Choisya Terni, the Teucrium Frutticans, a beautiful collection of cysts, the Helicrisi, the agapanto that was once in the greenhouse. Another element linked to the highest temperatures to be taken into account are the diseases caused by mushrooms and parasites, increasingly widespread. The list of species to choose from is very reduced. There are insects that come from afar with globalization. In the place of origin, perhaps they have an antagonist, with us not having enemies proliferate in a crazy way. In order not to give poisons, we try to replace the most affected plants.
In Ostuni, the landscape player has inserted the graminaceous between olive trees and tuff. (Photo by Matteo Carassale)
What are the criteria for designing a garden today?
First, low maintenance. It is not just an economic question: there is no prepared staff, there are many improvised gardeners who do not know the plants, make indiscriminate prunings, use the herbicker. A garden is given by a right mix between trees, shrubs, low decoration with herbaceous. And it is not a solution to create exterminated grass of Northern Europe and other places, which imitate the prairie following what is a fashion. They are not contrary to the use of graminaceous, but depends on situations. In Ostuni, I used them mixed with Mediterranean dry plants: the result goes well with the prairter outside. A solution is to leave an increasingly limited well -cured area and outside it a prairie with autochthonous spontaneous plants, with two mowing per year. Over time, a very natural flora will consolidate. In summary, what are the clients expect? A garden that is an extension of the house, a space to be enjoyed while remaining outside, also for meals or the barbecue: an outdoor living room.
Does water savings are part of the design?
Absolutely yes. The water costs and in many areas, not only in the center and in the South, there is water deficiency. Green, your English lawn clashes when the farmer near you does not have water for its production. Like bushes, point on the strawberry tree, viburno, philrodaa, lentisco. These are plants that require little water. I remember that once even in the gardens in Central Italy they asked me for Azalee, Rododendri and Camelie, they were very fashionable. The ground had to be changed, fertilize, wet a lot, and today this forcing is no longer sustainable. Now they are used in the North, in the presence of altitude and in the area of the lakes from the acid soil. The criteria to follow are low maintenance, resistant plants to disease and dry. However, my gardens are tailored: I choose every single plant of a certain size as design pieces.
In his book there are three gardens in close relationship with the water: the villa of Marciana Marina, which dialogues with the Tyrrhenian Sea, that of Ostuni in the plain overlooking the sea and the garden of Passignano sul Trasimeno, which looks at the lake.
I would also add Villa Alberra nel Cremasco, where there is a lattice of water channels for agricultural irrigation. They inspired me to create a 35 -meter long channel in the garden and 3 wide, in axis with the north side of the house.
What is your relationship with the landscape?
It is linked to the studies I made, that they are not only botanists, but also agricultural and history of architecture. In Italy the landscape is strongly anthropized. I like to tie the garden to what is beyond. For example, in the villa on Lake Trasimeno the pergolas that I designed lead to water, guiding the gaze in that direction. By positioning the view of plants also on the garden, it is as if it did not see its end.
What advice would it give to who has a small space?
First of all, give a right proportion between the low decoration (flowers and perennial herbaceous), the shrubs and the trees.In a tree depends on the meters available, evaluate plants that do not become too large. A question to ask is whether or not you want the shadow. If yes, it is necessary to choose between a spoliating tree or an evergreen, which in winter however removes the light. The Mediterranean shrubs already mentioned are the easiest. To define the space, a hedge could serve. Instead of the usual prunus laurocerasus, the space can be moved with three or four species, with a different weaving of the leaves, or make a hedge with a curvilinear trend. As for low decoration, I suggest creating flower beds with the plants they like, inquiring to botanical exhibitions or in a Garden Center.
Marciana Marina: the external landscape is exploited as the continuation of the garden. (Photo by Matteo Carassale)
Among non -native plants, which one does in particular love?
I love the Melia Azederacha tree that can also be used in Northern Italy with climate change. I also like the tomentous Pawlonia of Asian origin: it grows fast and has a beautiful shape. And then, the Koelreuteria Paniculata (called the Chinese lanterne tree, for the shape of the fruits, editor’s note) and the Coccolus laurifolius.
How do you see the role of the Garden Designer in perspective?
I find it very important in urban planning. Wild proliferations of constructions create unlivable situations for the heat: green is missing, and this result is linked to the way the planning was made. You have to leave spaces for public parks, with a green and functional green, with benches and shadow areas. And then, the right essences must be chosen, also in light of the changing climate. As for private gardens, in the future I hope more trees: carefully chosen and maintained in a correct way.