La Foce and its gardens attract many visitors each year and the gardens must be kept in pristeen condition.
I was asked, while working as a garden consultant, to assist and train the team at la foce on the pruning of the plants that had been neglected for some years. One of the first jobs, curiously, was to prune a field of olive trees (Ulivetto) that had been abandoned and neglected for many years.
The olives needed a drastic prune and we found ourselves in the early spring, the ideal time for renovating olive trees in Italian gardens. As you will see in this series of photographs, the trees had been left to grow tall and spindly and, in this case I decided to lower them to a height iof around 1.70m as they the effect required was purely aesthetical (the olives wouldn't be picked).
Strong, new shoots soon appeared and the trees began taking on a whole new appearance, one of healthy and vigorous growth.

In just 2 or 3 years these trees were fruiting again and, most importantly, they regained their typical olive canopy and were rendered once again attractive and healthy.