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The Prandi Arboretum, owned by the Prandi-Garrone family, is in the Municipality of Sale San Giovanni, in the area around Schioda (province of Cuneo): a small rural hamlet in Val Cevetta.

The arboretum was created at the beginning of the XX century by Carlo Domenico Prandi, a railroad worker with a passion for botany, who introduced not only innovative agricultural practices, such as fertigation (to improve and enhance the clayey and poor soil typical of that area) but also built a heated greenhouse where he started reproducing and acclimatizing several unusual species from abroad.

Thanks to the precious help of his wife, over the years, Carlo Domenico also started trading in locally grown cut flowers and rare plants from his greenhouse.

When Domenico died, the whole area was abandoned, until the Valli Mongia, Cevetta and Langa Cebana Mountain Community, now “Alto Tanaro Cebano Monregalese”, decided to recover it and make it usable by also building a path for guided tours.

The total area covers about 30 acres where it is possible to venture into lush vegetation and discover different tree species, both native – such as the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) – and exotic, including araucarias (Araucaria spp. ), Spanish firs (Abies pinsapo), and Old World sycamores (Platanus orientalis).

In addition to several tree species, there are also shrub and herbaceous plants of considerable botanical, environmental and decorative value.

At the beginning of 2013, the Prandi Arboretum Association was founded with the aim of managing and enhancing not only tree species, both native and exotic, but also wild herbs, biodynamic farming techniques, beekeeping and the very whole area, including accommodation facilities and the dissemination of its botanical heritage.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)