Month: April 2013
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Zen and the art of leaf gathering (Week 2, Friday)
It was with some hesitation that this morning I made my way to the Japanese Landscape. It is a rather formal garden, and working on it felt pretty daunting. Edging, which by now I can do fairly well, and picking up the magnolia leaves that the inclement weather has scattered all over the place the…
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Going about one’s business (Week 2, Thursday)
Another day of bed maintenance, which is what we are here to do! I am now mostly self-sufficient in getting the tools together before starting the day, such a relief! 🙂 When I first joined I had a locker assigned to me with a standard kit, then, over the last two weeks, I have collected…
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Weedy Wednesday (Week 2, Wednesday)
A day that was mostly about weeding and edging. My progress in edging consists in having learned how to straighten beds using a string. Also, I am becoming better at using my foot behind the half-moon when lifting soil. There are two main movements you have to learn with the half-moon. First, it’s pressing down…
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Tree circles (Week 2, Tuesday)
Today was team working again, and we did tree rings on the Pagoda vista. No, not the tree rings inside a tree trunk, which can be used to identify the age of a tree. I mean we weeded, edged and mulched the circular, grass-free areas around the pairs of trees that flank the heritage walk…
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Day five: sharpening up
One of the things I had never done was to sharpen a pair of secateurs, so when a colleague said he was going to fix his and offered me to tag along I took the opportunity straight away. After disassembling the nuts, bolts and the spring, we cleaned and sharpened the blade using oil and…
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Day four: Rubus and Prunus
Today I went off to become more familiar with my beds and we planned to manage a Rubus or two. It was a whole day of gardening, me and the plants, which was good as I need to take in all of the changes that have happened in the last few days and adjust to…
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Day three: in beds with Rubus
As I mentioned before, the South Canal beds, which I am taking care of, are the site of the Rosaceae collection, and Rubus figures prominently in them. Rubus is the Latin name for bramble, and also the genus of the bramble-like family of plants. There are some striking differences in them, some look positively gorgeous,…
About Me
M.Paola Andreoni
I got the first allotment in 2007 (in the UK) and started growing my own food for the first time. Learning as I went along was not enough, so I studied some horticulture. I am striving to abide by organic principles. Brexit gave me a new life in the Netherlands, and two new plots by a nature reserve.
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