Month: May 2013
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Weed or not weed? (Week 5, Friday)
Have been around the Japanese gateway a lot in the last couple of weeks, as we were taking care of it temporarily. As I described in previous posts, we mowed the lawn, edged the beds and raked the gravel. Some weeding needed doing too. We’ve been talking about weeds, me and my colleague. How “botanical…
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Corporate teamwork on azaleas (Week 5, Thursday)
An unusual day, today: I joined in to assist a colleague who was leading the activities of a team of corporate volunteers on a teamwork day. The azaleas are coming into flower and we forecast the Azalea Garden will major as an attraction for tourists at the weekend, so the volunteers were asked to help weed and…
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Kew Fungarium (Week 5, Wednesday)
After a visit to the Herbarium, we couldn’t miss the Fungarium. What an amazing place! A fungarium is a collection of dried specimens, and Kew collection was recently complemented with a donation by CABI, to create one of the largest collection in the world. It contains 1.25 m specimens, including plenty of types – ca 45,000,…
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Dips and bumps on the way (Week 5, Tuesday)
The David Nash at Kew exhibition has just closed, so sculptures and installations throughout the gardens are being dismantled, leaving behind rather large pits in the ground that need filling. So I am learning the art of filling holes, as part of our team days 🙂 The main issue with filling holes is to make…
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A typical day of maintenance (Week 4, Friday)
Today it has been a typical day of garden maintenance. For a start, we continued our collective effort to eradicate Smyrnium. The Smyrminators, we call ourselves nowadays, having spent almost every morning from 7.30 to 10 clearing the various areas of the gardens from this highly invasive weed, which tends to smother the lovely bluebells (themselves…
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Ashes to ashes (Week 4, Thursday)
Today we found some ashes scattered under a Pyrus while weeding. And then again under another tree. I knew that ash spreading was allowed at Kew because as soon as I started working here a friend suggested I go and visit her mum in the conservation area (which, unfortunately, I have not been able to do yet).…
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Two thirds of a day (Week 4, Wednesday)
This morning I woke up with a headache… so not a great start and one that would not put you in a good mood, then I went out and all was frosty, including the car windscreen: back to winter? Luckily, gardening usually alleviates all my ailments and annoyances, so I headed into work rather full…
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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