Orto di Casa Cecconi

My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…

L’orto di Casa Cecconi Plants Recipes Me & Kew One Year at Wisley

Year: 2013

  • Aesculus (Week 20, Tuesday)

    You know what I was writing the other day about the media breeding hysteria in the public about plant pests and diseases? I was going to write about horse-chestnut today (Aesculus hippocastanum) and I found this article in Gardens Illustrated, which by the way is supposed to be an interview with Kew’s botanists, about the…

  • Onto bed 6 (Week 20, Monday)

    Today, being Monday, I looked for a soft start, and very conveniently I could refer to a chat I had had with my manager on Friday. A species Crataegus was reverting back to the rootstock, outside our area, and I offered to cut all the suckers. I have already mentioned how suckers from the rootstock may draw…

  • Goodbyes galore (Week 19, Friday)

    More goodbyes today as the apprentices left the Arboretum to go under glass (that is what they do in their second year). This trickle of people going away keeps reminding me of my imminent departure and is making me rather sad. Today it was raining, so it was the perfect time to do the preliminary…

  • When the Cotoneaster swallowed a Sibiraea (Week 19, Wednesday and Thursday)

    … but the story begins with an overgrown Pyracantha that was in the way of grass mowing. That is what I started to tackle, which took me one day and a half, as it turned out it was likely two Pyracantha, very similar but different enough (to be confirmed). And when those two plants were brought back…

  • Fraxinus (Week 19, Tuesday)

    I get a bit miffed when the media get hold of a piece of news and make such a fuss about it and breed hysteria just to sell more. As it was with fungus Chalara fraxinea, which causes ash dieback, earlier in the year. Now ask anyone about plants and they will know practically nothing about…

  • RHS Wisley (Week 19, Monday)

    Today we went for a trip to the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship garden in Surrey, Wisley. It is a beautifully manicured garden that I have had the pleasure to visit three times this year, with herbaceous borders by famous designers, trial grounds for plants so they can be judged for their garden worthiness and get…

  • The art and science of pruning (Week 18, Thursday and Friday)

    There are three basic rules to pruning: avoid pruning; the best way to go is to choose a species suitable for its location, & the available space, right from the beginning,  then to get a good specimen of the species; look at the plant as an individual: by all means look it up, learn what…

About Me

M.Paola M.Paola, that’s me

I got my first allotment in the UK in 2007 and started gI got my first allotment in the UK in 2007 and started growing my own food. Learning as I went along was not enough, so I studied horticulture. Faced with the horticultural warfare, I became a conscientious objector: I use no chemicals and support organic principles and regulations.

Brexit gave me a new life in the Netherlands, three new plots by a nature reserve and an MSc in sustainable food systems.

I write in my personal capacity and, as a language perfectionist and a non native speaker, I keep reviewing my entries’ text for clarity.

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