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

  • Euonymus: a plant I'll never forget (Week 14, Friday)

    Euonymus europeus, the spindle tree, with its characteristic bright pink seedpods with orange seeds sticking out, is a plant I have known for a while. I had it in my garden, I picked seeds from one last winter which I am trying to germinate, and it’s in my next plant ID test. But I had…

  • Mastering the art of watering – and some science too (Week 14, Thursday)

    Having watered every single day, first thing in the morning, for almost two weeks, with the responsibility to keep a botanical collection in good nick, has really changed my perspective on what I have never considered one of my favourite activities: I would do a raindance any time rather than have to water! Anyway, even…

  • Hygiene (Week 14, Wednesday)

    Quite a few plants grow in a restricted space in greenhouses, so hygiene is particularly important to prevent and control the spread of pests and diseases. In terms of prevention, clean tools and surfaces are very important. So pots are dipped into a sterilising solution and tools are cleaned with Hortisept, a persistent germicide active…

  • Mastering the art of potting on (Week 14, Tuesday)

    I have been potting on plants for a few days now, and, as you usually do, the more you do something the more you see what’s wrong what you are doing, and get a better feeling of what you should do. With air pots, I find there are two main tricky parts in potting on,…

  • Auxins (Week 14, Monday)

    I was mentioning the other day we used synthetic auxins as rooting powders, and today, walking about the greenhouse and the yard, I found more examples of auxins’ influence on plants, which I will share with you. Auxins are one of the families of plant hormones, still rather elusive substances, synthesised in small quantitied by…

  • Air Pots (Week 13, Friday)

    The polytunnel needed a tidy up, to make room for more plants, so we moved a few pots around. We use regular plastic and terracotta pots, but more and more we use air-pots, which have some advantages over the usual pots, mainly: they don’t have a flat, circular surface, against which the roots start circling…

  • Mixing compost and potting on (Week 13, Thursday)

    I learned how to mix compost today, that we then used for potting on. It was fun! We get our compost components in bulk basic mixes in massive canvas bags. Depending on the use to which the compost will be put to, we will then mix those basic mixes together to give the desired texture:…

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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