Month: December 2014
-
Spindles
Mature spindles A row of young spindles A kinky leader; on the side, a vertical branch Spindlebushes. A kinky leader at the top, not a permanent one; a layer of branches, slightly above the horizontal at the bottom (not the very bottom, about 75 cm), with a gap in the middle. This shape is widely…
-
Apple pruning season
Sizeable canker on an apple tree It’s apple pruning season, and you know why? Because the fruits have gone (so no knocking about) and the leaves are down so you can see the shape of the tree more clearly! Otherwise, apples are pretty tolerant of pruning at any time between leaf fall and bud burst,…
-
It’s Christmas time
Christmas is approaching fast, so all the trainees have been invited to help with decorating the glasshouse, while receiving some induction into the process of growing display poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and Chrisanthemum spp. Poinsettia Christmas tree It turns out Christmas time starts in March for the display flower grower: that is when one needs to…
-
Post savers
Have you ever noticed that when a post or pole rots it does so generally at soil level? Step 2 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Apparently, it is in the topsoil where soil organisms in the organic matter, moisture and air combine to cause the most damage. So someone invented “polesavers”, sheets of bitumen…
-
The forage garden
Behind the Model Fruit Garden and on one’s way to the orchard, there’s an area that’s left wilder, with some tall trees and some brash, whose redevelopment has been undergoing for the last few years into a forage garden. Some edibles I find rather intriguing already grow in there: Arbutus unedo, Hyppophae rhamnoides, Lonicera caerulea,…
-
Divided about rhubarb
RHS Garden Wisley holds the National Collection of Rhubarb and today we were taught how to divide and replant crowns. Autumn is best, because if you plant rhubarb in the spring, you are then required to keep watering the new plant to help its establishment. Adding manure to the hole The first step in the…
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.
Some Rights Reserved
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.