Orto di Casa Cecconi

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

Category: Uncategorised

  • Winter blues?

    For the first time in six years, since I first started gardening, I am not inclined to spend every single bit of spare time in the open air, either fiddling with some plant or other, or planning what to plant and where, or even just having a look around in the garden: I can spend…

  • Mushrooms and miserable weather

    Yesterday I had to spend all my time at the plot re-building the greenhouse that had been wrecked open arguably by the strong winds over the week – sunset was beautifully red, but did not manage to pick me up after the event: I should be buying new greenhouse panels – they did not last that long…

  • The ups and downs of trying to be kosher

    After an afternoon at the allotment digging weeds out of the soft fruits bed, I came home and threw myself in the bath with my autumn copy of Garden Organic magazine. Someone had written a letter asking about non-organic manure. 6 months composting may well make it acceptable for use in organic gardening; however, it must…

  • It's autumn

    When I came back from my travelling the allotment looked decidedly autumnal: the most tender plants such as nasturtiun, the vine, my precious chillies and the beans had suffered from frost-bite and looked miserable and rotting. And I could not find my stunted green pumpkins in the grass. Time to clean up, that’s what I…

  • I miss my plot!

    On Saturday I spent most of the day digging, my favourite activity as you will know, and it reminded me how much I miss my plot now that the days are short. I have run out of rotation space, so I will have to reuse beds from a couple of seasons ago for my garlic.…

  • Call it love from a distance

    I have not forgotten the allotment, or the blog, but everyone returning to work in the office after the summer has meant late hours, and days are drawing in. Weekends have also been busy… But if you saw someone last night after sunset, in the pouring rain, picking grapes and rocket leaves, that was me! Seemed…

  • Green tomatoes

    You are looking there at my latest nightmare. It was 4.5 kg San Marzano and 1.1 kg cherry tomatoes to process as quickly as possible, before the blight set in. Not a chutney person, I started a recipe research: there are hints here and there that green tomatoes may contain the poisonous alkaloid solanine (typical…