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

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  • Direct sowing in the Cottage Garden

    Daffodils and crocuses (rhubarb at the back) I had not been in the Cottage Garden for over a month (time does fly!), and the last time I was there it was mainly about tidying up: picking leaves, cutting back herbaceous perennials’ stems, mulching. I did keep an eye on it since, though, and albeit the…

  • The orchard tree lifecycle, reversed

    I started the day today by winching out an apple tree stump, and finished it by planting a perry pear. Not in the same spot: planting similar trees in succession is not ideal, as they may suffer from what is known as “replant disease“, althought sometimes one does not have a choice in orchards. That…

  • Sowing salads in pots

    Being early spring, the veg garden is still rather bare while seeds work their magic underground and indoors in the propagation houses. My colleague in charge of the vegetable garden is very keen for it to look always at its best and interesting for the visitors, so at this time of the year he starts…

  • This is the start of the new season

    It is the start of the new season, and with it has come the joy of seed sowing. I love growing plants from seed, I will sow anything I can lay my hands on, and my seed database lists in excess of 300 different species. But most of what I have learnt has been by…

  • The Great Dixter weekend

    Fergus Garret and his lovely team at Great Dixter House and Gardens organise yearly working weekends for horticultural trainees, who flock from all over the country to experience the atmosphere and the ways at the famous garden, home of the late Christopher Lloyd. Of course, like many, I had watched documentaries on Great Dixter, for…

  • A day in the veg garden

    Spring is coming so it looks like I might be spending more time in the veg garden. Today we did some clearing of spent crops (chicory and chard), covering beds so the soil warms up and new crop can be grown earlier and tidying up leeks. Chicory ‘Charlotte’ The bed after clearing The reason for…

  • Little soldiers in a row…

    … what am I saying, elders, little elders in a row. Starting on a sunny morning and ending with the afternoon rains, we spent the whole day making treecircles around the little elders in between the fan borders. These Sambucus nigra (and S. nigra f. porphyrophylla, the purple-leaved form) plants, some 30 – two each…

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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