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

Category: Uncategorised

  • Tractors!

    My first tractor and  trailer I first drove a tractor, with a trailer, on 24th May 2013. And, for some curious reason, I really really loved it. Since then, I have driven two other tractors: a middle sized one with trailer, and (quite a lot of) a ride-on mower. Compact Kubota with mowing deck Old mid-size agricultural John Deere Over the last…

  • Two women and a Cottage Garden

    I was fortunate enough to have our intern working with me today again on the Cottage Garden, so the two of us managed to go through a lot of weeding and we took up two bigger tasks that had revealed themselves by spending more time in the area: tender Pelargonium needed lifting and the existing…

  • Tree planting “the RHS way”

     “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the next best time is now” unknown Growing a tree is a long term investment, often a conspicuous one, so you want to ensure it will thrive and perform its function in the garden by planting it in the appropriate way. It is a fact…

  • Implementing complex designs

    As I am working on the cottage garden design, today’s short masterclass on how to implement complex designs came in quite handy. The new winter display for the Walled Garden, a grass and white gravel knot design, was being finished after a month’s work (as narrated by my colleague who could see from his window)……

  • A rambling rose

    Surprisingly challenging task for me in the herb garden today, where I was asked to prune a rambling rose to fit on an arch. I had never done that and my colleague explained we were cutting back 1/3rd of the older branches to the ground, then arranging the remaining ones on the arch and shortening…

  • The very special veg garden and gardeners of Wisley

    Today it was the first time I ever managed to work in the veg garden and I was so excited! In the flurry of activities that the start of our traineeship was, combined with Garden events, staff leave and who knows what else (time flies here!) I never managed to get to work in the…

  • My experience of the RHS

    Today new staff from all the gardens (Wisley, Hyde Hall, Rosemoor and Harlow Carr) was brought together for induction day. I have been through a good few induction days in my career, and that corporate self-congratulatory feel about a lot of them has made me less than excited to attend such events. But I did…

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.

Links

Blog Archive

Some Rights Reserved

Creative Commons License
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.