Tag: horticulture
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The mint collection
It was the end of February when I helped in the herb garden to remove the mint from its bed for propagation purposes. I was struck at the time that you could count be so many different scents of mint, but there was not much left in the pots that we removed from the ground…
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Grafting
Back in January, I was asked one morning to join a colleague, who was going to collect scion material in the orchard. Under the aegis of the fruit specialist at RHS garden Wisley, the collection gets regularly propagated to renew old plants and to replace sickly and dead ones (I helped before with the gooseberries).…
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It’s because of the dry spell!
Today I’ve been pruning Prunus (plums and cherries) for the first time since I’ve been here. To be precise, Prunus avium, or cherry trees, and P. domestica, the plums. To be even more precise, the plants I’m referring to here are P. avium ‘Sunburst’, P. domestica ‘Opal’ and ‘Blue Tit’ ; and this last was flowering…
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Indoors trained vines – part 2: spring
… go to part part 1: winter Buds breaking on a spur As I was saying, now that’s spring, I have spent a couple of days training the new shoots, born out of the embryonic buds, to the wires that will help bear the weight of their large and perfect-looking grapes. How can I impress…
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One day in charge of the Model Fruit Garden
The team leader was away today, so I was left in charge of the whole of the Model Fruit Garden, with a long to-do list to keep me busy: pot up, in clay pot, a new pear tree (find pot and compost) water the trees pots and the strawberries in the polytunnel take the bracken…
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Indoors trained vines – part 1: winter
After tending to Vitis ‘Muscat of Alexadria’ as one of the first things when I arrived back in September, I have spent more time in the greenhouse, tending to the very demanding crops that indoors vines are. After all grapes are picked, the greenhouse’s vents were opened, so the chill coming in stimulates leaf drop…
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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…
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.
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