Tag: horticulture
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The vineyard
I still remember how pruning the vineyard was such a relief at the end of the pruning training week, as it was so straightforward and one could whizz through it, feeling rewarded at the end! Principles are really clear and so is the putting them into practice. We use the “double Guyot” replacement system, which…
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Big buds and short stumps
Cecidophyopsis ribis, also know as big bud mite, sapsucker. A tiny (at < 1 mm) but nasty one, as it helps transmit what is known as reversion disease, a viral infection. Fascinating life forms, viruses: DNA/RNA sequences coated in protein, that are dormant at maturity and so can survive for hundred of years only to…
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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