Tag: l’orto
-
It’s raspberry time!
I have not written for a while about the allotment, as Kew is taking up most of my time, energies and generally most of my thoughts… However, although it is the case that I am not doing as much as I would like to (isn’t that the case every year?!?), I am growing, picking and…
-
Another year draws to an end
This has been a busy year. In the plot, I have grown a few new crops: oca, achocha, shark fin melon, salsify, scorzonera. And the year I tried seaweed meal as a soil conditioner and cardboard mulch in autumn. The year I planted more fruit bushes because I think perennials are much less effort and…
-
Seedy penpals
I must have written before that I have a collector streak in me, and it comes out with seeds. Every winter I get all the packets out from the recesses of my shed and take stock: I usually end up with some 150-300 species on my database (they have grown over the years both with…
-
Have you ever cooked artichokes?
After 4 years of toiling on the artichoke patch, this first week of summer yielded the first three edible ones: pride and joy! I love artichokes, and it is quite difficult to find them here in the UK… a few years ago, when staying at Bangors Organic in Cornwall, Gill served them for dinner: whole, just steamed…
-
What can you do with lemon balm? And other plants
There are plants that I introduced once on the plot and now grow largely unasked. Their weedy behaviour means they multiply and tend happily to survive slug attack. They are usually loved by pollinators. It’s a pity to weed them out, given their success, so I have decided to find a use for them. I…
-
Long live the chilli plants
I am not sure what has been wrong with my technique of growing chillies in the last two years. I suspect they might have taken objection to my reluctance feeding them. Anyway, come September they were, and are – this year even worse – just about to flower for the first time if at all.…
-
Another year of elderberries
I have not written for a while: gardening is repetitive, so I sort of ran out of topics, and I am trying to figure out how to make my pages interesting in the little time I have. Also, I am not happy with pictures from my new camera, so my old blog format does not…
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.
Some Rights Reserved
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.