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

Tag: plants

Plants are my great love, they are like children to me. I sometimes indulge in sharing a bit more details about this plant or the other.

  • Garlic mustard (Week 11, Wednesday)

    The front of the bed Weeding week this week, and having done with the front of a bed, I decided to step inside, behind a wall of Spiraea… where I found what I can only define as a plantation of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) aka Jack-by-the-hedge! Just behind It was actually quite something:  I had never…

  • Neillia (Week 10, Thursday)

    I was not familiar with the genus Neillia before I spent a whole afternoon digging ground elder from under one. That was an opportunity to become closely acquainted; I took the pictures below. There is probably a reason why I did not know Neillia, and it’s because there doesn’t seem to be much information around…

  • Rubus crataegifolius (Week 7, Wednesday)

    To anyone that has ever seen a Crataegus, this must be a mistery. Why this Rubus is called crataegifolius (with leaves like Crataegus), I mean. No similarity whatsoever to a Crataegus (not that this is an isolated mystery case: have you ever seen a Spiraea betulifolia?). Anyway, if anything the palmatifid leaves with bidentate margins resemble…

  • Corporate teamwork on azaleas (Week 5, Thursday)

    An unusual day, today: I joined in to assist a colleague who was leading the activities of a team of corporate volunteers on a teamwork day. The azaleas are coming into flower and we forecast the Azalea Garden will major as an attraction for tourists at the weekend, so the volunteers were asked to help weed and…

  • Ashes to ashes (Week 4, Thursday)

    Today we found some ashes scattered under a Pyrus while weeding. And then again under another tree. I knew that ash spreading was allowed at Kew because as soon as I started working here a friend suggested I go and visit her mum in the conservation area (which, unfortunately, I have not been able to do yet).…

  • Cleaning up after the Romans (Week 4, Tuesday)

    Since I moved to the UK I get that a lot: where are you from? Italy? Oh, the Romans were great… or something like that, for example: do you see that weed, Smyrnium, the Roman introduced it to England… ;p It would be fair to point out that not all Italians feel they are descendants…

  • 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…

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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