Orto di Casa Cecconi

My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…

Tag: Wisley

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • A day in the veg garden

    Spring is coming so it looks like I might be spending more time in the veg garden. Today we did some clearing of spent crops (chicory and chard), covering beds so the soil warms up and new crop can be grown earlier and tidying up leeks. Chicory ‘Charlotte’ The bed after clearing The reason for…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…