Orto di Casa Cecconi

Back in the beds (Week 6, Friday)

2013-05-17T21:52:00.000+01:00

We have had so much to do with the Smyrnium first and filling the pits left by the Nash sculptures that it felt like we had not seen the South Canal Beds for ages.

Rubus allegheniensis

Being back to our collection, working in our beds. felt really good this morning, despite the fact I was so tired for doing some extra volunteering at Chelsea Flower Show that I felt physically drained again.

I decided to tackle a big patch of ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) around beautiful Rubus allegheniensis, one of my favourites with its mahogany red stems.

Ground elder, leaves and rhizomes

An edible plant that I have never tasted, ground elder is one of the noxious weeds that we keep out of the compost heap at Kew, and has to be disposed of in bin bags. In the soil, it spreads through white (young) light brown (mature) rhizomes, and reproduces even from fragments so you need patiently to dig it all out all if you want to clear an area.

Luckily, the soil is quite sandy at Kew, so it is easy to shake it off without breaking the rhizomes (which is not the case where I live, where the soil sticks to the fragment, with high risk of leaving bits behind).

I have cleared as many as possible of the rhizomes that had grown inside and around the roots of the Rubus (like in the picture), by digging around them. In the process, I have pruned back all the dead canes, renovating the shrub.

Before

Here is it how the Rubus looked before

After

and after my special beauty treatment...

Corporate teamwork on azaleas (Week 5, Thursday)

2013-05-09T21:50:00.000+01:00

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 edge the azaleas' beds.

While waiting for the 20 or so strong team to arrive on site, I had a walk round the circles of beds, each section containing one of 12 hybrid groups in chronological order of breeding, with highlights:

Ghent Hybrids, created by a Belgian baker in the 1820s from crosses between azaleas from eastern North America;
Mollis Hybrids, from Rhododendron japonicum and other Asian species;
Knap Hill Hybrids, designed to improve the Ghent Hybrids;
Rustica Flore Pleno Hybrids, introduced in around 1890.

I took a few shots as well:

R. occidentale

R. 'Kosters Brilliant Red'

R. 'Hortulanus H. Witte'

R. 'Magnificum'

by the way, if you were wondering, azaleas all belong to the genus Rhododendron (they were originally considered different but have now been reclassified). The US National Arboretum defines them for the layperson as:

Taxonomically, Rhododendron is the correct genus name for all azaleas and rhododendrons. Azaleas generally have smaller flowers, bloom a bit earlier, and have much smaller leaves that may be deciduous or partly so. Rhododendrons usually have larger flowers, bloom later, and have large leaves that persist during the winter.

When the volunteers arrived, my colleague introduced them to the task at hand and showed them how to use the tools, after which we both spent the day making sure everything went well, answering questions and helping out with the tasks and clearing.

There was some real engagement, and the beds were trim and clean in good time, so we moved on and tidied up the surrounding tree circles. The weather kept, with the exception of a shower, which rather conveniently happened around lunchtime.

At the end of the day, I asked the volunteers what they got out of the day: they enjoyed being out in the open, doing something different from their usual workday, and in such a beautiful place as Kew (some of them had never been and were keen to take their families). They do similar volunteering a couple of times a year and for us they were a welcome help. One of the ladies I chatted to mentioned she would like to do some veg gardening, but she did not feel confident enough, so we discussed easy plants to grow for a start, and I really hope she is having a go at it, because it is so rewarding!

The result of the day's work, were very visible for the team to be proud of, and for the visitors to enjoy at the weekend.

Kew Fungarium (Week 5, Wednesday)

2013-05-08T20:59:00.000+01:00

After a visit to the Herbarium, we couldn't miss the Fungarium.

What an amazing place! A fungarium is a collection of dried specimens, and Kew collection was recently complemented with a donation by CABI, to create one of the largest collection in the world. It contains 1.25 m specimens, including plenty of types - ca 45,000, and is continually growing, at the rate of ca 5,000 specimens a year.

Fungi are fascinating: not a plant, nor an animal, they make up a taxonomic kingdom of their own, their distinguishing characteristic being they contain chetin in their cell walls (plants contain cellulose instead) like that in the exoskeleton of insects. We know comparatively little about fungi, and reclassification is continually happening: our knowledgeable, and most entertaining, guide for the day, Begoña Aguirre-Hudson, mentioned three taxonomic reorganisations since she has been taking care of the collection...

... she features in a Kew video, about fungi and the Fungarium, available on YouTube, by the way.

We were shown an interesting selection of specimens: one collected by Darwin (which is more valuable from a historical point of view than for its scientific value: Darwin preserved his specimens in port wine for lack of anything else, apparently!); one was the renowned Chinese caterpillar fungus (a clever parasite of the caterpillar, indeed) and potato blight... plus some dried porcini, Amanita and giant puffballs...

The mycology department, where the Fungarium is located, also includes a lab where mushrooms are collected, cleaned, analysed, their genetic material extracted for any necessary DNA testing, and then dried to be added to the collection.

A special machine ensures the fungi are quickly dried at a low enough temperature to preserve their genetic material (40°C). Then they go into a freezer that can reach a temperature of -35°C so that all insects that might damage the specimen, and their eggs, are killed.

The specimens need to be packeted, glued to the archival paper and archived by hand.

They are also being digitised: records are available in the HerbIMI database, while a project is ongoing to get high resolution images of all the collections.

We were also given a leaflet on fungi: do you know why we really really need them?

fungi recycle animal and vegetable waste so that the nutrients from them become yet available to the ecosystem;
mycorrhizae: the relationships that many fungi form with particular plants, helping them extend the reach of their roots and absorb water and nutrients (phosphates in particular), but not only that, it appears they also help plants to communicate;
many of our medicines derive from secondary compounds produced by fungi (including penicillin, a dried culture of which we had a look at in the Fungarium);
yeasts, which help our bread rise, our beer brew, our wine ferment and any other fermentation... belong to the kingdom Fungi.

As a horticulturist, I am fascinated by mycorrhizae, such an amazing symbiotic relationship. One plant in US conifer forests, Sarcodes sanguinea, is completely unable to photosynthesize and gets all its nutrients from mycorrhizae! In the annotated picture from my RHS Level 3 exam (Adams, Bamford, Early Principles of Horticulture, Butterworth-Heinemann) there is some explanation of the two main types of mycorrhizae: endomycorrhyzae that penetrate root cells, and ectomycorrhyzae that extend into intercellular spaces.

But fungi are interesting in themselves: take mycelium for example, the matter of which fungi are made, that looks like threads when under the soil in the formations called hypae, and then arrange to form fruiting bodies (the mushrooms, i.e. the familiar toadstools or brackets on trees) that produce spores through which fungi reproduce, rhizomorphs (the bootlace structures that honey fungus uses to absorbe nutrients) and sclerotia (hard masses of resting spores that remain in soil until the right conditions happen for vegetative development). Some of these structures are so different that different stages of a fungus' lifecycle had been identified as different fungi (one of the reasons why re-classification is taking place all the time)... and I won't even attempt to go into the systematics of fungi, the way fungi are grouped, based of the features (mobile spores, spores in a sac or in a club etc) and modes of reproduction (sexual, asexual or both...). If you want to know more about it, I found book Pest, Diseases & Disorders of Garden Plants by Buczacki & Harris quite comprehensive

Dips and bumps on the way (Week 5, Tuesday)

2013-05-07T20:38:00.000+01:00

The David Nash at Kew exhibition has just closed, so sculptures and installations throughout the gardens are being dismantled, leaving behind rather large pits in the ground that need filling. So I am learning the art of filling holes, as part of our team days :)

The main issue with filling holes is to make sure they do not sink, leaving unsightly and potentially unsafe dips and bumps where people walk. Therefore, one has to make sure the filling is quite compact. In order to achieve that, a process was developed:

Soil is taken in with tractors and spread in layers;
The layers are treaded on, with a typical heels-in walk to ensure that the most weight is applied (if you see us going round in circles and walking funnily, that's why);
The layers are raked with a landscape rake to ensure they are even;
The pits are thus filled up to slightly above the surrounding ground level;
The soil is levelled carefully;
Grass seeds are sown and raked in gently;
The area, in particular if large, is fenced off to allow grass to grow undisturbed.

Soil is taken to the pit

A layer of soil is treaded on

A layer ready for raking

Checking the filling is level

Grass sown , area fenced off

I did gardening at the weekend as well as during the week, and that meant I was so unbelievably tired, probably the most tired I've ever been, and therefore felt overwhelmed and started questioning my new career.

For someone that is used to work mainly in an office, for how much one can love it, physical work is demanding and takes some getting used to. I needed to pace myself throughout the task, as I felt that my muscles were not going to take much more, and because I was trying to conserve energy, it was even difficult to join in the team banter.

It is getting better now, my colleagues were very supportive, apparently everyone gets very tired if they do not get proper rest it's not only me being a relative newbie - but that is definitely something to take into consideration: you can get quite disheartened from sheer fatigue.

A typical day of maintenance (Week 4, Friday)

2013-05-03T17:16:00.000+01:00

Today it has been a typical day of garden maintenance.

For a start, we continued our collective effort to eradicate Smyrnium. The Smyrminators, we call ourselves nowadays, having spent almost every morning from 7.30 to 10 clearing the various areas of the gardens from this highly invasive weed, which tends to smother the lovely bluebells (themselves a bit of a noxious weed...). Smyrnium plants need to be pulled out whole, including the tuber (which has a habit of lodging itself in between roots so that if you are not careful you'll leave it behind) or it will re-emerge, flowering (and setting seeds) low to the ground, difficult to spot and impossible to mow.

A biennial plant, it will require to be weeded again next year. In fact, young plants have tiny tubers, which are difficult to pull out. But there's plenty of them: they look similar to parsley.

The second part of the morning, my colleague and I spent filling in a dip left by a tree that was removed a short while ago, and we sowed grass seeds to bring it back to lawn. From a frosty start, the day had turned lovely and it was a pleasure to work outside.

After lunch, I was given the task to rake lines in the gravel at the Japanese landscape: something new to me! There is a special heavy rake to draw those lines, which are meant to represent ripples in water.

I tried to approach the task with zen meditation in mind, but under the baking sun and with limited time to finish the patterns, my peace of mind turned rather soon into pressure...

... in particular as the landscape is a major tourist attraction, and there are always plenty of people around.
Most visitors are very appreciative of the raking, and often stop to have a chat. Seeing me all set on not leaving footprints, one visitor cracked into a joke: "Do you know you are not supposed to walk on the gravel while raking it?" That drew a smile: "I haven't quite mastered that yet!"

By then the task was complete and I had a little time for weeding. I do like weeding: the surprise of finding unexpected seedlings, and trying to identify the weeds I'm pulling, makes it more interesting for me.

My find for the day was a seedling of Quercus ilex, likely from the big specimen just outside the landscape. I had identified it just the other day, as one of the plants for my ID test.

Ashes to ashes (Week 4, Thursday)

2013-05-02T23:07:00.000+01:00

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).

But finding them when we are there to clean the beds up and it is work, it feels like it is too mundane a place to find something that has that certain sacredness to it, if nothing else for the memories of all the loved ones: a rather weird experience and one does not quite know how to behave around them...

I guess the perspective of those scattering the ashes is quite different: they will enjoy the remembrance of their relative (or pet) resting in such a peaceful, beautiful place, almost the stereotype of beauty itself.

In fact, I myself experienced that sense of awe you get when in the presence of sheer beauty just this morning, while weeding Smyrnium in the dappled shade, and I wondered whether Kew might be an earthly representation of the garden of Eden...

Shortly afterwards, I read @giacecco's blog post, in which he too mentions Kew as an image of paradise. And the scattering of ashes probably testifies to other people also feeling that way.

A totally different finding was my favourite Lamiaceae, a weed I usually pull out from the allotment and plant in my (wildflower meadow) front garden and whose name I had not found before. It's

Ground-ivy, Glechoma hederacea, ± softly hairy creeping and rooting per herb, with ascending lfy fl-stems 10-20 cm tall; lvs 1-3 cm wide, kidney-shaped, blunt-tipped, toothed, long-stalked; fls in 2-4 fld whorls in lf-axils; calyx tubular, ± two-lipped; corollas 15-20 mm, pale violet (or, rarely, pink) with purple spots on hanging, three-lobed lower lip; upper lip flat; tube straight, tapered to base. Br Isles, vc (but NW Scot r); in wds on all except poorest soils, scrub, hbs, gslds. Fl 3-5.*

PFAF says the leaves have edible uses, was apparently used in beer-making prior to hops, it's good for bees and highly invasive.

" We come from earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden." (anon)

(had written that yesterday - when I first became aware of it - but had to move it here, it was so appropriate to today's experiences...)

* [Rose F., O'Reilly C. (2006), The wild flower key, London, Penguin Books]

Two thirds of a day (Week 4, Wednesday)

2013-05-01T23:36:00.000+01:00

This morning I woke up with a headache... so not a great start and one that would not put you in a good mood, then I went out and all was frosty, including the car windscreen: back to winter?

Luckily, gardening usually alleviates all my ailments and annoyances, so I headed into work rather full of hope. Learning to drive a Gator first thing was a good beginning of the work day: it's not a tractor yet, but at least now I am not always waiting for someone to carry me around, and I can help out when needed.

Then, we weeded Smyrnium: as I mentioned yesterday, that is going to be a regular feature of our days until it's gone.

Thanks to the availability of a colleague, during our morning break, I had the opportunity to see a legendary plant at Kew, Ramosmania rodriguesii: only one plant was left in the wild, when a few cuttings were taken to Kew... and, after years of trying to propagate new plants from them our colleague Carlos succeeded and send some back to Rodrigues Island. You can read the whole fascinating story on Carlos' blog.

The rest of the morning we moved to the Japanese gateway (which incidentally looked gorgeous in the sun and with the red azaleas all in flower at the front, as you can see in the picture) to mow the lawn again.

My nature is rather impatient and frustration started to mount when my stripes were not straight, due to the rather uneven surface of the area combined with my still limited skills. It was noticeable - and in fact I was asked could I make them straighter? Of course, I would try: mowing had sorted my headache, so I pressed on and I think I managed a decent enough finish in the end, even though the stripes were definitely not perfectly straight.

That's a picture of how it came out.

Incidentally, while going to and fro I noticed that daisies did not get damaged by the mower much. It is pretty impressive how they manage to sense what is the mowing level, and to grow and flower just below it. Do they rely on the height of the lawn around them, maybe its shade?

How plants adapt to environmental factors is something we have been discussing this week, and I am interested to know more. Will have to research this a bit, but I am still adjusting to my new life and its patterns, and time and energy are not allocated in the most efficient way yet.

That was the end of my day, as I had the afternoon off to go and visit a nursery with a friend. A great experience, will talk about that separately.

Cleaning up after the Romans (Week 4, Tuesday)

2013-04-30T21:21:00.002+01:00

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 of the Romans (that would be people in Rome) most of the rest of Italy was just conquered, as was England... if it makes any sense to attribute oneself an ascendancy at all, then it would be the ones they thought me in school: we people of Lombardy descend from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards. There, I've said it!

Anyway, I'm happy to clean after the Romans, if that helps. And that is basically what I've been doing since I came here. I'm talking about Smyrnium, of course.

In 2005 I landed in the UK and one of the first things I did was to take part in a volunteer day at Kew to clear this weed. One year later, I took part again. Look what I dug out of my archives.

Then, in 2007, I was looking forward to the event once again, but I was told Kew was clear of Smyrnium [disappointment].

Well. it's back, alive and kicking, and we are going to spend a few man-hours on it, before it gets too rampant.

I did a short research online. It appears that the Romans introduced so-called alexanders, Smyrnium olusatrum (a plant whose all parts are edible, apparently tasting of celery, and including the seeds as a substitute for black pepper). The weed we have a problem with, however, is the perfoliatum species (also edible but used as an ornamental because of the striking yellow-green leaves around the inflorescence).

And we thank goodness for the striking appearance of the perfoliatum, because it stands out and is easy to spot even from a distance and in long grass when we are after it. By the way, amidst the long grass and weeds, we found a couple of beauties of the Bufo bufo species: what a treat.

Kew's Herbarium

2013-04-29T18:56:00.003+01:00

"Herbaria are collections of dried preserved specimens that document the identity of plants and fungi. They represent reference collections with many and varied functions including identification, research and education".

(Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Herbarium Collections)

Fascinating. Today we were taken on a tour of the herbarium by botanist David Goyder, who showed us some specimens and told us about his trips in Africa to get them.

The old storage room is itself redolent of Victorian explorers and scientists: discovering, preserving, studying... and it is a joy to look at. It was designed to make use of as much daylight as possible, as lighting + dried plant material preserved on paper sheets = big fire hazard.

When you take into consideration that the cupboards (here and in other more modern parts of the building, as this was filled to capacity shortly after being created) contain 7.5 million specimens, some 350,000 of which are type specimens, that is the "official" description of how a plants looks like for reference and identification, then you really feel how extraordinary this place is.

David talked to us about two recent expeditions he did in Africa, his geographical area of expertise, during one of which, in Mozambique, they discovered a full A4 page of species new to science.

Discoveries like that one are often presented to governments with conservation purposes in mind.

Then we were shown some specimens he has dried but not fully identified yet, as they are from his most recent trip to Angola. As expeditions are rather expensive, one has to concentrate on getting a representative selection of the local flora, collecting specimens and avoiding they get damaged (i.e. mould). All the rest can be done once you are back at the Herbarium, where you can consult previous collections to help you identify your specimens (redundant collections are welcome because they document the variety within and/or distribution of species) or any species new to science.

One of David's most recent specimens

David also showed us an identified specimen from the expedition to Mozambique, and one of the reference specimens they consulted, from the collections, when identifying plants; it's by 19th century Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone (more about his correspondence with Kew).

Contemporary specimen

19th century specimen

I would go on talking about this fascinating subject, but everything is explained on Kew's website... I will tell you, however, that Kew has started digitizing the collections and some are already available to all through the Herbarium catalogue, as I find that rather amazing.

If you are into the expedition side of plant finding, I found Kew's Overseas Territories team blog that might be of interest.

For those interested in plant genetics, we might visit the Jodrell Laboratory at some stage, but for the moment, what I have learnt is that you might be able to find viable DNA material in specimens that have been dried quickly and are less that 20 years old.

And on that bombshell...

Pruning (Week 3, Friday)

2013-04-26T21:59:00.000+01:00

Pruning is something I have never done much for various reasons so I am keen to learn more.

This early morning it was raining so we did not go out straight away, and I took the opportunity to try and sharpen my secateurs on my own.
I popped into the toolshed and observed a colleague doing it, then I did it myself, first disassembling... then sharpening and finally reassembling the lot. I reckon I made the edge a bit too wide in the middle and a colleague said it might have been made sharper, but it was a good start.

Then, one of my fab colleagues spent some times explaining to me how to use the said secateurs properly - I know, it's probably basic stuff, but it is the little things that make a difference. She explained that the anvil blade helps protect buds when you cut over them...

... and that, if you need a neat cut, you have to use your secateur from the blade side, making sure you leverage0 on the blade side, which is the opposite handle, so as not to bruise the stem.

She also advised on a book on pruning that I have bought... my journey towards learning how to prune properly is ongoing, but every day I am realising something more.

The rest of the day I spent working with Rubus again, trying to apply my colleague's advice while cutting it back, in particular by avoiding leaving stumps that will eventually die back and be unsightly, besides being bad practice as in many plants they might lead to colonisation by fungus coral spot (Nectria cinnabarina).

This being what I have to deal with in terms of spines, it was a rather slot task to carry out, but by the end of the day I was really satisfied with my work and rather happy.

I think the before and after pictures below show it's totally worth all the scratches :)

Stripes and stars (Week 3, Thursday)

2013-04-25T21:35:00.000+01:00

Today I went back to the Japanese Landscape: it was a gorgeous sunny day and the grass is starting to grow fast, so we had to mow the lawn. There is a specific department that takes care of the sward at Kew with ride-ons, but for the smaller areas we use lawnmowers.

My parents' garden was sizeable when I was growing up, and the lawn was mowed regularly, I probably even had a go at times. But it was just a matter-of-fact operation, to cut the grass short so that we could use the garden... here in the UK, however, lawn mowing is more of an art, and stripes are the height of perfection.

So, today I was taught how to mow a lawn the proper way, and, for the task, I had a real star trainer, who gained his experience on golf courses. With great patience on his part, and some frustration on mine, the morning was well spent, and I even had fun once I started getting the gist of it.

Here is how it turned out:

First attempt...

... and afterwards

What do you think? Well done, eh? A star performance! ;p

In the afternoon, I helped a colleague clear some leaves from a wooded area of the garden that I had never visited, and that turned out to be very pleasant with a selection of fragrant Magnolia species and a tree I had never seen, Azara microphylla, which gives off a chocolatey scent.

Today was also the day of the first plant IDing test for me: I was very nervous as I haven't had much time to study - even if I have seen and memorised plenty of plants over the last three weeks...

For the test, you are supposed to learn 10 plants a month, but every month you are shown 30 samples, because you have to recognise also the set plants for the previous two months... being my first month I was only supposed to learn 10 but I have recognised a few more - besides, even if I did not get them all right, I enjoyed finding myself in front of plant material and having to guess which plant it belonged to: it teaches you to look at plants more carefully, spotting those tiny details that make a difference...

Fireblight (Week 3, Wednesday)

2013-04-24T23:00:00.000+01:00

The Rosaceae family of plants, and the sub-family Maloidae (those with pome fruits) in particular, are affected by fireblight, which is a disease caused by bacterium Erwinia amylovora; it affects blossom and shoots and may lead to the death of the plant.

Fireblight used to be a notifiable disease, and governments are still trying to keep it in check and confined to the already affected areas (in the UK, it is still not established in most of the isles). You can read more about fireblight on the Defra factsheet, or on the Missouri Botanical Garden and RHS websites.

In our area we will have to identify and monitor the spread of the disease as it starts to flare up later in the spring. Any plant material affected needs to go to the incinerator.

By the way, here is how fireblight looks on a Photinia, just as if it had been scorched by fire. And inside the stem, there is orange-brown staining, sometimes in a longitudinal stripe, other times it goes around a ring in the stem (which may cause

Stone fruits, the plants in the Rosaceae family that do not get fireblight, apparently catch silverleaf instead, caused by fungus Chondrostereum purpureum.

By the way, do you know an easy way to recognise a plant in the Rosaceae family? I was told it has five petal and five sepals, and two stipules for each leaf, like below.

Today I was on my own taking forward the edging and clearing of the South Canal beds, so I was assigned a volunteer to help. There are plenty of really nice volunteers that come and help us one day a week, and the volunteer that helped me was a gardener, studying garden design and interested in permaculture. While digging out a large patch of ground elder (aka Aegopodium podagraria) we had an interesting chat, and I mentioned to him hugelkultur, which I had learnt from @carllegge, who introduced me to permaculture. Here's an interesting short piece about it, discussing especially its sustainability.

I had been thinking about it because soil at Kew is sandy and sand dries up quickly, and will research it better as soon as I have more time.

Squaring the circle - reprise (Week 3, Tuesday)

2013-04-23T21:32:00.000+01:00

Our teamwork today was again planting trees, something which I really looked forward to:

1. I had enjoyed it the last time
2. wanted to refresh my memory on the technique
3. the weather was good...

You can see the square hole, the planting hole, and the planted tree clearly in the pictures.

This time it was only two of us for each tree so I had the opportunity to take more active part, and I was working with a colleague who had done it dozens of time, who helped me perfect my technique. Using the tools felt less awkward the second time round: it is really a matter of "practice makes perfect", and we planted a really pretty little tree, Sorbus meliosmifolia (which, according to the great book one of my colleagues suggested, Gledhill's "The Names of Plants", means: having leaves similar to a meliosma).

It takes around an hour to plant a tree properly from scratch, so today I worked on planting five different trees, including the Sorbus. Two of them were planted on the bank of the lake where on my very first day I had pulled ivy out: it was good to see how that clearing work I did served to prepare the bank for planting new trees.

Well, another enjoyable day, and what gorgeous weather!

There were plenty of visitors in the garden today, and an American garden designer stopped to take a picture of us digging the tree hole... we also provide entertainment for the kids, when we move around the longer distances on a tractor: they stare and wave at us.

As it was team working day, I had the opportunity to meet two different colleagues, one of which - like me, is interested in foodcrops and organic. It's a great bunch of people, fun and knowledgeable in their different ways and areas. By the end of the day I had been outnumbered by "the boys", who came out well in this picture, taken while finishing off the planting of the Quercus rotundifolia.

After work I went with some colleagues around the gardens, plant spotting: having a look at the plants we have to identify on Thursday - my first plant ID test!

Kew's library (Week 3, Monday)

2013-04-22T21:03:00.000+01:00

The highlight of the day today was a visit to Kew's library, which was born out of the Herbarium (which we will visit next week) and which is actually known as "Library, Art & Archives" because it does not manage only books... have you ever visited the Marianne North Gallery?

I usually prefer the outside, but on a rainy day we looked for shelter in the Gallery and it was rather amazing, with plants and animals in bright colours around you on all walls... I was personally also fascinated by the story of Marianne herself: what a brave woman, travelling the world in the late 19th century and painting plants...

But, back to the library: it might look like any other library, but it is pretty vast to start with (it contains more than 500,000 items, 90 languages), a maze of collections, with special thematic sections scattered across the gardens' buildings in Kew and at Wakehurst Place. You can read more on its history and significance. We got to see the first edition of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" today: there is a special section of the library that contains all the oldest of books...

Everyone can access the Kew library, and you can search the catalogue online. I myself think I will have to go and have a proper browse on my own one day, as so much information can be overwhelming: I do not think I have taken it all in from the tour this afternoon...

The morning I spent edging the South Canal beds. While driving there in our tractor, my colleague showed me a tree, pointing out it was a champion. That was a coincidence! Over the weekend, in a visit to RHS Wisley, I had spotted the label you can see pictured, but had no time to investigate it further, so it was on my to do list.

Champion trees are the ones that are "exceptional examples of their species (Royal Forestry Society) and several of the UK & Irish champion trees are registered in The Tree Register.

On a totally different subject, today ended in a positive way, with me finding out that I passed Level 3 "The management of plant health". I'm halfway through that now...

Zen and the art of leaf gathering (Week 2, Friday)

2013-04-19T21:57:00.000+01:00

It was with some hesitation that this morning I made my way to the Japanese Landscape. It is a rather formal garden, and working on it felt pretty daunting.

Edging, which by now I can do fairly well, and picking up the magnolia leaves that the inclement weather has scattered all over the place the tasks for the day, together with re-doing the lines in the raked gravel that represents the flowing of water.

With magnolias, camellias, cherries and photinias in flower, the place looked really marvellous, despite the gray sky. The landscape has a fascinating history, built as it is around the Gateway (a replica of a temple in Kyoto) and attracts plenty of visitors, but somehow it also manages to retain a spiritual character. Which I found out when gathering and picking up leaves.

There were a few gusts of wind, and each one would scatter part of the light and somewhat sticky leaves I had managed to scrape out of the grass and bushes, while also blowing new leaves from the tree. Something that can be pretty annoying, as I'm sure you know. However, a thought came into my mind.

I remembered a book on mindfulness I recently flicked through, by Thich Nhat Hanh. The Vietnamese Zen monk suggested that happiness is only found in mindfulness and mindfulness in performing an action for the sake of it, by concentrating completely on it, bringing back one's attention every time it goes astray and observing and acknowledging one's distractions as they happen to avoid them being more distracting... this was a concept I had been familiar for a while, since I became interested in Hinduism while studying Religious Studies. It was guru Osho - if I recollect well - that said that our mind gets distracted by wandering into either the past or the future, preventing us from enjoying the moment. I think it is one of the reasons I like gardening so much: because it absorbs me completely in the task at hand, and I can relax.

So I thought of my leaves, and concentrated in picking them up for the sake of it. One leaf at a time, one handful at a time, one bucket at a time. It was refreshing and made me think that there's so much that is like picking leaves just to look them fall again. If you let it get at you, then you cannot but get angry and bitter. But if you keep carrying on as if nothing had ever happened before, or was going to happen again, then you are leaving in the moment, and can find peace.

All my phylosphical musings crashed suddenly into reality when the student I was working with suggested I learnt how to use the leafblower, which I did, after the by-now-usual feeling of awkwardness when starting to use a new tool around people.

Here is me, posing as a ghostbuster, before going in for lunch...

Going about one's business (Week 2, Thursday)

2013-04-18T19:05:00.000+01:00

Another day of bed maintenance, which is what we are here to do!

I am now mostly self-sufficient in getting the tools together before starting the day, such a relief! :) When I first joined I had a locker assigned to me with a standard kit, then, over the last two weeks, I have collected a selection of other bits and pieces I need, like a hand-fork (can you believe gardeners' hand-forks are one of the most often stolen items if left lying around?!?) and a knee pad. There are other tools in the shed that are there for specific jobs, for example landscape and lawn rakes (the light ones you can use on grass because they do not rip it up as the heavier ones do), saws etc.

The bin bags are for the non-compostable weeds and also for all the plastic bits and foil wrappers that we keep finding stuck in between plants and pretty much everywhere in the beds.

Anyway, today we tackled Cotoneaster as well as Rubus. Here's a before and after pic (have to remember to take them from the same angle perspective in the in the future):

While cleaning up, I unearthed a millipede I had not seen before, which Paul Lee at the British Myriapod and Isopod Group very kindly helped me identify as a flat-back millipede of the genus Polydesmus. Apparently there are 5 species that look very similar in the UK, and you need to inspect the underside with a lens/microscope to find out exactly which is which. Fascinating, isn't it?

By the way, do you know which is the rough rule of thumb to distinguish centipedes from millipedes? Centipedes have only one pair of legs per body segment, millipedes have two.

I was taught that centipedes, 1 pair of leg = good in gardening terms, as they are mainly carnivores. Millipedes, 2 pairs of legs = less good from a gardening perspective as they might feed on roots and seedlings even though they are mostly detrivores. But I am not endorsing any violence on them, I think a healthy ecosystem, with as many species as possible, is the best environment for plants to thrive in, and detrivores are really useful for the recycling of nutrients. The little fellow there was left to go about its business straight after I took the picture.

We, on the other hand, were stopped halfway through our work in the beds by a sudden thunderstorm, so had to head in in a rush.

After work, however, the weather was sunny again and, if anything, Kew looked more gorgeous for the shower, so I went on a plant IDing round... it's such a privilege to be here every day!

Weedy Wednesday (Week 2, Wednesday)

2013-04-17T19:02:00.000+01:00

A day that was mostly about weeding and edging.

My progress in edging consists in having learned how to straighten beds using a string. Also, I am becoming better at using my foot behind the half-moon when lifting soil. There are two main movements you have to learn with the half-moon.

First, it's pressing down the blade, keeping the tool vertical, in a continuous way along a line, so you do not get bitty cuts.
Second, it's to lift the soil away from the edge, using your foot as a lever so that the half moon does not smudge the grass edge.

Here is the final cut along the line, cleaned of the soil and grass debris.

With regards to weeds, since I am spending time pulling them out, I thought I would take pictures of each specimen, so as to do a bit of IDing.

I have previously found it useful to identify wildflowers and weeds from illustrated guides and web keys (for example, I love BSBI wildflower key), but my colleague suggested I buy a proper botanical key. Which I did, and will use it to identify the pictures of the weeds I have collected so far.

We collect and compost the plant material we discard (except the infected material which is incinerate), and we compost erbaceous and woody material separately in the stable yard where we have our base.

There are huge compost heaps there, which can reach the toasty temperature of 60°C-104°F. In the mornings on a cool day you can see them smoking, and the peacocks like to wander around the are; you often find them on top of the heaps, crying out what sounds like a raucous call for help.

At those temperatures, partial sterilisation occurs. My books for RHS Level 3 said about soil that:

45°C kills nematodes
55°C kills insects and weed seeds
60°C kills fungi (unfortunately including mycorrhizae)

Some weeds, however, are best composted in a plastic bag, as they are very persistent: they are bindweed, ground elder, Oxalis repens and bluebells - yes, everything can be considered a weed, weed is in the eye of the beholder!

On Kew's website there is a whole page dedicated to our compost heap, which is one of the biggest non-commercial ones in Europe, it also features an explanatory video.

Should you wish to start your own home composting, I found this quick guide by Garden Organic useful.

Tree circles (Week 2, Tuesday)

2013-04-16T21:29:00.000+01:00

Today was team working again, and we did tree rings on the Pagoda vista.

No, not the tree rings inside a tree trunk, which can be used to identify the age of a tree. I mean we weeded, edged and mulched the circular, grass-free areas around the pairs of trees that flank the heritage walk that is the vista, which - I am told - are "double-banked matched pairs", meaning they are pairs of the same tree, flanked on the outside by another pair of trees.

I was not feeling very well, haven't been since yesterday when I had to stay at home, so did not think of taking any pictures. However, a secret admirer took one of me working from a distance (no, I can't be seen, it was too far away, but that's the area).

Will have to go back and check on some of the trees we did, as they attracted my attention being Acer saccharum (sugar maple), and they must look pretty when they put out their leaves, although I suppose they really come into their own once it's autumn.

The technique to make round circles consists in tying your half moon to the tree trunk with a non-stretcheable piece of string, then working around the tree, so I had the opportunity to practise a lot with this new tool.

I was also told why we need to cut quite deep edges into the grass: I always finds that understanding why you are doing something helps to learn and remember. But it is surprising how few people are able to formalize their (especially practical) knowledge into communicable information, to explain how and why they are doing something. It's a rare skill, and as a former Knowledge Manager I have confronted - and had to bridge - this reality often in my career. I am lucky, however, to have found some people here that are excellent at sharing their knowledge.

So... because the grass roots expand sideways by rhizomes and stolons, they would start creeping into the rings and towards the trees. If, instead of soil, they find air, they stop, so you get a neat and tidy ring. Hence, you need to cut an edge that reaches down all the depth of the grass roots.

Incidentally, did you know that because of the root/shoot ratio principle, the length of the root is in proportion to that of the canopy? It is the principle at the basis of pasture management for soil fertility. When grass grows long, the roots grow long, then, when grass is mowed, a part of the roots die back, and remain into the soil as biomass; then it grows again and so on... if you want to know more about it you can Google "Joel Salatin", an American farmer who centres his farming on this principle.

... but back to our sward, we keep the grass quite short, and so are the roots, and that is how deep tree rings work by preventing the spread of the roots towards the trees.

When mulching, you have then to take care to keep the mulch away from the edges (again to prevent grass spreading into it) as well as from the tree trunk (to avoid rotting).

Day five: sharpening up

2013-04-12T22:38:00.000+01:00

One of the things I had never done was to sharpen a pair of secateurs, so when a colleague said he was going to fix his and offered me to tag along I took the opportunity straight away.

After disassembling the nuts, bolts and the spring, we cleaned and sharpened the blade using oil and stone, then had to reassemble the lot. I look forward to doing it again to see if I can remember how to do it properly as I was shown... and in the meantime I will keep the official instruction for maintenance to hand.

After that, I spent the day finishing the jobs I started yesterday, and reflected on the past week.

There are several aspects of this internship that are helping me sharpen up my act too:

As the distances in the garden are considerable, it is best to carry all the tools you think you will need with you from the start of the day, so as to avoid having to go back to the toolshed. As my garden and plot are fairly small, I can access whatever I need at all time, but this new experience is a good exercise in planning your day ahead and general efficiency.
Because we work in contact with the public, we need to be particularly careful with health & safety, avoiding that our tools get in the way or endanger anyone, and we have to leave everything neat and tidy. That is also a good exercise for me, so I am getting used to planning my gardening tasks more carefully, finishing what I have started and leaving time to clear up.
Last but not least, I have started working in a team: I depend on others and others depend on me - although I have worked in teams in an office all my life and I'm well acquainted with the principles, it is a new way of gardening for me, and out there in the open, doing physical work, being able to rely on a team feels more... essential.

Have a good weekend all.

Day four: Rubus and Prunus

2013-04-11T21:45:00.000+01:00

Today I went off to become more familiar with my beds and we planned to manage a Rubus or two.

It was a whole day of gardening, me and the plants, which was good as I need to take in all of the changes that have happened in the last few days and adjust to the new pattern of my days.

We start work at 7.30 in the morning, which means that I have to wake up at 5, and by the time I get home I am so tired and my evening flies, but I am still studying my Masters module on Environmental ethics, so I have to stay up late.
Anyway, people that know me say it really shows I'm happy... and no wonder!

The weather is warming up a little bit, so the Prunus trees in my section are starting to flower. This Prunus serrulata 'Pandora' is one of the first, and is right next to where I'm working.

The National History Museum published leaflets on how to identify cherry trees, and links to Kew's own cherry walk, which will be gorgeous to be in in a few days from now...

Day three: in beds with Rubus

2013-04-10T19:41:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned before, the South Canal beds, which I am taking care of, are the site of the Rosaceae collection, and Rubus figures prominently in them. Rubus is the Latin name for bramble, and also the genus of the bramble-like family of plants.

There are some striking differences in them, some look positively gorgeous, some look weedy, others don't even look like brambles much, but all tend to sprawl beyond their allotted space and to self-seed prolifically, so I'm going to spend time taking them back to where they belong over the next few weeks.

Today we worked with two bushes of "hairy" Rubus, one unspecified and the other called Rubus tricolor. They did not have thick prickles and spines as brambles usually do, but more of a thick mat of hairs - which, if I read the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website right, are still technically prickles.

I helped the student I work with to cut them back so they don't encroach on other plants around them. As this is a botanical garden, however, it is important that we do not spoil the natural habit of the plant.

Rubus

Rubus tricolor

I am counting on learning more about pruning plants over the weeks, as that is something I would like to develop skills in.

Here is how the two shrubs looked like before and after we finished pruning back and cleaning from the leaves, edging the beds etc

While we were digging out roots, we also found this beauty: I had never seen a beetle like that, it's a Violet Ground Beetle (Carabus violaceus). It hunts slugs & invertebrates at night.

By the way, I cannot find my bearings easily yet in the gardens, so walking back tonight I got lost and it took me an hour to find my exit. I took the opportunity to take pictures of plants - there's a lot going on as spring might finally be starting... but gardening is good exercise already and the hour-long walk has completely knackered me!

Day two: squaring the circle

2013-04-09T21:56:00.000+01:00

On a Tuesday we work in teams rather than individually in our areas, so that we can take on bigger projects; besides, it is a great teambuilding exercise and I had a lot of fun.

Today, we were going to plant trees "the Kew way".

As you can imagine, plants are essential to Kew, and planting trees in the right way is essential to their prompt establishment and future well-being.

Based on research showing that wide, rather than deep, holes improve tree establishment (by Whitcomb), and that root spread is quicker and easier if the planting hole is square instead of round (where they tend to bend in circles, as when potbound - by Kirkham), staff at the Arboretum developed planting specifications: "the Kew way", to ensure the planting holes enable the establishment of the plant while also being gracefully pleasant for the eye from the very beginning. Establishment is finally given a further boost by the use of mycorrhizae in the planting hole.

It was the first time planting trees this way for the four of us in our team, and a bit like being part of a special ritual, there, in the drizzle, planting a tree for everyone to admire and enjoy over the decades to come...

Incidentally, I made my first encounter with a couple of tools: the half-moon edger and the turf lifter...

After planting the trees in the morning, in the afternoon we got more decent weather and went around mulching the planting holes to help water retention and nutrient availability, reducing weed competition and giving that nice finishing touch...

To mark the occasion, I went back after work to have a look at the newly planted tree, an Alnus jorullensis (Mexican alder), in all its glory. There's me giving you an idea of its size...

Day one: plants come with a label (unlike people)

2013-04-08T23:16:00.000+01:00

First morning at Kew meant meeting more people than I will remember the names of, so it was good to spend a quiet afternoon weeding out ivy from the lake bank with just one colleague.

During the internship I will be working alongside a 3rd year student of the Kew Diploma in Horticulture: we have an area of the gardens assigned to us for maintenance: the South Canal beds, where the Rosaceae collection is sited.

However, on my first day, I have been working with another colleague, who takes care of the lakes, and will teach me how to drive the tractor, something I am quite excited about... I remember a few years ago one of my bosses was studying towards a Masters in Horticulture and she had a whole exam on how to drive a tractor... Even back then I thought it would be fun to learn, so when I was asked whether I was interested in some training I accepted straight away - and I'm looking forward to it!

While we were pulling the ivy roots, my colleague explained a few things about Kew, and in particular he taught me how to read plant labels. Here's one:

TOP LEFT

You find what is called the "ACCESSION NUMBER" that is the unique number associated to the plant when it was recorded into the garden's archive. Some labels have a date as well, which is the year the plant was recorded (not when it first germinated - as plants can be acquired at any stage of growth - or when it was acquired to the garden - as for various reason it might not be recorded when first acquired - but when it was actually recorded). On the second line, the code for the donor, who provided the plant, is indicated (that could be, for example, a botanical expedition).

TOP RIGHT

The FAMILY NAME of the plant is indicated.

Families are high-level grouping of plants that share some characteristics; roughly speaking, plant systematics identifies shared characteristics and then plant taxonomy locates and names plants within the phylogeny - it is all rather complicated, and in continuous flux, though; as science helps us understand plants better, we might find out that they were not what we thought they were, so reshuffling is needed, and plants have to be moved around in the phylogeny...

Rosaceae is the family of plants I will help taking care of in the next three months, and for those of you that might want to find out more, here is a website from the University of Missouri as an example of description of the family...

CENTRE

You have the NAME OF THE PLANT.

Plants have common names for you and me but for the international community of botanists, they are identified by what is called the binomial name, made up of genus (within the family, grouping of plants sharing significant features) and species (basically, within the genus, a grouping of plants that share even more specific characteristic and can reproduce among themselves, but will not reproduce with another species within the genus - with exceptions). There may be other parts to a plant name, for example the variety or the cultivar (as is written in brackets in the label I pictured); they describe even more specific characteristics a group of plants share among them within the species, but the binomial parts are the core of a plant's name.

Binomial names have a major advantage on common names: they identify a plant univocally, so that people from different languages or dialects do not risk mixing their plants up, which, for example, would be quite tricky from a conservation's perspective, if you were trying to save a rare foreign plant from extinction... There are also extra benefits, if you are interested in plants, as the binomial name usually describes the characteristics of the plant: its shape or colour, the country it originates from or the habitat in which it lives... Kew put together a lovely information sheet on plant names.

BOTTOM LEFT

At the bottom left there is indication whether the plant originated in the wild, and whether its identity has been verified. This is useful information for research and conservation purposes. Note there is nothing in the label pictured above.

BOTTOM RIGHT

Finally, at the bottom left, which geographical region(s) the plant is native to. In this case, the plant was cultivated.

So, next time you are at Kew, just one look at the label and you'll know everything about the plant that is in front of you!

By the way, the ivy we pulled out is Hedera helix (English ivy) of the family Araliaceae...

---

Note: other botanic gardens have very similar labels, have a look at this one I photographed at Göteborgs botaniska trädgård in Sweden

Me & Kew

2013-04-08T22:48:00.000+01:00

Here we go...

After getting my RHS Level 2 qualification and moving on to Level 3, having taken a fantastic free online course on Sustainability and after enrolling in the OU Masters module on Environmental Ethics, I started to send some applications for practical experience placements.

Do you know the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew? It's a beautiful botanical garden in London and a major tourist attraction: I first visited it when I was 18 and came to London for the first time for my summer holidays. Love at first sight! We became "friends" of Kew (got a membership card) even before we moved to the UK, and over the years we have spend several pleasant weekends strolling through the gardens or having lazy picnics under dozens of gorgeous trees.

Well, at the end of February I found out about Kew Gardens Horticultural Internship and applied. I must say, when the news came back that I had been accepted as an intern at the Arboretum, I was quietly excited BUT greatly worried! It was going to be something so very different from when I had done before... but then, this is the real start of my career changing adventure, so it is only right to have butterflies in my stomach.

My internship requires me to write a daily diary of what I am learning, which I will do on the blog - I hope to be able to share with you what I learn, and that you enjoy it.

Let the adventure begin!

Another year draws to an end

2012-12-22T14:51:00.000Z

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 crop well (with the exception of strawberries, slugs' favourite meal over the summer).

I have achieved my RHS Certificate in Horticulture and moved on to study horticulture at a higher level.

I have also been on the plot rather little, considered how much time I had available - one excuse was the rather dreadful summer, with rain nearly every day for all of July and August. But I have cooked a lot more, with more ingredients and learnt how to bake sourdough, make yogurth and my own curries (I started with this book, which I really recommend).

This was the year I decided that I am going to shift my career to work in sustainable agriculture and food production (it might take a while, but I will do it, because that is what I am ultimately interested in).

All of the above activities and interests have brought me together with some very interesting new people, four of whom have influenced me in particular (in alphabetical order):

Carl Legge, who someone called a "Renaissance man", about whom I have talked before and half whose library contains books that are in mine too. Except Carl also reads them, and develops a wealth of knowledge about permaculture, food and human behaviour. In his Welsh paradise, shared with sweetest and sharp wife Debs and loveliest son, Carl is almost self sufficient, thanks to his extraordinary creativity. Generous with his time, knowledge and produce, Carl also set up the Seedy Penpals seed exchange scheme.
Joanna of blog Zeb Bakes, is a great baker, inquisitive cook, kitchen tools' geek, owner of a lovely poodle, gardener, and a lot more. To me, she's been a generous, helpful, supportive and understanding friend.
Pietro Parisi, "the farmers' chef" as he likes to think of himself (or a chef de terroir as a French would say), is a Neapolitan born, internationally travelled chef who loves his native region and the local farmers that still produce traditional fares in the traditional way, but risk being swept away by the modern food system. Pietro, through his restaurant and as many initiatives as he manages to take part in, is keen to share his knowledge of traditional cooking and preserving techniques with everyone, to inspire a more sustainable way of eating and producing. A Slow Food prize winner, Pietro has recently cooked for ex French president Sarkozy and writer Daniel Pennac.
Sonia Piscicelli, the author of the Italian blog Il Pasto Nudo and of recently published book Cooking, responsibly (which I had the pleasure of translating into English, for a Feb 2013 release). Sonia loves her food, which, she believes, is not just what we stuff our mouth and fill our bellies with, but the means to keep us healthy and active: that is why she chooses locally grown, fresh, organic or biodynamic, and home cooked.

Uhmmm... where did I start from... yes, I was going to publish a recipe...

One of the things I have realised this year is that producing food is inextricably linked to cooking and eating it; and both growing and eating food affects our health. I am thinking of relaunching the blog next year, to deal with those wider issues. Just thinking about it for now.

But I came on the blog to share with you what I ate for lunch - my first ever meal of salsify (Tragopogon spp.). They say it's also called oyster plant because that is how it tastes. I am not sure about that, but I loved it. With an unobtrusive taste (much like a potato's), and a crunchy texture, I found the flavours linger in my mouth lusciously at the end of the meal, so much so that I did not feel like coffee.

The recipe is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's for the BBC I have adapted it for my lunch alone today.

Salsify fritters

175 g salsify, washed, trimmed, peeled

1 egg

2 tbsp plain flour

20 g butter

2 tbsp extravirgin olive oil

1 red chilli, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

pepper and salt to season

Salsify ain't too pretty or easily handled. My roots were knobbly, having grown in flinty soil, so they stuck to mud. Once cut, the roots ooze milky sap, and oxidise immediately, becoming an unpleasant shade of brown (acidulated water is no use either). This however gets fixed once they start cooking and the colour improves.

Your hands, however, will retain an unpleasant tinge of ochre.

Is it worth it? Definitely.

Coarsely grate the roots. I found a box grater works well. Heat a small cast iron pan with half the butter, and cook the salsify until softer.

Separately, quickly whisk the egg, add the garlic and chilli. Pour in the salsify, add the flour and mix well. The mixture is rather loose, but will stick together once fried.

Using the same pan, melt the rest of the butter and add the oil. Make four fritters out of the mixture and drop them in the pan carefully. Once the bottom is well fried and sticks together, turn the fritters on the other side and cook on. I have used the smallest hob throughout.

You can buy salsify seeds from the Garden Organic Catalogue.

Merry Christmas - if you celebrate -

and to a happy New Year of gardening and cooking!