L’orto — giornale di barganews

Grey bamboo, red ants and water siphons

The continuing good weather has meant that it was possible for another full day of work on the vegetable garden in a last gasp attempt to catch up on some of the time has been lost due to bad weather earlier this season. Another large patch of the field was this morning dug over by hand and green bean seeds planted. Next to them in a more shaded area some small celery and parsley were also planted. As part of [...]

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05/14/2012 10:40 pm

Downsizing and death by electrocution

Downsizing and death by electrocution – now there is a title for an article about a vegetable garden that you will not read every day. Downsizing and death by electrocution just what on earth is going on? Okay let’s deal with the downsizing first. This morning I went to my local supplier...

05/14/2012 11:32 am

50 kg of seed potatoes

Not just late, very, very late … but finally the giornaledibarganews vegetable garden actually has something vegetable in the ground – 50 kilos of seed potatoes to be precise. But first the area had to be secured against the marauding porcupines. Wooden posts were put up and an electric...

05/07/2012 3:39 pm

No-plant, Dig-only: Cold Dressing

The NO-PLANT,DIG-ONLY vegetable garden methodology has liberated my freezer and fridge from their horticultural storage duties and hence the accommodation is now a little too ample for my six cans of lager and year old bag of frozen peas. Therefore I have decided to optimize the space by converting them...

05/04/2012 1:03 am

Nasce il blog dedicato agli orti scolastici

Nasce il blog dedicato agli orti scolastici “Più che un blog un invito: utilizziamo l’orto scolastico come strumento per imparare!”: è questo il motto che campeggia su ogni pagina del nuovo blog dedicato agli orti scolastici. E’ un’iniziativa con due anime: una di carattere...

05/03/2012 10:34 pm

Work starts (finally) on the vegetable garden

Back in February 2009 we published an article at the start of the project that was to become the giornaledibarganews vegetable garden. In that article we wrote the following words: Gradually the economic problems besetting world finances and markets starts to make itself felt here in Barga. The “happy...

04/19/2012 12:30 am

Primavera… tempo di orti, anche nelle scuole

Qualche tempo fa, quando la primavera sembrava essere arrivata con grande anticipo sono iniziati i lavori nell’Orto delle Meraviglie, l’orto della scuola dell’infanzia di Nave, poco fuori Lucca. Da qualche giorno la primavera sembra esser stata stregata e il clima è tornato decisamente...

03/13/2012 7:41 pm

Rinasce l’Orto delle Meraviglie

Al lavoro nell'Orto delle Meraviglie Dopo un periodo di riposo, forse troppo lungo, ieri mattina i bambini della scuola di Nave (LU) sono tornati al lavoro nell’Orto delle Meraviglie, un orto un po’ speciale che da quattro anni occupa un angolo del giardino della Scuola dell’Infanzia. A pochi...

02/20/2012 7:28 pm

Un po’ autoreferenziale ma…

Si, c’è un po’ di autoreferenzialità ma a volte è bello condividere, soprattutto quando a dirci che siamo bravi è una “parte terza”. Uso, così, questo spazio per segnalare che il progetto “Vince L’Orto” curato da Michela Sodini, Serena Scalici e dallo...

02/02/2012 5:23 pm

In arrivo i nuovi seminari di Semidicultura

Proseguono nel mese di febbraio i seminari dedicati ad Orto, Giardino e Natura nell’ambito dell’iniziativa semidicultura. I seminari di questo mese riguarderanno la coltivazione dell’orto biologico, il bird gardening, il riconoscimento delle tracce degli animali selvatici e la potatura...

01/27/2012 10:24 am

A Lucca il seminario su “gli orti impossibili”

Si svolgerà lunedì 30 gennaio alle 21 il seminario dal titolo “Orti impossibili”. Si tratta di un seminario rivolto a coloro che non hanno spazi per un vero orto ma non vogliono rinunciare alla possibilità di produrre ortaggi, sebbene in piccole quantità. Saranno presentate varie soluzioni...

12/23/2011 7:00 pm

“Fatti gli ortaggi tuoi”, l’allestimento sul tema dell’orto al Desco 2011

Bello, interessante, semplice, concettuale, azzeccato, “una bella cosa”, evoluto, “avete fatto magie con quelle piante”, “quasi parla”, … sono tutte espressioni utilizzate per riferirsi a “Fatti gli ortaggi tuoi”, l’allestimento realizzato da Ecoland per il Desco 2011. Partiamo...

11/19/2011 1:34 am

Vegetable garden – end of the season

06/14/2011 2:57 pm

Vegetable garden – work, work, work

As we move into the second week of June, the vegetable garden is finally starting to pick up speed and things are starting to grow … not least of which, the weeds, which are now starting to take over in a couple of places, most notably the potato field. The top field with the potatoes is...

05/27/2011 1:33 am

Animals browsing through the potatoes

Well they are back, just when you thought the coast was clear and everything was working just fine, a nasty surprise this evening upon entering the top field of the giornaledibarganews vegetable garden – many of the freshly sprouting and a heavily pampered potato plants were no longer there. In...

05/18/2011 2:35 pm

Hailstones si or no ?

The weather forecast was not good, in fact it was terrible, it talked of storms, high winds and a meteorological condition that strikes fear in the hearts of every gardener and farmer …. hail stones. During the winter months hailstones cause little damage but this time a year they can...

05/15/2011 3:31 pm

Formenton otto file and Grano Saraceno

Time for planting and seeding in the vegetable garden. So far 100 tomato plants have been put into the ground comprising four different types - three mainly for bottling later on in the season for pomarola, and the fourth for salad during the summer. Two types of dwarf runner beans have been...

04/19/2011 2:03 am

Seed potatoes, 250 onions and electric shocks

On the last article we wrote that “so far this year, the weather has been somewhat kinder and last week Giorgio and his tractor arrived to deep plough the two fields ready for the start of sowing potatoes later on next week, nearly two months earlier than last year. Let’s hope the good weather...

04/01/2011 9:28 pm

Ploughing starts for the new season

Last year was a difficult year for the barganews vegetable garden with the very wet start to the season making life very difficult for all concerned. In fact looking back over the barganews archives we find that we only managed to get a tractor on to the field and ploughed towards the end of May –...

03/24/2011 11:35 pm

Manure on the vegetable garden

Second article of the year in a series of articles about the progress of the barganews vegetable garden which was started in 2009. Readers might remember that it actually took us a good deal of time to find a decent plot of land but finally we did. It was in the right place, it had the right amount of...