Garden and landscape snippets
It is clear that there is a rising tide of awareness about the damage done to our landscapes and gardens and - thank goodness - an increasing desire to try to repair that damage. Here are a few things that have crossed my desk, whether through the journals and magazines that I read, or my email alerts.
Government payments to protect soil
A little piece in the Garden Design Journal for March caught my eye as relevant here in West Sussex where so many of our fields are greensand. Run-off is a major issue as such light soil is easily swept from the fields in severe downpours. In order to increase carbon storage and biodiversity on farmland, a new government proposal seeks to make funding available to increase carbon storage and biodiversity. There will be support for the ‘custodians of our land’ through initiatives such as testing soil organic matter, planning field rotations and improving fertility by, for example, using herbal lays and payments for sustainable farming methods such as replanting hedgerows and setting up agroforestry (producing food alongside trees).
We wait to see if this is ‘real reform’ or political canniness but see the DEFRA document Safeguarding Our Soils - a Strategy for England for more information. At the very least this is part of a rising tide of accountability.
Chelsea Physic Garden
Chelsea Physic Garden who produced a report on tackling damage to small microclimates have declared a microclimate emergency on the basis of their findings. This makes welcome reading as most of us do not have grand gardens and smaller equals more possible, to my mind. Of course we should not turn away from the global disaster but sometimes we just feel helpless faced with the terrifying statistics. At such times smaller spaces seem more manageable. The Chelsea Physic Garden is a serious institution, dating back to 1673, and has used historic records of plant growth and ten years of their records of weather patterns to review how best to live with an established garden in the changed twenty-first century. Nell Jones, head of plant collections, wrote that ‘It used to be that the rain we collected would last us until late spring. Last year we ran out in early March’. Who knows what the next two to three months will bring this year, but their advice is a reminder of a few things that most of us know but do not always implement. More information here.
Your Garden
My suggestions from the previous newsletter remain constants because these simple ideas are effective and need to become second nature:
Water: how to collect more? Please look again at the suggestions in the previous newsletter: more waterbutts, ‘grey water’ systems, mulch, watering cans or trigger hosepipes.
Compost: it is very, very easy to make your own, but if you have to buy it, chose peat free. Would it help to share a compost bin with a neighbour or have a light-hearted competition about the speed of breaking down what is in your compost bins?
Plants: seek out drought friendly plants grown in the UK. Reducing plant transport from foreign countries reduces the risk of importing more pests and diseases. Analyse your soil (little test kits are very cheap) and choose plants that will be happy in your garden. If space is tight, grow fruit and vegetables creatively; they can be mixed with your shrubs and flowering plants or grown in pots. Choose plants that benefit biodiversity and think about seed sharing. Harvest your own seeds and divide packets – there are almost always too many and you will be able to share fruitful(!) experiences and advice with your friends and neighbours.
Finally, if you have room please plant trees. They do an unbelievable amount of good; see the Woodland Trust's Tackling Air Pollution with Trees.
Seasonal tips
Easter wreaths: why not make your own using cuttings from your garden and nearby hedgerows? Make a simple circle from twisted twigs and weave the cuttings in. Ivy makes a green base, add small pine cones and small twigs of blossom and then weave in more colourful treasures such as Hellebores, Narcissus and grape hyacinths. These thirstier flowers might need moss pockets hidden in the twigs or even a tiny jam jar tied to the bottom of the wreath with ribbon.
Containers
Be inventive with containers (old buckets, boxes and baskets - see picture at the top of this article) and transplant a few flowering plants such as small, fragrant Narcissus, cyclamen and primroses. Repostion them where they will be seen – beside the front door, on a garden table or on a step in the garden. If nothing much is out yet in your garden, cheat with carefully chosen simple spring flowers from a reputable garden centre – Rotherhill near Stedham are excellent.
Happy Easter!