Wilding the garden
Hello again. At the Chelsea Flower Show I was so delighted to see many gardens showcasing wildflowers (previously known as weeds). I know it is a divided issue, but the reason Chelsea designers included these, and that Monty Don talked liberally about the benefits of these, is that like it or not, gardens as we know them are on the way out. The climate is changing and much of what we have traditionally grown in the past cannot cope with our prolonged hot summers, droughts and hosepipe bans. Perhaps the reason why this is a divided issue is many of us refuse to accept change. But as with life, gardens are constantly evolving and changing and we need to accept, let go and move with it.
Wildflowers prosper where they chose to seed. They don’t require us to plant them, water them or nurture them, and maybe this is what we are unwilling to accept. They don’t need our intervention like our chosen plants and shrubs do. They just march on regardless of us. But perhaps the thing we hate most is that they were not invited. I’ve thought about this a lot and wonder how much snobbery there is in gardening? We want invited guests only, rare, sought after, perhaps tricky to grow. We want to demonstrate our gardening prowess. There is no pride in a garden full of weeds. We prefer to flaunt our exotic ‘foreigners’ over and above our natives. We want some control over our parcel of land. We want to be the boss and feel the satisfaction of perfect straight lines, mown grass, clipped edges, forked over soil. But nature is creeping in every moment we take our eye off the ball. Twisting around our precious stems, peppering our dark soil with annoying green seedlings, self seeding recklessly and promiscuously everywhere! It’s enough to drive one quite mad……
Unless we stop a while, sit and watch. The hum of insects enjoying all the nectar on offer, with no preference for the more expensive or exotic blooms. The birds sitting in our native overgrown hedgerows feeding on the abundance of insects that flourish when the habitat is looser, wilder and more varied. The bats flying around our gardens at night.
Perhaps we are also afraid of becoming redundant in our own gardens? Not allowed to mow our grass, not allowed to weed out wildflowers, not encouraged to cut back herbaceous vegetation. What on earth is there left for us to do? Our time would be spent very wisely indeed if we grew our own food crops, if we put in more wildlife habitats; ponds, bat/bird boxes, home made bug hotels, brash piles etc. If we sowed annual flower seeds to flower in amongst our plants and the wildflowers to add more and more pollinating flowers. But most importantly, if we took time to sit, relax, socialise and enjoy our garden space. Constantly, in past gardens of mine, I have never been able to sit and relax because all I saw was more work to be done in the garden to get it looking just right. That pinnacle is never achieved in a garden. It always looked better the week before visitors came, before the storm winds or torrential rain or six weeks of drought. By loosening our grip, allowing more unexpected guest wildflowers, relaxing on edges and tidying and mowing, what we will achieve is PEACE. Something priceless indeed…
Contact Beverly on 07867 544845