©David Rea
I am always surprised by how few of the gardeners I visit grow their own fruit and vegetables. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised – it is in the vegetable garden that the challenges are greatest. But so too are the rewards.
Produce from Penny and Peter Brook's organically cultivated allotment ©Penny Brook
Wildlife gardeners do their best to grow their fruit and vegetables in harmony with nature rather than constantly fighting it, so many garden organically. Organic vegetable gardeners usually make their own compost and leaf-mould. This is not just good for soils and plants, but can also create excellent wildlife habitats for grass snakes, slow worms and a million minibeasts. Gardeners who produce their own compost do not degrade other environments by using peat. And recycling garden ‘waste’ is a great contribution to sustainability.
Wildlife in Penny and Peter Brook’s garden compost heap: slow worms, snails and woodlice ©P Brook
As Advisors visit different gardens we share advice from our own experience and from other gardens we have visited. I went to a fabulous garden in Bromley where the gardener was successfully using the Three Sisters system, originally from Central America. Sweet corn plants provide support for climbing beans (whose nitrogenous nodules feed the corn) and squash plants act as ground cover and help prevent evaporation from the soil. This is a very successful form of companion planting, though if you try it you may want to restrict your beans to the outer edges of the plot to enable easy picking.
Sharing ideas like this is one way of encouraging others to persevere with growing their own food. Just think of all the benefits, from cutting down on meat eating (known to be one of the best ways individuals can ‘save the planet’) to reducing your carbon footprint if your food doesn’t have to be transported half-way across the world. And you will know that other environments have not been damaged with pesticides or by using excessive water to produce the food you buy.
Using compost and such growing methods will help to produce healthy plants which will be better able to resist pests. However, many gardeners do worry about managing pests in a wildlife-friendly way. In the next blog, I will give some interesting insights into pests and how they fit into a garden’s ecosystem as well as practical tips on how to deal with them.
Kent Wildlife Trust’s Wild about Gardens scheme is offering advice by telephone this year. You can enter your garden into the scheme online and our trained Wild about Garden volunteers will do their best to answer your questions.
Typically, most gardeners and farmers grow annual vegetable crops – those that are sown, planted, and harvested within one growing season. But perennial fruit and vegetables, which grow and produce food for many years, are becoming increasingly popular.…
Looking to create a garden that’s not just beautiful but also provides a range of benefits for wildlife, as well as ongoing summer flowers? There’s lots of consider when choosing plants. I’m the Wild About Gardens Officer at Kent Wildlife Trust and these…
What does wildlife-friendly gardening mean to our new Wild About Gardens Officer? Ellen Tout shares what inspires her garden, and how we can all make a huge difference for nature right outside our back doors.
