8 minute read
Gardening
A HEALTHY APPROACH TO PEST CONTROL
Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group and Chairman, The Garden Centre Association
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We have just hosted the launch of a new book on the crucially important subject of pest and disease control without the use of chemicals. Local author Sally Morgan’s book The Healthy Vegetable Garden, which is available from Winstone’s, was launched in the Butterfly House at Castle Gardens to a Covid-safe sell-out audience, which emphasises the interest in the subject and its fundamental importance. Especially in the amateur garden, we need to start weaning ourselves off chemicals. To be fair, when pesticides became commonplace, we were in different times and the demand for increasing food production was enhanced by whizzy, easy new treatments that were a quick fix and had, we were assured, no side effects. The need for the Dig for Victory campaign in the Second World War is an example of this.
It’s a subject close to my heart having been brought up on an organic market garden in the 1970s. For me, the approach changes from one of reaching for the chemical cupboard, when a problem occurs, to the holistic approach making gardening so much more fulfilling and multi-dimensional. Hence writing about the subject now, when most pest and disease issues in the garden are all but behind us for the year. Much of controlling pest and disease requires forward planning and starts with the soil. Organic gardeners will tell you that if you look after the soil, the soil will look after you. What they mean is adding organic matter in the form of your own garden compost, or well-rotted farm manure or soil improvers, such as Bloomin’ Amazing or Rocket Gro and your soil will become alive, full of beneficial fungi and bacteria, making nutrients readily available to your plants keeping them in excellent health, ready to ward off diseases and to cope with pests. Not only that, but carbon will become locked into your soil helping in the battle with climate change.
‘No Dig’ systems, which are becoming increasingly popular (they sound very good to the lazy amongst us!), are an important part of this soil improvement. To an extent, the more we cultivate the soil, the more
we damage it. Especially when used in raised beds the ‘No Dig’ system will become a mainstream method of gardening and helps in keeping crops out of the water table and safe from the flash floods which are becoming more frequent. But plant choice is also important in reducing dependence on chemicals. The more we fight against nature the more inputs we need to keep plants healthy. So, if you have a north-facing garden with heavy wet clay soil then avoid silver-leafed plants, such as lavender that love sunny aspects and free-draining soils.
If your soil is alkaline (as is the case for many of us locally) then avoid acid-loving plants – or at least grow them in pots with an ericaceous compost. Look out for peat- and disease-resistant varieties too. It will soon be time to choose seed potatoes for next year and some will have built in scab and even blight resistance, reducing or negating the need for fungicide intervention. When choosing carrots look for the variety Fly Away which doesn’t get attacked by Carrot Fly in the way that traditional varieties do.
On miserable, wintery days when planning for next year might be the only outdoor gardening possible, think about wildlife and where you can host friends who will help in your battle with insect pests. The more diverse a planting mix the better for encouraging wildlife and reducing pest and disease. Think about introducing plants that will bring in natural predators such as lacewings, ladybirds and the like. Leave areas to go a little bit wild and you’ll start to see small friends such as the fearless ground beetle which is always busy attacking even the toughest pests. Slow worms will probably start to arrive as will toads and frogs especially if there is some water available. Birds too, of course, are very helpful in picking off the pests from your precious plants. And that’s where one of the extra dimensions comes in – you have not only created a beautiful garden but an ecosystem, so doing your bit to protect our patch of the planet.
TREES IN THE LANDSCAPE
Simon Ford, Land & Nature Adviser and Gardener
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Iam often struck when looking at old paintings of the English landscape or indeed looking at photographs from the 1950s or before, how our countryside has changed. Of course, so much has altered, whether it is the new roads and developments and the move from horses and hay stooks to enormous tractors and silage trailers. However, the thing which is perhaps most distinctive is the loss of trees in the landscape.
I love going to high places and looking out over the surrounding area. Some of my favourite places are hillforts such as Hambledon Hill, Hod Hill, Lamberts Castle, Eggardon Hill or Maiden Castle. Their purpose was to have a commanding view outwards to spot potential foes as well as to stand out from a far. From the ramparts, it is like looking down as a bird at the ‘toytown’ activity of people scurrying around below. The patchwork quilt of pasture, arable, woodland
and settlements is divided by miles of hedgerows and country lanes. Their intricate shapes help indicate their age, with smaller convoluted shapes or long narrow fields often being much older than the larger ‘Enclosures Act’ fields, which were mostly created from common land and ‘waste’ in the late 18th and early 19th Century. These fields tend to be much larger and more regular in shape. If you drive from Sherborne to Dorchester, it is very evident, with smaller deep hedges on the Blackmore Vale around Longburton and Glanvilles Wootton, but as you rise up the steep hill above Buckland Newton, the landscape changes to large open arable fields cut into the old sheep grazed chalk downland, with few woods and open vistas. The hedges tend to be tightly managed to maximise production and there are few if any trees on boundaries, let alone within fields.
There are a lot of reasons for the loss of standard trees (those that stand alone, rather than within a woodland setting). When I worked with the National Trust, I worked with our archaeologist, looking at historic estate maps, 19th Century Ordnance Survey maps, Luftwaffe aerial photographs and post war maps to analyse change. What was clear in many areas was that there was an acceleration of hedge and tree removal from the 2nd World War to the late 1980s, often driven by government grants to increase productivity. Large areas of historic parkland, with centuries old trees were grubbed up, while fields were amalgamated, taking with them miles of hedges.
The flail has reduced once beautiful hedges to metre-high gappy boundaries, with trees felled to speed up maintenance. Any trees and shrubs left are often splintered and smashed and quickly succumb to disease. To add to this depressing story, we have suffered from a variety of tree diseases, such as Dutch elm disease in the 1970s, sudden oak death in the 2000s and more recently ash dieback which is decimating millions of ash trees.
Another thing which has damaged so many trees is ploughing right up to the base, injuring their root system and this is very evident in parkland which has sadly been turned to cultivation. The trees which are often centuries old, start to lose leaves and branches and eventually die. As a minimum, old trees should never be ploughed under their canopy.
Boundary trees and parkland trees can often date back many centuries and are sometimes remnants of ancient woodland. They can be home to an incredible array of wildlife, from tawny owls and barbastelle bats, to stag beetles, lungwort lichens and dryads saddle fungi. It has been estimated that a single oak tree can be home to over 360 species. Many birds need standard trees to sing from and of course to nest in.
We read every day about very real concerns about climate change and the need to plant millions of trees to store carbon. People seem to focus on planting woodlands, which is fine, but there are some very real opportunities to make a significant difference for the environment, for wildlife and for the landscape, by planting standard trees in hedgerows and planting trees in open meadows.
What an incredible difference could be made if standard trees were allowed to thrive on hedges again. Part of my work was to identify areas to increase tree numbers on National Trust land by over 20 million by 2030. Although some of this would be by planting new woodlands and natural regeneration, some of the biggest gains could be made by working with tenants to replant trees at 25 to 50 metre intervals on boundaries. These can be large statuesque oaks and beech through to smaller field maple, rowan and holly. Sometimes these will need planting, but other times they can be selected from within the hedge and clearly marked so they do not get hit by the hedge cutter.
We see some wonderful examples around places like Chetnole, Stock Gaylard, Minterne and Melbury House, but it would be such a positive thing to see more trees in the landscape again and to see wildlife returning and thriving. October is a perfect time to plant some trees and to begin to make a difference!
