Don’t tidy your garden

It’s nearly the end of summer, many of the blooms have finished and the garden is starting to look a little messy. The temptation is there to whip out the snippers and trim back all the dead flowers and brown stems, but don’t, messy is good. If you’ve grown wildflowers or poppies for instance then you need to let them set seed and for that seed to fall on the ground for next year’s flowers. Many other plants have seeds that birds need for food and by removing the seed heads you’re taking away a valuable food source.

The stems and stalks of plants are also much needed habitat for a range of insects and our insects need all the help they can get right now. As the leaves fall and the herbaceous plants start to decay you get a natural covering of organic matter on the soil, this helps protect it from winter rains that would otherwise leach nutrients away and the leaves are also taken into the ground by earthworms so you get the soil improved for free. This surface material also provides another habitat for a range of small animals and you’ll see blackbirds in particular flinging it around with gusto as they search for food.

For us humans the urge to tidy things is a strong one and for years the gardening message has been to have an autumn tidy up and “put the garden to bed for the winter”. Nature however isn’t tidy and we need to learn what is best for our wildlife, so as the beauty of our summer flowers fades away we can appreciate a new beauty, that of birds and other animals feeding on the summer bounty. So save yourself a job, leave the decaying plants where they are and clear away what remains of them in spring, once the new growth is just starting to appear, your garden will be much better for it.

Using and making compost

Spring is here (just about!) when the gardener’s thoughts turn to planting and, especially if you use pots or containers, what to plant them in. Which means compost. If you’re new to gardening then compost is compost isn’t it? Look more closely though and you’ll see there are loads of varieties - sowing, potting, garden, manure, peat, peat free and so on. They’re all decomposed or partly decomposed organic matter but what they’re made from is important, seed compost is fine texture and has few nutrients, potting compost is a bit bulkier and has slow release nutrients, mulch is quite coarse and often has woodchip in and manure based composts are rich in nutrients and great for veggies and hungry plants.

The big thing to look out for though is that any compost you buy has the magic words peat free on it, not reduced peat but peat free. Peat has been used as the base for most composts for the last 60 years or so and we’ve become addicted to it, but it needs to stay in the ground where it absorbs carbon dioxide and holds water, helping to prevent floods. There are some great peat free composts available and they get better every year.

Even better than that is making your own compost, there is no witchcraft involved, just adding a balance of plant material and giving it a turn or mix every few weeks. It’s great for the environment as no fossil fuels are used to move or process your garden waste, you recycle nutrients in the garden, it creates new wildlife habitat and to top it all it’s free. The key is not having too much green material like grass clippings (you get a wet slimy mess) or too much brown material like stems, twigs and leaves (it will be too dry and never get going), about 50:50 is what you’re aiming for. Depending on how much you add, how often you turn it, time of year and a few other variables it will take anything from 2-6 months in most cases to get usable compost; the longer you can leave it the better it will be.

If you’re a bit unsure there is loads of info on the web or we can come out to see you, we’ll find the system that works best for you and get you composting in no time.

Creating wildlife habitat in your garden

Late winter is an opportunity to get out in the garden (when it’s not raining) and do some pruning of trees, before the sap starts to rise in spring. But what to do with the woody waste you’ve now made? It can be tempting to take it to the tip or throw it in your garden waste bin but don’t, it can be used in the garden.

Chop or saw them into short lengths and find a quiet corner of the garden, perhaps one that is in shade and nothing really grows in. Then stack them into a pile and leave them, it’s as simple as that. You now have a habitat that will be colonised by frogs, newts, bees, spiders, countless insects and moss and fungi.

Any time something leaves your house or garden it requires fossil fuel to be dealt with or processed, keeping it in the garden avoids the use of fossil fuels and creates much needed habitat at the same time.