The Garden at the end of March

Well March was a month. Covid reigned supreme here and let me tell you that whilst for Andy, who go anti virals and salted through it really, for me it was no joke and I am only just beginning to feel anywhere near close to normal.

But with that we had some beautiful weather and I spent three days in London for the Garden Press Event and where I visited an old favourite, The Chelsea Physic Garden. It’s a garden I love but there is also a lot to say about it so hold tight and that will come separately.

The woodland garden at the Chelsea Physic Garden

In reality it doesn’t feel like much was achieved in our garden at home but of course that’s actually far from the truth, although we likely haven’t achieved as much as we hoped by now. I knew in my soul that there would be a cold snap so I’m actually quite pleased I didn’t get carried away, but I have planted out the bare root shrubs we bought from Ashridge Trees, which I have to say were the best quality.

So we now have a Rosa rugosa hedge planted between the main part of the garden and the veg garden, as well as gooseberries and blackcurrants in the perennial food bed, a couple of new Elders and a Corylus which we hope will be productive here as thus far we have seen no squirrels. There’s also a small crab apple and a spindle still waiting in pots to go into their forever homes, and I finally planted out the Roe Dame Judy Dench we bought last summer in the local garden centre sale.

The other thing that is giving me joy is the pot garden on the patio which is filled with beautiful tulips, daffs and wallflowers, alongside a lot of what I think are Camassia but time will tell. The great folk at Dalefoot compost gifted me the compost for the pots and you can really see the health from the compost being passed to the plants-they’re all looking incredible and it’s so good to sit out there with a cuppa, soaking in the colours.

Of course work is also ramping up and I will share more of the Edible Bristol stuff as the season progresses. Excitingly we have a trainee grower beginning this week, which we hope will be an annual position that supports someone interested in land work to get a foot on the ladder.

Other than that there’s not much to tell other , and if you follow me on social media you will know this, we have our daughter’s dog living with us for a while, and so suddenly we have solved the cat poo problem, which is nice….

See you next month for more!

Bear…..

Plugs, Peat and Propaganda

Last week again the Horticultural Trades Association said, again, that a ban on peat use in horticulture would be disastrous for the horticulture industry, and added into that that it could also risk food security. which made my ears perk up as that felt like an inflammatory comment. My spidey sense told me it aws likely propaganda but I needed to do some research and look into what they meant.

Now it’s zero surprise to anyone I hope that lots of plants that end up in our garden centres start off life as plug plants, which are grown onto firstly 9cm and then 1-3 lite pot sizes. Indeed gardeners can buy plugs from merchants like Thompson and Morgan and Sarah Raven. Plug production is highly mechanised, as is any potting production today, and there will be no surprise that potting machines are set up to manage a specific type of compost. There is nothing to say that needs to be peat based, but it does need to be free flowing and free of pieces of wood and sticks because they are likely, and do, create blockages in the machinery. As we are all aware peat free compost that is made from green waste is often a bit woody and whilst there is nothing wrong with that as what can be described as an end user, it is frustrating on nurseries as it slows work down when machines get clogged.

However, and this is an important point, peat based composts also often clog up machinery. In fact having thought about this I began to recall some of the things we found in peat based composts on nurseries prior to turning peat free, and they include glass, plastic, string and twine amongst other things, all of which clog up any type of compost hopper/potting machinery.

But let’s get back to plugs. And we can look at this statment from the HTA with new eyes this week, as Tesco announced peat free bedding and Delfland Organics, an enormous plug supplier to the agricultural trade, announced all their plugs would be peat free, and in both cases, with immediate effect, proving that it can be done.

Plugs are great things. They allow for a huge amount of material to be propagated in a very small space, using relatively small amounts of growing medium, and cuttings and seeds grow on particularly well in plugs that have been carefully designed to allow root and top growth to be at an optimal when the plugs are fully rooted out and ready to grow on. They are efficient and whilst gardeners at home may not focus on efficiency that allow plants to be grown fast, and therefore the end price is better to the consumer. It also means that nurseries can buy plugs of various sizes to grow on, and not have to undertake the propagation of the stock but just grow it on. Whilst this might seem a bit like cheating to some, it’s actually often the best way for nurseries with limited space to grow stock. Distributing plugs is also far less work as you can get literally thousands of plants into one delivery. Great for the supplier but somewhat daunting for the nursery facing a delivery of thousands of tiny plants……

But, I was confused by the comments about food security until I chatted to a farmer pal, about how plugs are used in field scale farming. In order to avoid use of pesticides and herbicides brassica and salad plugs in particular, grown onto a specific size will grow on fast, outcompeting the weeds and coping with a hit from slugs and flea beetle and holding back any need to spray. Presumably what was meant by the HTA was that a ban would stop plug production, but my guess is that as Delfland Organics have started to grow peat free, that threat is actually untrue, and what we need to ensure is that there is a stable product available for plug growers to use. This is likely to rely on coir I would imagine, mixed with a green waste compost and likely needing to be sieved for plug production. Certainly those of us who grow on a market gardening scale grow what are technically our own plugs in modules each year and thus far in the last twelve months a mix of our own made compost with coir is the best potting and seed sowing compost we can find that is affordable. So yet again all of this goes back to ensuring that there is enough green waste in the system, and that it is composted well and available to horticulture and agriculture at an affordable cost.

With Peat Free April in full swing it’s easy to focus on what hasn’t been done, but actually when the large organisations such as Tesco, who are the largest supplier of bedding plants in the UK apparently, and Delfland prove it’s perfectly possible to be peat free, and presumably have put their money into finding ways to ensure they can be peat free, it’s astounding that we are even still having the conversation. In fact in reality it’s making the loud voices in the corner look a little silly, not unlike th uncle at a wedding reception still dancing like it is the 1970s whilst all around him giggle and prove it’s not.To quote Jessica Yellin, a US based news broadcaster, we need to make sure we listen to the news and not the noise……

Propaganda in the garden

Here we are at the beginning of April and the third Peat Free April. And I think it’s fair to say the backlash has begun.

In the last month or so the way propaganda is used internationally to change the narrative of a situation has awoken many to the use of propaganda but can we say we see it in the gardening world, and is it obvious or is it hidden? Or does it do what the propagandist wants it to do, and cause confusion, especially to new gardeners or to people finding the sustainability in gardening conversation difficult to see through? I would argue it’s mainly the last two, and that interestingly the more right wing press seem to have decided to join in too.

And of course this isn’t just key to the peat debate. There are still people suggesting garden chemicals are fine to use, despite the effects we know, through good, peer reviewed science, that these chemicals are having on our biodiversity. We see plastic grass being called sustainable, which we know it’s not, and despite the outcry a few years ago plastic pots are still in every garden centre across the nation, despite not being recyclable by most local authorities. Plastic plants, hedges and topiary are seemingly in most garden centres and the bags of peat based compost are piling up, next to the peat free.

But gardening is green I hear many cry, and that is of course correct at it’s basest level, but there is nothing green about the industry behind it, other than a few nurseries who are really rocking the trend, but it’s fair to say industrial horticulture has a long way to go before it can call itself sustainable in any meaningful way.

And yet we see “natural” pesticides, sustainable fake lawns, sustainable peat extraction all mentioned repeatedly and we believe it. Of course we do-why would people lie?

Let me give you an example. Recently Bristol airport declared it was aiming to be net carbon zero by 2030 and being net zero as an airport by last year. to a round of huge applause, with the Mayor there at an event, they claim to be the first airport to do this, but what they fail to talk about is the little caveat that states they are reliant on future technology to achieve this. It might be a statement of intent but it relies on a lot of other work first and is really no more than that. It can’t be but it does capture headlines and create a buzz around something that they have no real control over. Let’s be clear-carbon neutral planes are definitely not guaranteed, and anyone working in sustainability will tell you cutting down your air miles is the only way we can achieve net zero based on todays technology. But that message creates a small confusion in the heads of those hearing the message. It brings up questions, and makes people think that industry has got all of our best interests at heart. Which they may have, but your and my interests do no make them the profits they need, but making us think that way does.

So let’s go back to peat. There has been an ongoing campaign in the Telegraph stating that horticulture cannot cope without peat. That it will be the end of the industry in the UK, and that we have saved so much peat from being cut through peat free usage by gardeners at home that we can still afford to keep cutting for the industry.

And none of this is true. Let’s be clear. It’s propaganda from an industry that knows it has left it to the last minute to make the changes it needs to make. The industry has known peat was not sustainable for decades and this is part of what I imagine to be a political campaign, lobbying at government level, to stop a ban on peat, rather than making the changes they could have been making over the last decade or more. Westland horticulture, who are very ready at press events to talk about sustainability, birds and biodiversity, are known to have been lobbying parliament and I suspect they will not be the only ones. And that is but one.

But what is really unnerving is the message that we have saved enough and that the industry can carry on being environmentally destructive as long as home gardeners use peat free. We are still using exactly the same amount of peat each year as ever and the notion that we have cut use is simply untrue according to the Horticultural Trades Association so where is this narrative coming from? Indeed yesterday in an article in the Guardian it was suggested that a peat ban might affect food security and accessibility because brassicas, salads and mushrooms would be affected. Having asked a farmer pal who grows brassicas it’s now apparent that what they mean is that brassicas and salads are started in plugs, which are peat based. So rather than creating change and working out how that can be altered, they’re using the threat of food shortages to scare people. More propaganda which inevitably some people will believe.

Of course we don’t really know. That’s the thing with this level of propaganda and it being mixed with marketing-it’s a dangerous collaboration that is focused on selling the idea that buying that brands product will support you to be more sustainable whilst totally missing the point that sustainability doesn’t need to be bought, but quite the opposite.

The other thing that must be mentioned here is that there’s a suggestion in these article that the peat free campaign is simply online noise. Of course that is not true and there are many people working on this, and organisations such as Peat Free April, are just keeping up the pressure and gaining traction throughout being a part of online communities and linking that with real life campaigning. That’s a low blow and also a slur, assuming all social media is just an outlet for anger and not able to make any real change. Persil had to remove an advert a few years ago that claimed hashtags make no real change, but can I just point to the #metoo movement amongst many others that have and are making real societal change.

so next time you go to the garden centre, take note of the messaging, the marketing, and try to see what’s going on. And let’s push for the vital ban on peat that we know we need, and not listen to the people who are focused on profit over anything else.

Peat free brassicas……

The February Garden.....

Well it’s been a torrid month. Covid, storms Dudley, Eunace and Franklin all one on top of each other, and the general feeling of winter being long and especially dire this year, has meant that as short as it is, February has dragged here and in the Edible Bristol gardens.

But there are signs of spring being just around the corner and whilst I refuse to get overexcited until mid March at the earliest, being in a new garden and seeing things appear has brought a fair quantity of joy. Whilst the back garden is full of alliums and tulips starting to poke their heads above the soil, in the front snowdrops, early daffs, crocus and a huge Helleborus argutifolius are all flowering their socks off.

The front garden was also the only area where storm Arwen did any damage in January, knocking out a piece of hedge that wasn’t very healthy, and so there have been some decisions made in terms of what we will replace that with and also how we are going to manage it. Whilst the back garden will be food and flower focused the front garden will become a space for nature and be filled with natives and plants for pollinators. I’ve already sown an area of meadow into the lawn, and whilst I’m not sure that’s going to come to much, I’m hopeful that it is a good start, and we have ordered native hedging to replace what we lost. There are lots of hedges around us, and definitely far more hedging than fences, but I lot of it is Lonicera nitida and privet, neither of which are especially wildlife friendly, although they are good for nesting. What we have ordered will. I hope, change that, with spindles, hawthorn and rosa rugosa all of which will create habitat and food for wildlife.

I know lots of people are busy sowing seeds, but not one has gone in yet. I’m leaving even chillies and aubergines until as late as I dare so I don’t end up with windowsills of leggy plants that are desperate to get outside, but that are unable to due to weather. I’m also aware that whilst for lots of people getting the heated propagator and grow lights out is a part of their February schedule, that I am increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of plugging in products when waiting another few weeks will be just as effective, and likely mean healthier plants.

And so as February comes to a close, here are some pics that will, I hope, bring you as much joy as the plants and flowers have for us…..

The Great Garden Greenwashing

I walked into a Wilko’s store last week to the sight of an entire aisle filled with chemicals and poisons. It just happened to be Wilko but it could just as easily been virtually every garden centre, supermarket or DIY store across the country. Ant killer, slug killer, small rodent killer, propane for burning weeds, weed killer, fungicides and insecticides and just around the corner in the next aisle were bird boxes, bug hotels, butterfly homes. The irony was extraordinary. But let’s go back to the chemicals.

Because yes of course it is annoying when your roses get black spot and aphids are on their buds but shall we really think about why they are there and what the cycle is that makes them actually a really important part of our gardens? Each of these is a vital layer of the ecosystem of your garden. The aphids feed baby birds, ladybirds and are a vital food source for them. If you don’t have them your bird boxes will be empty and there will be no birdsong in your garden. Without slugs and snails what will feed the thrushes and hedgehogs and what harm do ants do other than being a bit annoying when they farm the aphids? Why buy a butterfly home if you’re killing caterpillars, and how are you going to have healthy soil if you use fungicides which kill really important beneficial fungi in the soil?

But they are there, I hear you say, so they must be safe! Some of them even claim to be organic, so what could possibly be wrong?

Well here dear reader, we have to remember that all these products are made and marketed, and remember that word marketed, by big chemical companies and most garden chemicals are actually the same chemicals used in commercial horticulture and farming, and have the same active ingredients just in a slightly different, or not but just renamed, product. And whilst there has been some work to create less harmful garden pesticides there is still enough poison on these shelves to do serious environmental harm, kill an entire city of biodiversity and do what harm to human health?

But let’s go back to marketing and media shall we as they become a real issue. Companies want to sell their products, the media like the money they get from these companies advertising and so don’t really worry about a little bit of false information, and the chemical companies are well known for their greenwashing. Who remembers the Monsanto employee of swore blind you could drink glyphosate in the form of round up but then declined to prove that when challenged to do so? These businesses are focused on profit, paying their shareholders and selling product and their marketing departments know exactly how to sell these products.

The shelf of much poison at Wilkos…….

And of course it doesn’t end at chemicals. Peat, plastic grass, plastic hedges and box balls, magnetic watering devices, chemically based fertilisers, single use plastic seed sowing modules are just a few of the other gardening products that are entirely unnecessary and which again and again we hear are necessary, (peat), low maintenance (plastic grass and hedging), necessary (fertilisers), or are “proven” to create better plants. And of course this is all untrue but who regulates this and calls out the proof that can be quite easily found but is overwritten by promises of healthy plants and convenient maintenance?

There are a lot of questions aren’t there?

But at the crux of the matter is one thing. We know we are in a time of both climate and ecological breakdown. We know nature needs our help. And we know that these products, from peat to pesticides is deeply harmful. We also know they will never be banned as wealth and power talks in these industries, and the political powers that be know that these businesses are important to keep onside and their huge lobbying budgets and spending powers account for this. And of course in terms of the chemical companies these are also the companies that make our medicines often, and so are not to be upset…….

So how do we balance this? Where does the power sit and how do we make change? Well a garden centre manager said to me fairly recently. “If it didn’t sell we wouldn’t stock it”, so we, as gardeners, need to make the difference and demand better of the industry behind us. In Wales there is a great initiative to label pesticide free plants led by Wales National Botanic Garden, so rather than the RHS label that doesn’t mean pesticide free, but just ,means a plant is good for pollinators if it’s chemical free, so surely this needs to be rolled out nationwide?

But there is another way. We see gardening shows and the garden media very much focused on giving chemical free advice, so why do people feel the need to use these, even if it is a “little bit”? Is it because we are bombarded with beautiful, perfect looking gardens where we rarely see anything that isn’t perfect? Where are the nettles, the docks and the cabbages ravished by caterpillars? Is it simply because we need a bit more honesty from the garden media? A look at the bits that went wrong or ran away as well as the perfect herbaceous borders? One of the greatest joys for me last year was the weed bank in Steph Hafferty and Charles Dowding’s No Dig garden because it made clear how important these spaces are, even in a show garden. So many people asked where are the pests and the reality was they were far more interested in those natives than the perfect cabbages and leeks.

The natives and weeds at the No Dig Garden at Hampton Court 2021 designed by Steph Hafferty and Charles Dowding

But I also think we need to remember one other thing. When being taught to spray for professional licenses, the first thing we learn is that chemicals should always be the last resort. They should not be used for efficiency but only when there is a crop likely to be lost, and where there is no alternative. Cultural practices must be explored first, and this is something we forget. So rather than spraying “just a bit” of glyphosate, invest in a hoe, or a tool to weed between the cracks on your paving or drive. Instead of spraying those aphids, feed the birds, ad instead of using slug pellets invest in beer traps and take morning and evening walks around the garden at dusk and dawn and remove. Because I don’t know about you, but I’d like my grandkids to be able to see a hedgehog, not just read about them in a book.

Hedgehogs-we’ve lost over 97% of our population

Seed Citizenship

Over the last few years the concept of food citizenship has been a widely discussed topic. Food is generally commodified, with little thought of who grew it, where it was grown or in what conditions, and food citizenship alters that mindset. Citizenship asks that food to be seen as a resource, grown by a real person and that everyone in the chain of that food be treated with thought and compassion. It creates a need to discover the food system and look at how the citizen can have a relationship with the grower, the store in which it was bought, and therefore a deeper relationship with the food itself. It immediately brings into question the industrial food system and steps outside it into a more local system that supports livelihoods and communities and not just big corporations. You can find more info at the Food Ethics Council website.

What has this got to do with seed I hear you mumble?

Well let’s think for a moment about the seeds we buy as gardeners and growers. Every garden centre is filled with brightly coloured packets of beautiful flowers and veg throughout the growing season. They’re a cornucopia of bright, vivid and some might say, brash colours, the majority of which are F1 hybrids which of course will not come true from seed, but which need buying each year. Waves of annual plants and flowers, of runner beans and tomatoes jostle next to each other, calling for the gardener to pick them up. In garden centres seeds are not cheap-they come from the big brands who often charge considerable sums for packs with very few seeds in, but equally the homeward and DIY superstores, and indeed some supermarkets, sell seeds at very low costs, which of course is great for the gardener. Isn’t it? Seed packets for £1 are great to get people gardening, but do we ever think that there is a different way?

Most importantly when talking about Seed sovereignty is to look at how the seed industry has grown and with it how the seed ranges have declined. In the early 1900s there were around 400 varieties of lettuce on the market but since seeds have become big business that number has shrunk to less than 30. Now of course some of them have disappeared because they were hard to grow, didn’t taste great or were so ravaged by pests it wasn’t viable to grow them, but in many cases it was just that the seed merchants slim lined their ranges and when licensing came in for seeds, many for cut because of the huge cost of the license.There is, of course, now an irony here that whilst of course the cost is huge, the people who own the seeds today are multi billion pound companies.

Across the globe we have seen a lack of seed sovereignty continually causing issues, especially when Monsanto decided to stop allowing seed saving in agriculture and made their contracts as such, sending farmers across the globe into bankruptcy. But in many ways we see this today as we peruse the seeds at the garden centre. We have no idea where the seeds are grown, under what conditions and by who, and whilst companies may have royal warrants and union flags that’s no guarantee the seeds are grown in the uk, or are grown in a way that supports not just the gardener but also the people growing the seeds. We see in fast fashion that always someone in the chain is being exploited, and that it’s usually the women sewing the clothing, so have we reached fast seed? And if we have what can we do about it?

Well it’s really simple. There are a few UK seed growers emerging alongside a vibrant movement supporting seed sovereignty. We know who grows the seeds, literally to the space in which they are grown but of course there is one other thing that we can do that makes our gardens far more regenerative and sustainable and that is to grow our own……

There is so much info out there in the world on seed saving, from Sue Strickland’s brilliant book, to Vital Seeds online courses and Real Seeds website which goes step by step through the process with all that they grow. And of course one plant produces lots of seed, so gives the gardener ample opportunity to get involved with seed swaps, or gifting extras to community groups and schools. It creates local communities of gardeners that are there to support each other.

But of course ir does one other thing, that’s arguable what’s most important. It takes us away from the industrial seed system and makes us self sufficient. Seed saving closes the loop, helps us find and grow seed that’s successful in our own environments and takes our gardens out of commercialisation and into regeneration……..

Completing the jigsaw........

When we first began working on Incredible Edible Bristol we knew that skill sharing was inevitably going to be the most important part of what we did, and whilst that has somewhat been scuppered by the pandemic and people’s ability to get together and indeed at times for us even to be able to access the public facing gardens, it’s importance has never faltered and has always driven us on.

It makes me personally sad to hear regularly that people struggle to find good, affordable horticultural education. Whilst I was fortunate to work for a business that for many years supported me in my formal horticulture education, whilst working for them, I understand that is rare and I will be forever grateful. Biut without that, I would have been like many I speak to weekly. People want to learn. In fact so many people come to us wanting to know about pathways into a career in horticulture, but who cannot access horticultural education, specifically through costs but also other issues that are not as well understood.

We all know there are intersections of inequality. Sadly in horticulture just being a woman is a disadvantage and whilst I will always be thankful for the learning opportunities, that same business always paid me at least 25% less than male colleagues in an equivalent role. The famous “you’re not as strong” comment and the assumptions that women are unable to do the same work as men is nonsense. I happily kept up with men when potting plants and moving them around the nursery, but these myths prevail even when the myths are debunked. So add BPOC into that, or LGBTQ, and those intersections become a barrier. We know that horticulture is an industry that struggles to recruit from minority groups but I do wonder if we really have looked at the reasons why. And surely it’s obvious that accessible education needs to be at the forefront of change?

What do we mean by accessible education?

Let’s look at Bristol.

The RHS theory courses in level 2 and 3 both run at the Botanic Gardens and are always over subscribed. They are excellent courses and are run by some excellent tutors, including the curator of the gardens. I cn honestly say that you will receive an excellent course if you are fortunate enough to be able to access these courses. However, they are either a daytime one day per week, or evening classes, and the Botanic Garden is a good 10 minute walk across the Downs, which in the dark is not, especially as a woman, a seemingly safe option. And for much of the city it is at least 2 bus rides and then that walk away. In fact it’s a 2 hour journey from my old home in south Bristol. Plus that’s an extra £5 per week in bus fares on top of your fees, which are £1450. Now I am not arguing that that is not value for money, but I will forever argue it is not accessible to all. Especially if you need to do the daytime course which means you have to have a spare day away from work during the week, and possibly have available childcare. Suddenly for so many people that course is just a step too far and yet we all acknowledge that we are seeing these important skills slip away from being in communities.

There is a horticulture department at the City of Bristol college but they no longer offer RHS practical courses and instead offer City and Guilds. Sadly this department is problematic although I understand they have a new department head so hope that will improve.

And there are, of course, multiple businesses that offer course and workshops, mainly at eye watering prices that I would baulk at. That’s not to say they are not fantastic, but are very much aimed at people who are home gardeners and rarely at professionals.

In 2020 a group of us wote to the RHS asking them to consider how they made their courses accessible and whilst they acknowledged it was necessary and encouraged BPOC to apply for places on the course running at RHS Wisley, it will take more than encouragement to get people on board. The need is there for a complete overhaul of a system that whilst excellent in it’s content, fails in it’s accessibility.

Of course this is not just down to the RHS. We have seen universities stop running botany and horticulture courses, instead offering plant sciences which whilst fantastic often fail to see the horticulture industry’s needs.

But saddest of all is the loss of our local authority parks departments training schemes and this is where we will struggle in the future as our park keepers and heads of parks and their departments retire. Parks departments apprenticeships have seen many people we now recognise as well known horticulturalists start their careers. Alan Titchmarsh, Adam Frost, Percy Thrower, Martin Fish and many many others, began their careers in parks departments and have worked their way through and up the system. These apprenticeships took youngsters through all the aspects of parks work, from mowing lawns to pruning, maintenance, propagation and plant management and generally either sent people into jobs, or gave them a step up into further learning. So many parks departments are still full of these people. People who are passionate about parks, but also about plants, about landscape, trees, nature, and who if they are fortunate enough are embedded into the place they work. I have met with so many of these people over the years and over and again I hear fear of what the future will look like as there is no-one following them.

If horticulture is to continue as a £2.4 billion industry for the UK economy don’t we need to do something about this?

So I may have gone off piste a bit but sometimes when we start to understand an issue, the best thing is to respond and make some change. I am passionate about horticulture. I live and breathe for it, and my journey allows me to share that passion with people and I consider that my total joy in life.So for the last few years, between illnesses and a global pandemic we have been working to create a learning space, now called Cultivation Place, at the Edible Bristol allotment in Speedwell to the east of the city. And the final piece of the jigsaw arrived this week on the back of a truck, in the form of a classroom. And in that classroom we will be teaching lots of courses and workshops, from the very basic upwards. Practical and theoretical courses and we will be making them affordable and accessible through grant funding and funding from businesses. We are already committed to 100 free places on our Get Growing course, as well as free places for BPOC, LGBTQ and any other marginalised communities on our 6 week How To Grow courses. We began teaching these courses online in 2020 and we could not offer enough so we are thrilled to be able to work with people now, rather than through a screen.

Of course we cannot solve the entire issue but we hope what we can do is show how a tiny organisation can make the change see as vital, not just for the horticulture industry, but for market gardening, and for gardening in general. Good, organic, regenerative learning, with nature and community at it’s core…….

Wish us luck!

The classroom

Thoughts on a practical peat free future........

Whilst it is great to see the consultation published about banning peat for horticultural use, we are likely all aware of the beginnings of a backlash from certain parts of the industry. Whilst sad, it’s an inevitability, and so rather than focusing on the negative I thought it might be a good idea to talk about my experiences of turning nurseries from conventional, peat based compost, over to peat free compost. This was a process I did twice in the south east, firstly with the large, 50+ acre nursery I ran and then on a smaller scale on my own small herb growing nursery. i will share both as they were very different beasts although they did share some basics that need talking into account. Of course I still grow using entirely peat free compost and have done now for well over a decade and I would never consider going back to peat, which will not surprise anyone. But I do have to add to that. As with any growing media, there is the good, the bad and the indifferent, but there are lots of ways to make these composts work for all, unless they are truly bad……

I will start by saying that with all composts there is a difference in quality, and I have had some nightmares with both peat based and peat free. In particular I recall on ton consignment from a very large manufacturer which was so poor we had to repot every single plant we had used it for, and even the rep admitted it was, and I quote, ‘shit”. Equally the year before last 4 tons of peat free came to us at Edible Bristol from a supplier who had not checked for aminopyralid and that caused more damage than I even care to remember. We learn, or we should learn, from these things and I will just say here and now, if this happens to you, whether in a professional or home based setting, you must complain and demand they take back a sample for testing and replace the product. If you’re ordering tons every other month, you need not fear-they will replace!

With peat free composts there are a huge variety of materials used, from coir to wood chip, bracken and sheepswool, green waste, food waste, and wood waste. The list is long and most likely getting longer. Because of this the management of your growing needs to be tempered to the ingredients. Something that is coir based will dry out much faster than something wool based as an example. This means that when you use a new product to you there is a need for experimentation and an understanding that the growing media will not behave the same way as previously used peat based media. Peat’s power is water retention although once it’s dry it’s not that simple to rehydrate, in exactly the sam way as once a peat bog is dried out for cutting it takes considerable skill and knowledge and resources to rewet it.

When we turned the large nursery over to peat free we were also doing an organic conversion and we had allowed ourselves years to do that. In reality it took , and moving over to peat free was one of the first steps, along with creating wildlife friendly habitats and moving over to compost teas rather than chemical fertilisers. we did the conversion fro a point in time, and plant group by plant group, beginning with our herbaceous perennial stock and then moving on to small shrubs and climbers, then larger shrubs and small trees and then large shrubs and trees. Newly propagated plants were put into peat free immediately, and that season’s new acquisitions along with any potting up was also put into peat free, but we then separated out the peat free plants and the peat based plants and kept them separately so we could manage their watering regimes differently as was necessary. What we learned very fast was that our automatic irrigation system needed to utilise all of it’s programming skills as the peat free composts needed watering little and often, unsurprisingly as the mix we were using was high in coir. Coir holds onto water as long as it doesn’t dry out and we learnt this and fast, by being extra vigilant and making sure someone was available to address watering daily. It’s important to realise that even a magical automated watering system can fail in places as droppers can block, so watering needs always to be a morning activity, not just because that is what is best for the plant, but to ensure you are not left watering until 11pm.

Of course with a different watering technique comes a need for a different feeding regime. All nurseries and I would hope all gardeners are trying to cut down in water usage and especially where water is particularly chalky water capture is not just environmentally right, but also stops the need for hideous applications of nitric acid to control pH. Collecting water is a a project to begin with, but once it is achieved it’s incredible just how much you can collect and how much you use if you’re not careful and run out in August when it’s most needed. However, whether you’re growing on a commercial scale or in your garden, water is a precious resource which will only get more and more scarce as climate change becomes our reality, and with that water prices are inevitably going to rise to appoint where on a commercial scale it’s going to be unaffordable and yet more needed as higher temperatures require more watering…….. I can see that will be a vicious circle so it’s time to really address that now if not a decade ago.

Of course your feeding regime will depend on your plants and what you are growing and how you are growing. If you want speedy growth then upping the nitrogen to a high N NPK in mid March and April will promote that growth, but if you’re using peat free make sure that nitrogen is staying in the pot and not ending up on the nursery floor feeding weeds .For our 5 litre herbaceous perennials we found that on average watering 4 times a day in spring , and increasing that to 6 in the peak of summer and ensuring we looked at the watering levels each day, with a twice weekly bacterial based compost tea encouraged natural growth patterns on containerised stock with good, consistent colour and great flowering and fruiting, but with a change to a tea with more K in mid summer. Ensuring maximum moisture also ensured that the teas were enabling the healthiest soil ecology possible in the pots, and kept us, within years, fungal disease free.

If you’Ve made it this far, well done. I just want to add something, and then I’ll let you go. If you think this is mainly for nursery folk, I just ant to ensure you all that this is just as relevant in your gardens as on any nursery.

If you grow pots in containers, grow plants from seeds or cuttings, watering is often a hidden problem that we blame other things for. Your plants need to be moist in order for them to take up any kind of nutrition and whilst plants in the ground can spread their roots, those in containers and pots are like tiny babies and completely reliant on you for their every need.

And finally a word on potting. When potting on or potting up, water those plants so that when you put them wherever thy are going to go, in your garden, on your nursery, balcony vcommunity garden, make sure you water them so they are fully hydrated. Never assume that because the water is coming out of the pot that all the soil is moist, but use your hands and check. It’s easy, a s we all know, to water a plant, pick it up and realise it’s still very light. Especially if the compost is dry, water more than once, and once the plant is fully hydrated, then you just need to top up daily or when needed. But if you allow the plants to dry out you’re affecting not only the ability of the plant to grow, but you are damaging the ecology in the container and therefore the health of the plant.

Finally, I promise this time, whilst coir based composts are free draining, composts made of other materials like wool, hold their water far better. Sheeps wool is made to keep the sheep dry and that means it holds the water away from the skin. It also holds nutrients far better so if you change from one to the other, remember you will need a serious adjust of watering.

A section of the nursery

In Support of Kew.....

It has recently come to my attention that there is an article from the think tank Policy Exchange that is undermining the cultural work around plants that Kew Gardens has been undertaking in the last couple of years but before I go into that I’d like to set some context.

Culturally plants have been important to human beings for millennia. Of course they are-we as humans are a part of the ecosystem and evolution would not have presented us on the earth unless there were things we could eat and use as medicine. Whilst we, today, know and understand those plants as a part of the Linnaen system, and recognise their names from a European viewpoint, it’s important to remember that the people who brought these plants back to the UK and Europe did not discover them. They were already a part of indigenous landscapes, larders and medicine cabinets. Whilst the plants were new to them and to Europe, and were brought back and renamed , often after the people who first found them as Europeans, they already had names and uses which were left behind and which are now, in a world of global influence and knowledge, becoming known. With that it’s also important to understand that plants have moved around the globe for centuries. African women braided seeds into their hair fearing that if they were stolen as slaves, and not knowing where they were going to end up, that they would have the capability of growing food to sustain themselves. Seeds in the forms of spices and herbs were brought along the silk routes from the far east. Plants are a part of our shared past and will of course be a part of our shared future.

Twenty twenty was a year like no other. As a global pandemic raged so inequality really came to the fore. People were hungry, struggling to keep roofs over their heads and in May we all sat in disbelief as we saw a man, George Floyd, murdered in front of our eyes by police in the US. Of course he was not the first person to die at the hands of the police, either in the US, the UK or worldwide, but the global outcry and realisation that we are still a society broken by inequality was enormous and there were sections of the gardening world who began to look at the inequalities around gardens and horticulture. I want to make it clear at this point that this is not some sort of “woke” rant, but my work with Edible Bristol alongside years of garden history study, including an MA, have forced me to confront this head on. Horticulture and agriculture are two of the least diverse sectors in the UK, and that is, sadly, by design. A shocking statement but both rely on access to land, access to skills and agriculture specifically is often a generational career. Much of this stops people from being able to be a part of that sector. As cities build ever upwards personal garden space is shrinking and we know that eight percent of British households are without any outdoor space, but we also know that those households are most likely to be people from marginalised backgrounds, who’s food cultures are rich and diverse but who no matter how much they would like to grow food, either individually, as communities or as careers, are unable to access land to do so.

Several horticultural and cultural organisations responded to this. The National Trust acknowledged that much of it’s land and houses were paid for from the wealth that slavery bought to the UK, and Kew Gardens acknowledged that their plant collections were often collected as a part of the colonial project. Kew made several statements about decolonising their collections in light of this, and it is now being suggested that “politicising plants” is not a part of Kew’s remit and so they are acting illegally by being seen to be campaigning for racial justice…….

I am not a lawyer. I also understand that Kew is a titan of the science of horticulture and the work it has done over the centuries, often due to plants being collected from across the globe, is outstanding, and of deep importance to science. However, this is the first of the functions of Kew’s board and it feels to me that perhaps this is being overlooked….

”Carry out investigation and research into the science of plants and related subjects, and disseminate the results of the investigation and research,”

Surely “related subjects” include the history of those plants and how they arrived on our shores?

But more than that. These functions were decided upon in a very different world; that of the mid eighties. We know so much more now, about plants and about people and Kew are not talking about rewriting history-they are adding to the histories of plants by talking about where they came from and how they might have been used by indigenous people across the globe. They are focusing on the truth, and telling the real histories which adds to the cultural richness of the stories we must surely keep alive. We cannot change the past, but we can tell the truth of what happened and why, and celebrate the cultures who stewarded and still steward our earth, our home.

However, the report goes on to say that there is no room for politics in plant science and the idea of decolonising the plant collection “lacks both common and historical sense.” It then goes on to take a species of sugar cane as an example of a plant Kew is looking at exploring. At this point I will point out that all they are planning to do is delve deeper into plant histories on plant information boards. The report, rightly, explains how complex the history of any sugar cane is and of course Kew will know that, and will be super cautious I am sure to ensure that all history is told concisely, but thoroughly. But their argument, which seems somewhat bizarre is that it will be too much information for an info board. Of course this is nonsense. Using up to date technology, QR codes etc, enables us all to be able to give layers of informations that the onlooker can choose and this is where websites and social media could really play their part in making Kew interactive. Decolonising is not about changing the narrative but it is about opening up the windows that have been closed so people get the opportunity to see the whole view, not just that which has been cultivated. It also opens up the opportunity for everyone to see their generational history through plants and offers opportunities to bring people together to understand the historical divisions and to begin to mend them.

Of course Kew has statutory powers and works to a governance model, as do all organisations but here I need to quite clearly point out that governance and functions are should constantly evolve and I fear this is not being understood. Any organisation must ensure it’s governance, it’s policies and procedures are not just up to date but are relevant, and whilst of course Kew gets taxpayer money, it also has it’s own funding streams without which it would fail, which would be a global catastrophe. One of the most poignant points when we talk about decolonising organisations is looking at the board and ensuring that it is fit for purpose along with that governance structure. It feels to me that perhaps this report is written not to encourage progression but rather stagnation and it feels unfortunate that that stagnation could cause Kew to become less inclusive and welcoming and could cause it harm. And with that comes the question of why has this report been written at all?

Well that of course is an unknown but having done some research into Policy Exchange they are a centrist to right leaning organisation who’s people section is telling in itself. In the report inclusivity is brought up twice in reference to the cost of getting into Kew which is not cheap but is being addressed which they fail to comment on. For many years Kew cost one penny to visit, and that was well into the eighties but unfortunately as government has withdrawn funding the price has inevitable spiralled. Perhaps a good look at the importance of the work Kew do and a request to reinstate all lost funding might support a more inclusive ticket price and see it return to lower costs. It’s price, whilst I agree is far too high for many to achieve, is similar to the prices at National Trust properties and I am sure I saw recently that they were looking at a serious decrease for those accessing universal credit and other benefits. the entry cost, like anything else, is linked to governmental decisions and therefore is inherently political as is anything that relies on the taxpayers purse.

But I do think this leads to some interesting conclusions. Kew is, and always has been political. It is where the great plant hunters in their pursuit of ownership of the world’s greatest plant collections sent their plants to. it is a scientific institution and like all such institutions relies on it’s funders and therefore will need to an extent lean in their general direction. We have seen throughout the Covid pandemic the harm that divided government can cause, with accusations of playing politics coming from all sides, when of course what they are doing is political-they are the government. This report screams to me an unease that Kew might be finding it’s own voice, and that voice may be uncomfortable to a government who has claimed there is no institutional racism in the UK despite there being whole libraries of evidence to refute that claim.

But what is saddest of all is that within all of this is an institution that is trying to move with the times, to be open and honest and to educate people. There is no doubt that for many the conversation around slavery, decolonisation, equality and the intersections of equality, are deeply uncomfortable but rather than wasting money on writing based reports claiming that an institution is stepping outside it’s remit, surely asking questions about why and learning to manage that discomfort is important if we are to stop creating division and bring people together. And as we all know, a garden is the best place to do that.

https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Politicising-Plants.pdf

https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/time-to-re-examine-the-history-of-botanical-collections

https://www.instagram.com/decolonisethegarden/?hl=en

January..........

The weather is grey, and wet, with rain coming most nights and drizzling on and off most days. Underfoot it’s soggy and walking on the grass feels treacherous and horribly slippery. The plants are all looking at what can only be described as their worst, some with old tatty leaves hanging on by a thread, but mostly they are the skeleton the a garden that has definitely not had a gardeners touch for several years. In the oddly warm winter what I am learning is the weeds that are obviously at home here, as they appear, even during the darkest days of the year. Goosegrass is making itself known along the edges of the hedges, popping it’s fresh green shoots up through the sodden soil and making me nervous at the sheer amount of it. There are a lot of dandelions, as well as daisies in the front garden, some of which were flowering yesterday, but my main adversary here is going to be bamboo……..

Bamboo is beautiful plant but so often misunderstood and so planted in the oddest of places. This is a beauty as a plant and I think has come in from a neighbouring garden that is a few doors down and has a huge stand of it. Likely they have no idea how far it has spread, and I imagine were sold it as a variety that doesn’t spread, as is the phrase. “too badly”, but as with all bamboos once it gets it’s feet in they grow and spread like very little else. And it’s a beauty as I said; five feet tall with large green and glossy leaves. If I had acres I would be more than happy to see it but whilst this is by far the largest garden I have ever stewarded, it’s not the size to cope with bamboo. So over the last few days I have been forced to dig down in beds that I am determined will be as no dig as possible, and remove the shoots as they appear. Delicious bamboo shoots as they appear through the soil, but if they are this voracious in January, I am somewhat dreading June.

The lawns are also sad and sorry. The front garden is without a doubt more moss than grass and I my accidentally have taken up the thatch and sown wild flowers in the areas that were bare, hoping for a riot of colour in early summer. They are “real” wildflowers rather than a pretty mix so I hope that they will work themselves into the foundations of the garden and keep appearing year after year but we will see. Often I struggle to get them to germinate, most likely because I have a tendency to over love them, rather than let them alone to do their thing. They are the independent children of the garden, that get on with it and thrive when left alone.

Storm Arwen rocked us here in Wales and we found our beautiful front hedge damaged by the ravages of the gusts, with a fairly large area of it lost. I was deeply saddened by this as it was full of ripe ivy flowers, so important for pollinators flying in winter, so with that through we are replacing it with more wildlife appropriate planting than the privet that was home to the ivy. Thus far an Ilex Red Dragon has been bought and will be added to in the next months with, I am hoping, a winter flowering honeysuckle and a male holly to make sure the female Red Dragon gets pollinated.

And that is an update from the garden-something I promise every year and rarely manage but this year I will try to do better. Writing about the garden can feel self indulgent and self focused but hears hoping that it supports others as well as offering an insight into building a garden focused on climate and biodiversity crises.