The Organic Garden. Allan Shepherd

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       Chapter one My space: planning your garden

      My granddad detested disorganisation of any sort. He kept all his files in immaculate order and planned everything exceedingly well. If my granddad was writing this book he would expect you to prepare detailed plans of your garden on paper to which you could refer later. And you would need to work out exactly how much spare time you had, and whether or not it was feasible to do the things you wanted to. I am ashamed to say that I have not inherited his sense of order or preparation, I can’t draw and I’m not too good at keeping records. What I can do is appreciate how the seasons change the garden, work out what type of soil I’ve got and what plants I can grow, shape the garden to suit my needs and see that the wildlife get their fair share. None of this is difficult. It just takes time, knowledge and a sense of calm understanding. I tend to keep all the information about my garden in my head and move it around from time to time to come up with the next stage of my slightly baggy long-term development plan. Your impression of a garden changes over time and you learn things that you couldn’t possibly have imagined when you first encountered the space.

      Take a gap year

      Unless you’ve just bought a new-build house, you’ll come into a garden as a small link in a great chain of people who have come before and who will enter after. New-build gardens come without any of the emotional and physical clutter of other people’s plants, sheds, ornaments and rubbish to worry about. If you’re starting work on an old garden, it’s rarely advisable to tear the whole lot down and start again. It takes up more energy, materials, time and money and is not environmentally, financially and emotionally sustainable. Decide what you can live with and work with what you’ve got.

      Whether your garden is new or old, it takes a good year to get to know it well enough to really start pulling a plan together. Plants are either sun-loving, shade-tolerant or semi-shade tolerant and the shade cast in your garden will vary from month to month over the whole year (see page 68). You’ll need to learn how other weather conditions such as rain, wind and frost affect the garden (see pages 72–85), because they will all affect plant growth too. If you’re planning to put in fencing, hedging or any structural elements, you’ll need to site them carefully to make the most of these conditions (see page 38). You’ll also need to know what kind of soil you have – clay, sandy, boggy, dry, stony, rich, poor, acid or alkaline – and what sort of plants will grow there (bog-loving, drought-tolerant, acid- or alkaline-loving, and so on). For the sake of clarity I’ve put all this important information in Chapter three.

      Plant editing

      After about two years of being in my current garden I’ve really started to appreciate all the wildflowers that come up. I haven’t had to do anything to encourage them – just leave them be. In fact, in large parts of my garden I’ve developed a policy of editing what’s there naturally rather than buying and planting seeds. This means digging up those weeds that will become invasive (see pages 190–207) and leaving those wildflowers I know I want. Foxgloves (Digitalis), cambrian poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) and red campion (Silene dioica) are all mainstays in my garden and they’re all fantastic for pollinating insects. They are also resistant to attack from slugs and snails. Editing is a good way to learn about the differences between weeds and wildflowers if you’re just starting to garden.

      But editing has obvious limitations. You can’t edit yourself a vegetable patch. Or an orchard. Or a perennial flower border full of your favourite plants. If you want to grow the plants you prefer, rather than those the soil throws up, you have to write your own story – not edit nature’s. This means working out what sort of planting schemes you want, what shape beds to make and how much room to give to each different element within the garden. You’ll also have to decide how to enclose your boundaries and where to put your paths. If your pencil skills are like mine – only fit for French caves – don’t feel you have to draw everything. Keep it in your head. For once it may be better in than out.

      Hopefully as you read this book, you’ll get an idea of what sort of plants you might want to put in your garden. If you’re like my mum you’ve probably already overstocked it in your imagination to Kew Garden proportions. Remember to leave room for all the other things you need: paths, seating areas, hot tubs. The last one is optional, obviously, but unless you’re in possession of a Harry Potter broomstick you’ll need the first two. A balance has to be struck between plants and infrastructure. And if you’re starting with a clean sheet you need to plan both at the same time.

      Pulling shapes: landscaping and other materials

      Most of the hard landscaping materials in my garden were chosen by the previous owner. Luckily he landscaped the garden sensitively, creating terraces using walls made of slate, largely reclaimed from the part of the house he took down to make room for an extension. It must have been a huge job – one that I’m very glad I didn’t have to do. I can live with my hard landscaping, and I don’t intend to change it or add to it. If you’re starting from scratch or want a change, however, you’ll need some eco-options for paths, walls, fences, seating areas and any other random garden features like trellis, arbours, and so on. Perhaps, more than anything else in your garden, it is important to get your landscaping features right. If chosen badly they can make a big impact on your garden and the environment.

      Soft landscaping vs. hard landscaping

      It is possible to garden entirely with so-called soft landscapes. Soft landscapes are created using living materials and include lawns and grass paths, hedges made using trees, shrubs and other plants, as well as arbours and other living structures made out of trees such as willow. If it is managed sensitively, soft landscaping is mostly more environmentally benign than hard landscaping. Hedges need to be trimmed responsibly and regularly – preferably using power-free tools or power tools that use renewable energy – and can produce a number of useful by-products, such as fruit, poles for staking peas and beans, decorative material, and so on. Lawns and grass paths are lovely to walk on and fairly low maintenance, but be careful how you cut them. A study funded by the Swedish Environment Protection Agency found that using a four-horsepower lawn mower for an hour caused the same amount of pollution as driving a car 150 kilometres. In preference use an electric mower or, even better, a non-powered mower.

      Hard landscaping is made from quarried materials or cut from timber and includes decking, walls, fencing and hard paths. Common materials include stone, cut timber, concrete, brick, plastic, metal and glass. Wood is the most environmentally benign material if it is cut from responsibly managed woodland (see information on FSC approval, pages 26–27) or, even better, if it is reclaimed waste wood. Avoid MDF (medium-density fibreboard). It is made using wood and a bonding agent called urea-formaldehyde, a dangerous material described by some as the ‘asbestos of the 90s’. In preference use untreated wood.

      Quarried stone usually comes in its raw unprocessed form. Quarrying is hugely destructive of local environments so look for reclaimed materials if you can. If you can’t, use materials that are local and traditional to your area. Unprocessed materials are generally better for the environment because processing usually involves the use of more energy. A prime example is cement, a major component of concrete. Cement has to be burned at 1500°C (worldwide the cement industry creates 10 per cent of all CO2 emissions).

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