Ethical dilemmas of the gardening kind

When I started gardening as a child, life was simple. There were no ethical or moral decisions I had to make, I just planted my seeds, got excited when they started to grow and enjoyed seeing the results of my efforts. There was no talk of global warming, dying bees or Japanese knotweed. There were plenty of bomb sites with what we fondly called weeds (sorry, wildflowers) and life tended to be a bit grey in colour but overall gardeners were not that troubled with moral dilemmas.

As I got older and family came along I enjoyed involving them in the daily round of planting, weeding and watering. It was also fun to see their delight when the seeds they planted grew.

Today, however, now in the ‘autumn of my years’ as Frank Sinatra so aptly put it, I am faced with all kinds of ethical and moral dilemma and gardening is no longer the easy pleasure it once was - well not if I care about the environment that is.

I recently read an excellent article in The Telegraph by Mark Diacono on the ethical dilemma of using peat. I stopped using peat about seven years ago as a result of a National Trust campaign. I can’t say either myself or the garden has noticed this deficit. I totally agree with one observation that some of our addictions in the garden are the result of no more than clever marketing. The add men tell us that we must use this or that to achieve a perfect result and we become conditioned. Many of us have forgotten how to make good old fashioned compost and rely instead on buying many of the branded varieties now adorning our garden centres. That said, if you really don’t want to make your own compost there are plenty of peat-free varieties available such as New Horizon Organic that can be bought ready made.

According to the RHS almost 70% of peat sold in the UK is used by amateur gardeners. The RHS itself only uses peat based material for propagation of plants and maintenance of a small number of specialist plant collections but they, like the National Trust, strive towards a totally peat-free future.

So gardening dilemma number one is whether or not to use peat!

Then there is the thorny issue of global warming and sustainable gardening. A lot has been said about sustainable gardening over the last few years. I confess to not having heard the phrase ‘sustainable gardening’ until about four or five years ago. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) urges us to garden in a sustainable way - there is even a special section devoted to this on their website - www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Sustainable-gardening

The RHS give a very good breakdown on why and how climate change affects our gardens and what we can do to help reduce the greenhouse effect. They also produce leaflets to help us combine benefits for the environment with practical gardening. You can’t bury your head in the sand any longer folks - RHS Flower Shows have had lots of ‘sustainable gardens’ to inspire the rest of us and the word ‘sustainable’ seems to punctuate every gardening article we currently read! I can no longer feign ignorance.

So dilemma number two is ‘how can I garden in a sustainable way to help the climate?’

Now gardening dilemma number three - how can I help wildlife in my garden and in particular make my garden a happy place for bees?

By now I am becoming slightly paranoid as another dimension is added into the mix. My simple sowing, growing and enjoying is turning into a ‘Kafkaesque’ experience! I want my garden to be a paradise for bees, a Monaco in the sun where they can buzz happily till their hearts content but I also want it to be a happy place for me as well, so are the two compatible? My dilemma is made worse by that lovely Sarah Raven who wrote recently that if we want to help bees and butterflies we should avoid Chelsea’s bright blooms! Hell, I love my bright blooms, my Gertrude Jekyll style of planting and my bright and blowsy cottage garden. Reading on it was not quite as bad as the headline made it sound. She advocates that we avoid plants with thick multi petals which make it dificult for bees to reach for pollen and nectar and choose instead more native plants such as primroses, single dahlias and wild roses which are rich in pollen and nectar.

So its back to the good old RHS for their ‘Perfect for Pollinators Plant List’, which gives the best flowers for insects and we can all rest in our beds (flower that is) because armed with the RHS list and a new ‘bee friendly’ label (which will now help gardeners to choose the right plants to help hoverflies, bees and butterflies) we should all be able to make the right decisions. Phew!

Dilemma number four - to be or not to be organic!

Here again I try to be organic but I am not totally so. I really got into the organic thing by way of HRH Prince Charles. No I’m not name dropping, I have only met the gentleman once (a pleasure I might add, he really loves gardening) - it was really as a result of reading his book about Highgrove that got me interested in organic gardening. I can understand why HRH is so passionate about organic gardening BUT and its a big but, I find it hard to really follow all the principles although I have been astounded by several totally organic gardens I have visited and not a greenfly in sight.

So times are changing - one of the recommendations in a recent Government White Paper   on the environment suggests banning the use of peat by amateur gardeners by 2020. Recent research by the RHS confirmed the vital role played by gardens in reducing city warming - plants bring down energy consumption in winter by providing shelter and insulation, cools the air in towns and cities in hot weather and reduces the risk of flooding by absorbing rain.

There is plenty of research to prove that gardening is beneficial to us in many ways, both physical and mental and can have very therapeutic properties - that nothwithstanding, I have to say that I am becoming increasingly anguished at all the factors I now have to consider just by putting my trowel into the ground.

It was so easy in the 1950’s, there was Miss Marple, weeds (sorry, wildflowers) growing on bomb sites, red buses which ran really regularly, no motorways and yes 6d could get you a good seat at the Saturday matinee. But life moves on - now I use an iphone, an ipad and a pc in my everyday life and just as I have accepted those technological innovations, I suspect I must now adjust to global warming, peat free environments and bee friendly flowers in my gardening life.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2011 - Royal Bank of Canada New Wild Garden (bug hotel wall)

I’m not totally sure if I will ever ‘get’ the sustainable thingy but I will rest happy if my flowers bloom, my bees buzz and I can sit and enjoy a gin and tonic on my patio being smug in the knowledged that I have helped save the planet if only in a very, very small way.

Getting down to summer

The recent fair spell up north has given us a chance to get in some serious gardening. Plenty of roses to dead head, box to cut and the start of the flowering perennials to admire. Post-Chelsea the sob story is that Dianthus Cruentus has proved so popular that Crocus has sold out! Short of finding a plant like ticket tout who might be prepared to part with their specimen I will have to wait for next year and hope the Dianthus is offered again. It seems that Dianthus Cruentus is rarer than an Olympic ticket!

This amazing plant caused a storm at Chelsea on Cleve West's Daily Telegraph Garden and no wonder. It shines like a 3 D red light even in bright sunlight. I have found that Dianthus do very well in our Cumbrian garden, they shoved off the really cold and bad winter, the sever frosts and winds we had and have positively blossomed this year. Which encourages me to make more of a feature of them, however, the little gem from Cleve's garden will have to wait until stocks are replenished - hopefully. Well done to those who have managed to get the plant and for the rest of us unlucky ones, we will have to be content with the photograph!

A really lovely paperback, 'The Cottage Garden' by Twigs Way, has just been published. This delightful slimline book in a handy A5 format is published by Shire Books - www.shirebooks.co.uk The archetypal picture of a cottage garden conjures up images of roses growing around the door, honeysuckle creeping over the garden wall and fragrant lavender lining the brick path - however, while this image may have some resonance, Twigs delves deeper into the chocolate box images and examines the history, style, planting and moral significance of this most English of garden creations.

She charts the history of the cottage garden from its origins as a functional space providing food for the table, herbs for the physic bottle and room for the hens, pigs and privy to the 18th century Romantics and intellectuals, such as Wordsworth, who transplanted wild flowers into their patch of English Eden. The austere morality of the Victorian era, who held that a well-tended garden was a 'symbol of honest frugality and sober industriousness' and that poverty and drunkenness were the downfall of the labouring classes, positively encouraged gardening and allotments as a key to 'society's salvation.'

Twigs leads the reader from the cottage garden of 'productive poverty' to the wonderful gardens of Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West, grown for colour, smell and pure indulgence and reminds us of a definition provided by the editor of 'Cottage Gardening' in 1892 who stated that: "The charm of the cottage garden is .... due to the absence of any pretentious plan." Most of us would agree with that. She then brings us up to date by pointing out that in the modern style there can be various approaches from mixing traditional with contemporary to the more formal approach bringing symmetry and more precise planting.

The illustrations used in 'The Cottage Garden' are delightful and perfectly convey the 'cottage' theme. The author has also included a list of suitable plants for the cottage garden which will be useful to those gardeners who are perhaps thinking of developing the style in their own garden. 'The Cottage Garden' is priced at £6.99 and is an excellent easy overview of this delightful form of gardening.

Flora Locale, the charity that promotes the restoration of wild plants for biodiversity, landscapes and people, is calling for more British wild flowers and trees to be grown in British gardens. Sue Clarke, of Flora locale points out that the campaign aims to encourage British wild flowers and trees in our gardens and public open spaces to create species-rich habitats that are attractive to butterflies and other insects. Even in small spaces native wild flowers can create colourful borders and individual plants such as teasel, juniper or wild angelica can be used to add structure.

This summer sees Flora locale running a number of workshops as part of the campaign for more areas of species rich grasslands to be re-created so that they are attractive to butterflies and other insects. To check out their programme log onto their website at www.floralocale.org  There is an event at Haddo Country Park on Thursday 30th June on the Management of wildflower grassland and another at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex on Wednesday 6th July on Seed collecting and use for restoration and re-introduction.

Hugo Bugg's Albert Dock Garden at RHS Tatton

Much excitement will be building now for RHS Hampton Court and of course the north's very own RHS Tatton Park. I like Tatton because it is easy to get to from Cumbria and can be achieved in a day with no expensive overnight hotel bills!

Tatton is also the venue for the RHS National Young Designer of the Year competition, so looking forward to seeing the gardens of the three young designers chosen as this year's finalists, Alexandra Froggatt, Daniela Coray and Owen Morgan. Alexandra is Cheshire based and although new to exhibiting at RHS Shows has already been making her mark with her own company. Daniela is currently completing a Masters in Art and Environment at Falmouth and she too has set up her own design company based in Cornwall. Owen set up his own landscape design firm in 2004 and is based in Rutland. So good luck to all three in their bid to become the RHS National Young Designer of the Year.

Last year, Hugo Bugg not only won the title of RHS National Young Designer of the year but also the award for Best in Show. Hugo's Albert Dock garden has set the bar high for this year's entrants.

Finally, a mention about the Gardening Against the Odds awards for 2011 which honours the unsung heroes of gardening who create beauty against the odds. These awards, launched by The Sunday Telegraph in association with The Conservation Foundation, call for entries from individuals and community groups who garden in often unpromising and unlikely places or in the face of physical or psychological difficulties. The awards are dedicated to the late Elspeth Thompson, the Sunday Telegraph writer who sadly died in 2010 and are named after her final online diary.

Last year's winner, Andrew Barnett, whose severe depression left him unable to work as a headteacher, found gardening a lifesaver. His story is typical of many who find relief, pleasure and hopefully rediscover a sense of joie de vivre through gardening.

Closing date for this year's entries is 16th September 2011 and winners will be announced in October. For details log onto: www.telegraph.co.uk/gardeningawards2011