I’m as guilty of whinging about ‘wildlife’ in the garden as most other gardeners. Rabbits, pigeons, rats and mice, slugs and snails are the less welcome visitors to The Garden Deli. Them and the mole who started digging up the veg patch earlier this year… luckily he decided to move on before I had to take any drastic action.
Wouldn’t gardening be easier if we could exclude all that pesky nature from our plots? Control what flies, crawls or hops in the space defined by the hedges or fences surrounding our gardens? While the majority of gardeners don’t want aphids, wasps or weeds/wildflowers in their gardens, most are happy to see bees, butterflies and hedgehogs. So maybe the answer is “Yes”… but selectively and on our terms. Problem is, nature doesn’t work on our terms. Most gardeners don’t have the resources to exclude all the unwanted natural visitors from their own patch of ground, although if the State of Nature report published earlier this year is anything to go by, many of the UK’s native species are struggling and may no longer pose a ‘problem’ for gardeners.
So what can nature offer to the average gardener? Well, first up, and a hot topic in the news just now, is of course pollination services. Bees, butterflies, moths and (depending where you live and garden) possibly bats and hummingbirds are all essential components of the pollination process. Without visits from these wild pollinators, gardeners would be missing out on apples, strawberries, beans, tomatoes and more. Basically we need pollinators – especially bees, to move pollen from one flower to another because we want to eat the fruit and seeds that result from this process.
Pest control can be managed in two ways – chemicals or natural control… ok there is a third way, integrated pest management is a combination of chemical and natural, but isn’t something that’s often used in domestic gardens. Taking the natural control route, leaves hoverflies and ladybird larvae to munch their way through countless aphids and save your rose bushes and broad beans. Frogs, thrushes, hedgehogs and ground beetles will all eat the slugs and snails that would otherwise reduce your lettuces and precious seedlings to a stalk surrounded by a slimy trail. Even wasps have a positive side – no, really… they will eat the caterpillars of small and large white butterflies, the ones that make huge holes in your cabbage, kale and cauliflower leaves.
Then there’s the compost heap. Homemade compost is pretty important to any garden – a great (and free) way of adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil, helping to keep it in tip top condition. But all that kitchen and garden waste you throw onto the heap needs natural processes to make the transformation from grass clippings and potato peelings to beautiful, crumbly compost. Have a dig around in your compost and you’ll soon see small, dark red worms – brandling or tiger worms, woodlice, millipedes and spiders. And this is the nature that you can see… hard at work too are the microorganisms, fungi, mites and single celled organisms all pulling their (admittedly very light) weight to decompose fresh vegetable waste and produce perfect compost.
But perhaps for the future of the natural world, the most important thing nature provides us with in the garden is an emotional and seasonal connection with the world around us. The first unfurling of green buds in spring, the arrival of swifts and migrant butterflies in summer, elderberries, sloes and blackberries in autumn and the birds on the feeders in winter are all markers of the passing of the year.
And then there’s that childlike sense of wonder we can experience when nature invades the garden – how do those big, furry fat bumblebees manage to fly, how do pond skaters walk on water… and how does one small, green caterpillar eat through so many cauliflower seedlings in one night… well, it’s not all good.
Of course, the flipside of the question ‘do gardeners need nature?’ is ‘does nature need gardeners?’… but answering that one is going to take more space than one blog post deserves, so we’ll save that for another time.
Are you a wildlife-friendly gardener? Where do you draw the line when it comes to embracing nature in the garden?
Gee I love your photos! Do you use a macro lens? So crisp and clear. Very envious indeed.
Thanks! The lens does have a macro setting, and I tend to use that a lot. It’s a lens that husband bought years ago for his ‘old-fashioned’ film camera. It fits my digital camera, and I really like it because it is manual focus… I like being in control!
Thought provoking post. I try to be nature friendly, I don’t use any chemicals except some ant powder – ants do a huge amount of damage in my garden. Moles are a problem, as yet unsolved. Another big problem but not so much for the garden is the woodpecker that tunnels into the walls of the house leaves huge pieces of tuffo and mortar on the terrace and the fear that one day he will pick his way into the bathroom!
I’ve never heard of a woodpecker pecking at house walls before! My parents have a green woodpecker who visits the garden regularly to eat the ants in the lawn – those sound more like the kind of woodpeckers you need!
A great post Sarah. Do you write for magazines? If not, you should! This topic is one very close to my heart. I don’t draw the line, but maybe because I have never had to. Our mole keeps well away from the flower garden, and I don’t have a veg patch. But if cabbage whites and carrot fly spoil a harvest in my containers I just try growing something else! Snails and slugs are the main problem, and living next to the woods means there is really no point in trying to fight nature. I would probably garden differently if I lived in a city or the suburbs though… Thanks for an enjoyable post and some food for thought.
Thanks Cathy! Slugs and snails can be a huge problem, so much damage from something so small…
Beautifully written post, Sarah! Gorgeous photos too, agree with Cathy above. I would love to say I embrace nature, but when my cavolo nero is disappearing thanks to pigeons or cabbage whites, there isn’t much embracing going on! I think the longer you garden you realize that if you can take a relaxed approach and not panic when everything seems to be eaten by pests, and resist spraying with chemicals, there’ll end up being lots to eat and look lovely. Will see how relaxed I can stay as the pigeons and muntjac head for my brassicas though!
I think you are right there Andrea – experience is a great way to learn that sometimes it’s ok to loose a few plants because a natural balance will establish itself. Don’t envy you having muntjacs in your garden though!
As usual, a well thought out post with fantastic pictures – I mostly welcome all that nature can throw at me but badgers digging holes everywhere can be a little tiresome.
Thanks Elaine! Good luck with the badgers – I’m not going to say that I’ve never had them in the garden, because I know what will happen if I do!
I’m trying to be as organic as I can on the lottie and hope that, as you say, nature will balance out, but sometimes it is difficult to stand by and watch precious seedlings being munched! Slugs and snails were a particular problem last year. Beautiful photos as always!
Last year was just terrible for slugs and snails – it got to the stage where I couldn’t even get the hens to eat them, they were bored with having too many! Do you find the other allotment holders advise you to use chemicals because they’re worried about the pests moving to their plots, or are a lot of them also organic?
What a lovely post. I find pests are more balanced out at the allotment. At home I have a big slug problem – not enough eating them. I’m encouraging frogs though, so maybe that will help.
More frogs should help – although, saying that, we have a pond and get frogs and toads in the garden but I still find lots of slugs hiding under pots and stones…
Great post. I agree about homemade compost. Homemade compost is homemade love!
Michael
You’re right Michael – homemade compost is fabulous stuff!
I love the photo’s, I also agree about the homemade compost, it’s the best!
The compost heap is a great garden feature! This time of the year there are usually birds hopping about on it looking for food, and in the summer we sometimes get bumblebee nests in the old compost.
I don’t use chemicals ever. All the creatures that come into the garden seems to co-exist together without causing many problems for the vegetable crops. I just love to see the bumblebees, butterflies, birds and whatever else comes.
Like you, I’d rather put up with some less welcome visitors if it means that the garden is safe for the birds and butterflies.
I have found the least intervention is the best option in our garden and allotment. Some things get eaten but relatively little compared to how much we still eat and enjoy. Following organic principles seems to pay off and I think makes the soil more resilient in the long run. We need to preserve what wildlife we have left too!
I think you’ve hit on a key aspect of organic gardening there Laura – getting the soil in good condition is really important, it means healthier, stronger plants that are more resistant to pests and diseases.
A thought–provoking post and wonderful photography.. I prefer not to use chemicals. But,oh dear, what on earth can we do about slugs!
Chloris
Thank you! I must admit, if I could eliminate one pest from the garden it would be slugs – but then they are food for the frogs, hedgehogs and thrushes…
what a thoughtful and thought-provoking post. you’ve touched on things about pests and weeds i often ponder while pottering abut my garden. my mother says – when we are grimacing about the tenacious superiority of weeds – that “somewhere, THESE are the prized plants – just not here!”.
Your mother is right – I keep reading gardening blogs from other countries where the author is complaining about ‘weeds’ that I’d love to be able to grow in my garden!