In the latest issue of Gardeners' World magazine, I go head-to-head with James Alexander-Sinclair by suggesting that gardeners are doing more harm than good...
In the latest issue of Gardeners' World magazine, I go head-to-head with James Alexander-Sinclair by suggesting that gardeners are doing more harm than good by too much autumn tidying. I just know that all this anti-gardening talk is going to get me into trouble. Especially as last weekend, I did a bit of, well, tidying in the garden. It was limited, however, to clipping a few stray rose branches that had suddenly shot out at eye height. And I picked up a few windfall apples to see which ones I could salvage for the crumble.
We don't have the most regimented of gardens, in fact it's a bit wild sometimes. But wildlife is, by definition, wild. As I said in the magazine, it has no time for straight lines, clipped edges, smart displays, or level lawns. We have none of these, but we do have plenty of straggly bits of long grass, clematis and ivy thickets you could hide a giant panda in, and an unexplored jungle, alive with distant roars, behind the compost bins.
I sometimes feel uneasy when I see a garden trimmed to within an inch of its wildlife. There are quite a few hereabouts in East Dulwich. They are so neat and manicured, so ordered, so precisely laid out and clipped to the millimetre, that I think wildlife would probably be enhanced if they used plastic flowers instead.
Does this sound harsh? If you think it is, I still can't believe that the Editor of Gardeners' World magazine let me get away with calling gardeners 'cack-handed' when it came to planting nectar-rich plants and hanging seed balls. On Sunday, our ivy was abuzz with bees, wasps, hoverflies and other insects, but when this fast-food source is gone, they will still need the most basic of their primary needs - shelter. Animals coming to 'visit' flowers, or bird tables, or fat balls, is all well and good, but they have also got to have somewhere to live - shelter. When their 'visit' is over, they have to go home to - you guessed it - shelter. Night-time roosting is important, but at this time of year over-wintering sanctuary is paramount. And yet it is precisely this shelter which is most in danger of being tidied away, cut down, mulched, shredded, composted or otherwise removed to make way for next year's grand displays.
If you want wildlife to feel at home in your garden, let it make a home there. Don't straighten the log pile or alphabetise the flower pots; don't deadhead all the seed capsules or cut back all the wilting leaves; don't fell all the dead wood or grub up the old stump. Instead, leave straggly bits of long grass, leave the clematis and ivy thickets, and leave the untidy mess behind the compost bins. Feel free, however, to cut down the odd rose branch that threatens to gouge out your eyes.
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