Gardening

Gardening

The garden is where we are aware of our engagement with nature. It’s where we garden, as well as relax, sunbathe, barbeque, and dry clothes. Gardens are valued by wildlife such as birds and butterflies, frogs and hedgehogs for their diversity, relative to vast fields of single crops, and we can help further by planting native species. The planting of deep rooting trees – at a distance – and wall climbers can assist our home’s thermal insulation. Composting can reduce our waste, by converting kitchen and garden waste, along with dirty paper and card, into soil fertility. Gardens can supply food – organic, with no food miles – as fruit, veg, mushrooms, eggs and perhaps meat. Lastly, it’s a pleasant green vista to calm the eye.
Vale Royal Wildlife and Organic Gardeners: holds monthly meetings in Northwich, plant sales and trips to gardens of interest. Promotes wildlife gardening, wildlife gardening and the use of native plants for food and craft. Affiliated to Garden Organic. Contact Anthony, 01606 853099.
Garden Organic (formerly Henry Doubleday Research Association): promotes and advises on organic gardening, growing and food, carrying out research and running courses for the benefit of developing countries as well as our own, and preserving old varieties of vegetable, often better suited to gardens than intensive agriculture. They run the Organic Schools Network, promoting organic cultivation of school grounds: there’s a child-friendly section on their website. Garden Organic, Ryton Organic Gardens, Ryton-on Dunsmore, Coventry, CV8 3LG, phone [phone], fax [phone] or e-mail at ku.gro.ardh|yriuqne#ku.gro.ardh|yriuqne, www.hdra.org.uk. The Organic Gardening Catalogue is available free to members. A leaflet for new allotment holders is available. Send 2 first class stamps to Diana Satturley at HDRA.
Soil Association, Bristol House, 40-56 Victoria Street, Bristol, BS1 6BY.
tel: [phone], fax: [phone], www.soilassociation.org
Campaigns and provides information on organic food.

TLG Orchard Management
Briarfields, Aston, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 8DH
01270 780828
Suppliers of grafted apple trees to order: much knowledge of local varieties, cultivation techniques and apple recipes. Contact Tony and Liz Gentil. (Unfortunately now retired).

Our gardens are a much-loved resource. Not just are they where we extend our living into in summer, where our children play in fresh air, where their greenness and colour gives psychological uplift. They are also where some food can be grown under our terms and conditions, where we can see wildlife at play, and where some of our recycling can be done to the benefit of both ourselves and our little guests.
When choosing plants and other features, try to select those with at least three desirable properties, for example, colour, food, value for craft work, value for wildlife (including beneficial insects - those you want to destroy pests), pea-sticks, firewood, etc. To reduce the need for watering, choose perennials, shrubs or trees in preference to half-hardy annuals. A deep mulch of organic material, started before June, will hold water in and suppress weeds: grass cuttings are good.
You can compost most things of plant or animal origin, and they will turn into a product you can use to enrich your soil, make sandy soils more moisture-retentive and clay soils more amenable. Exceptions are bread and meat, which may attract vermin: it may be best to put these out for birds in the morning, away from loaded washing lines, or feed to chickens or other suitable pets. (Unless you’ve got particularly bold vermin.) Also avoid composting certain diseased plant trimmings: bin, or burn them on a hot fire. Use of free home-made compost can help you avoid using chemical fertilisers.
Composting can either be cool and processed by worms, or hot and processed by microbes. The latter is done in batches, and turned so that all of it spends some time in the middle. Thus it cooks weed seeds and roots to death.
If you have garden waste you cannot compost, it can be taken to household waste sites, where there are skips dedicated to “green waste”. They accept tree branches (up to 7” or 8” diameter), branches, hedge clippings, shrubs, grass cuttings, plants, clean soil, weeds, leaves and turf. There is a credit scheme in operation, whereby you will receive tokens for your green waste which you can exchange for compost that has been made from previous contributions to the skip. However, the whole scheme depends a lot on road transport: you taking the waste to the waste site, the full skips are taken away (to Crewe) for composting, and the compost is returned the same way. Better if you can, to compost it in your own garden. You then get the added bonus of the nutrients that seep out of the bottom of the compost. For information on composting contact Vale Royal Organic and Wildlife Gardeners or Garden Organic.
There are various styles of composter; the simplest (beyond a basic heap) might be four pallets arranged as walls, perhaps with something on top to keep heat in and excess rainwater out. Then add another beside it for you to fill while the first is rotting. Nurturing Nature market a mobile composter that can also be used in education: behind its doors is a window onto the world of worms, turning food leftovers and old newspaper cleanly into valuable plant food. Phone them on 01925 600599 or 01925 452819 or visit www.nurturingnature.co uk
A conservatory or greenhouse can add to the range and season of crops you can manage, as well as providing a possible place to dry laundry in damp weather.
If collecting rainwater (it’s free, and means you can water your plants in droughts) use a waterbutt with a lid. When light gets in, algae grow and feed mosquito larvae. Alternatively, pop a goldfish in to eat the larvae - a Bob Flowerdew tip.
Ponds are great for increasing the wildlife interest of a garden. Advice is available from BTCV and Stapeley Water Gardens.
Materials used in your garden, if not derived from your garden itself, should ideally be obtained locally. Delamere Forest produces many by-products from its activities which can be purchased through Cheshire Rustics and Charcoal: rustic poles for garden fencing, rose arches and trellises, forest bark for mulching and play areas, firewood logs by the bag or load, and other forestry products. Traditional Cheshire Charcoal is also made. These are all sourced from the forest under contract. Tel Derek Wright, Forestry Contractor, home: 01829 760563, mobile [phone].
If needing help running your garden organically, the following may help:
Martin Callaby, organic gardener. Garden design, maintenance, planting, pruning, fabrication and repairs of wood or metal garden structures, drystone walling, hedgelaying/trimming, ponds/wildlife areas created, lawns, rotovating, chain-sawing. tel [phone]
Ian Schofield, Field View Cottage, Willington Lane, Oscroft, Tarvin, CH3 8NL, tel [phone]
Nick Bowman, conservation and tree work contracting, Melvyn Holme Barns, Penny’s Lane, Lach Dennis, Northwich CW9 7SJ. Tel [phone]
Members of Vale Royal Organic & Wildlife Gardeners, c/o Anthony, 01606 853099

Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens are run on organic principles and are a source of fresh produce. There is a community garden planned for Winsford, near the Over allotments. Other examples are
Bunbury Greenwatch, adjacent to Bunbury Playing Fields, Bunbury, Cheshire, CW6
01829 260114.
On a small patch of formerly misused wasteland, it now incorporates a community composting project and planting for amenity and wildlife. Cub Scouts and a BTCV Environmental Task Force have helped. Garden waste is collected both at the site and at various locations throughout the village.

Hattersley Market Garden, Hattersley Road West, Hattersley, Hyde, Cheshire. tel [phone]

Heybrook Community Farm, Heybrook Farm, Lowton, Warrington, WA3 1BZ. 01942 261 334.
Animals, toilets, picnic barn.

Stanney Grange Community Association, Stanney Grange Community Centre, Stanney Grange, Alnwick Drive, South Wirral, L65 7EW, tel [phone].
Wheelchair accessible. Toilets. Wildlife garden and play area on former building site.

Mushrooms, etc. Try your hand at mushrooms from a kit, white or chestnut, or logs that will sprout Shiitake, Oyster or Lion’s Mane mushrooms, or buy spawn for germinating Oyster or Nameko mushrooms on old cardboard. From Bioculture.co.uk (www.bioculture.co.uk), Ann Miller’s Speciality Mushrooms (www.annforfungi.co.uk), Mycologue (www.mycologue.co.uk) and Highland Wildwoods, Blackstand, Fortrose, Ross-shire IV10 8SW. Jac by the Stowl of Humungus Fungus, Penrhiw House, Llanddeusant, Llangadog, Camarthenshire, SA19 9YW supplies spawn of various species for introducing around the garden: tel [phone], email ten.nigriv|caj.smoorhsum#ten.nigriv|caj.smoorhsum, www.jac-by-the-stowl.co.uk

The Plants for a Future website contains an informative listing of useful plants. Why plant your garden with pretty things when it could be enriching your life with new foods and new activities? www.pfaf.org.uk