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Category: Environment & Green Gardening

Tips for ecologically friendly gardeners and gardens that green and protect the environment.

Comfrey for Free Fertiliser

Comfrey for Free Fertiliser

Comfrey leaves can make good balanced organic fertiliser for free.

comfrey

Since the 19th century Comfrey has been used as a fertiliser but the Henry Doubleday Institute in the 1960’s found it contained comparable amounts of fertiliser to commercial products. Comfrey contains high levels of Nitrogen for leaf growth, Phosphorous for roots and germination and Potassium for fruit and flowers.

Tips on Using Comfrey

  • I put a large handful of Comfrey leaves in my water butt and 3-4 weeks later the resulting ‘Tea’ is great for Tomatoes, Beans and general purposes. I mix them with a lot of water but if you make a concentrated tea it can be diluted prior to use.
  • Spare Comfrey leaves can go on the compost heap to provide vital nutrients and help heat up the pile to speed decomposition.
  • If you crop the Comfrey you should be able to get three cuttings in a season.
  • The first cutting of Comfrey in spring can go at the bottom of the furrow into which you are planting Potatoes.
  • You can also chop the Comfrey leaves and use them as a mulch before your potatoes get too much foliage.

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Edible Flowers Top Ten for Chelsea

Edible Flowers Top Ten for Chelsea

Eat up the fruit and veg in your Chelsea Pimms and look for flowers in your salad.

Book Cover
Food for Free (Collins Natural History Paperback)

There are many plants whose flowers can add spice and variety to our food. Use the petals after removing the stamen and pistils. This list of tips and a top ten is based on colour and taste.

  1. Wild Garlic flowers can be picked in hedge rows and add a soft garlic taste to salads.
  2. Lavender can be used to flavour sugar or dried and used in cakes.
  3. Courgette flowers are often stuffed or battered in posh restaurants and make a delicate starter.
  4. Nasturtium flowers make good salad or sandwich accompaniments
  5. Legume flowers like pea and bean flowers are delicate additions to a salad or soup.
  6. Rosemary flowers go well with fish
  7. Calendula or Pot Marigold petals have a peppery taste and make good salads.
  8. Violet flowers are also peppery but look good decorating a salad.
  9. Day Lily ‘Hemerocallis’  flowers can be used in stir fries.
  10. Chive flowers taste fine in an omelette aux fine herbs.

Do not eat flowers that have been sprayed with insecticide or fungicide.
Always wash flowers gentley but well.

Purple Flowers Attract Insects

Purple Flowers Attract Insects

Are insects attracted to colours or do some purple flowers have more nectar and pollen to attract insects in the first place?
Anne Bebbington quoted in Science and Plants for schools says ‘You need to take into account that different sorts of insects see colour differently. Most insects except for some butterflies do not see red well. Flowers may have colour which we can’t see but insects can e.g. ultraviolet markings.
Colour is not the only thing that attracts insects, scent e.g. is often important. Again it it is very likely that there are scents that we can not detect.’

According to my Lithuanian friends ‘If you keep bees, or if you would like to attract more of them into your garden, consider sowing lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.), viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare L.) and borage (Borago officinalis L.). In addition to their honey-producing properties, they also make an attractive addition to your border. Some attention should be given to caterpillars of butterflies. Plants in the pea family (clover, sweet clover), as well as the cruciferous plants (field penny-cress, shepherd’s purse, bitter cress, brassicas) are most appealing to caterpillars of beneficial insects.’ see more on mygarden.

Fpor more varieties of Purple flowers read or Purple patch

August Wild Flowers

August Wild Flowers

Augyst Wild Flower Garden

Wild flower gardens are generally thought to be at their best in spring but this colourful patch was a riot of colour in the middle of August.

Gardeners Tips for Wild Flowers

  • Poor soil conditions encourage flowering. Do not fertilise wild flower gardens
  • Group flowers with similar flowering times together. it would look to thin and patchy to have a mix of spring and Autumn flowers together.
  • Do not be too quick to tidy up. Let the seeds develop and drop so that annual plants renew themselves for next season.
  • If possible avoid competition from grass particularly for autumn wild flower gardens as they can choke off the flowering plants.

wild flowers

Wild Flower Mixtures

  • General; purpose meadow mixtures may contain, cowslip, oxeye daisy, knapweed, buttercup, campion, vetch and yarrow amongst others.
  • Hedgerow mixtures may have wood avens, plantains, agrimony, cowslip, oxeye daisy and knapweed,
  • Cornfield mixture as above will have corn cockle, cornflower and poppy and Forget-me-not
  • You can also get mixtures for sowing in wet marshes or for pond edges.
Attacting Insects To Your Garden with Spectabile

Attacting Insects To Your Garden with Spectabile

This Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant’ has all the insects buzzing with interest. Many butterflies are attracted to various Sedum spectabile or ‘Ice plant’ species. Look out for Red Admirals, Cabbage Whites and other species in your garden.

September is a good time for flowers on these Sedums. They flower into autumn and can look architectural in winter when covered in frost.
Insects can over winter in the old stems so do not be oin a hurry to clear up the old perennials until spring.

Propagation …

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Green Gardening Must Haves

Green Gardening Must Haves

It is not hard to be a green gardener although green fingers are often in short supply. Here are some things you can and shouldn’t do to improve the ‘green gardening habits’ you already possess. You must already be some form of green gardener if you garden at all.

Top Steps to a Green Garden

  • Compost your green waste from the kitchen (no meat or fish). Then use the rotted compost on the garden. If you don’t want a heap try a big bucket or just bury the waste and it will still rot down.
  • Welcome wild life with appropriate plants that provide food and shelter for insects butterflies and other creatures
  • Grow your own fruit like apples and your own veg. You can also grow flowers for the house rather than buy imported flowers from a shop.
  • Conserve water and energy. A mulch will save water and if you apply any water make sure it is directed at the roots and wont evaporate in the mid day sun.

Rhubarb
Home Grown Rhubarb

Have Nots for a Green Garden

  • Avoid killing creatures by too many noxious chemicals
  • Too much inappropriate hard landscaping can cause flooding and ‘aint green’
  • Too many imported plants have excessive air miles. Annuals should be home grown and native species of tree, hedge and other plants are best.
  • Do not be over tidy, leave some area of long grass and/or a rotting woodpile for insects.
Creative Mulching

Creative Mulching

Mulch can be organic or inorganic and its purpose is to conserve moisture in the soil, suppress weeds, prevent seed germoination and protect the roots of new plants. The right material will look good and cut down on maintenance with less weeding and watering.

Mulching is the covering of bare soil with a mulch. Choose a mulch that appeals to you and don’t be worried about experimenting.

Organic Mulch

  • The good old stand by garden compost is one of my favourites that also adds some nutrition
  • Grass clipings. You can use grass clippings straight from lawn mower, as long as they don’t continue weed seeds or weedkiller.

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Trees and Shrubs For Birds

Trees and Shrubs For Birds

Birds need food, cover and nesting sites to survive in your garden. A good perching point will help birds feel and be safe and good leaf cover will help in bad weather.

The more varied you make your garden the better for wild life, lawns, hedges, ponds and varied habitats all help. Avoid planting too many non-native species and choose a selection of trees and shrubs to provide insects and berries for bird food.

Shrubs

Berberis have spiny branches for cover and berries or fruit. Berberis wilsoniae is ideal for small gardens or you could try B. thunderbergii, vulgaris, gagrepainii or dawinii.

The Cotoneaster family produce many berries. Do not bother planting Cotoneaster conspicuax decora as birds will not eat the berries. Pyracantha Firethorn is very popular with birds and most gardeners.

Hedge shrubs like Hawthorn and Holly and Privet provide safe cover for small birds. Yew’s red berries feed thrushes.

Buddleia globosa the Butterfly bush attract large quantities of insects which in turn feed birds.

Trees for Perching

Birch supports insects including caterpillars as do Goat Willow Salix caprea.

Rowan mountain Ash Sorbus aucuparia is a avian favourite.

Bird Cherry and Wild Cherry produce early fruit and are well sought after by birds.

Conifers appeal to Siskins and Tits. Try Larch Larix decidua or Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris.

Climbers

Honeysuckle bears red fruit and also provide nesting sites. Lonicera periclymenum or L.caprifolium are suitable species to grow and you get the scent thrown in.

Hedera helix or the common ivy is excellent cover, attracts insects and Thrushes, Pigeons and Robins like the fruit.

Virginia creeper are vigorous growers providing nesting and roosting cover.

Rambling Brambles, Rubus fruticosus are popular in dry weather for the juicy berries particularly for finches.

Other Plants

Good seed setters including Cornflower, Forget-me-not and Michaelmas daisy provide food over the growing months.

Sunflower seeds are popular for extra protein. Wallflowers can also be left to seed.

Unfortunately for gardeners many weeds are popular with birds including chickweed, dandelion, sowthistle and groundsel.

Lawns attract small flies and the soil provides worms for Starlings, Thrushes and Robins.

Sources of further plant selections
RHS
RSPB
Wild Life Trust
Getting birds in your garden from Garden Products

 

Gardeners Tips Favourite Links

Hot Compost Tips & Heaps

Hot Compost Tips & Heaps

layered aerobic compost

Heat in a compost heap is good. A hot compost tip will kill off pathogens and many unwanted seeds whilst it creates good friable compost.

What is a Hot Compost Tip

  • Hot compost heaps are just that, hot, they can be so hot you can’t keep your hand in (though why you should want to put your hand in the middle of a compost heap I am not sure).
  • The heat is generated by the decomposition process helped by all the biological activity. Microbes, worms and insects need food, air and water to generate this activity. They feed on the plant matter or one another so that takes care of food.
  • Much garden refuse contains enough water but if the compost is dry or the weather dries the compost out then some extra water can be added.
  • A hot compost process encourages quick breakdown and recycling of compostable waste.

Turning The Compost Heap

  • To get air into the compost as it rots down the heap needs to be turned after an initial decomposition period say 8-10 weeks
  • Special ‘Tumbler compost makers’ and spinners are now available so that compost can be turned within a plastic drum. You turn the drum daily or weekly to aerate the rotting compost. This speeds up the composting process significantly.
  • Turning the compost stops the top forming a crust that fails to rot
  • The compost should be turned so that any compost at the sides or back is brought into the middle so decomposition is even and homogenious
  • Turning the compost gives a chance for excess water to be redistributed so the heap doesn’t smell
  • If the heap is large turning the top two thirds on to a separate pile may leave one third compost ready to use.
  • Compost compacts and reduces in size by at least a third as it rots. Without turning it can be more compacted than your own soil.

Credits
layered aerobic compost by adstream CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Different Methods For Dealing With Slugs

Different Methods For Dealing With Slugs

Slug

Do not be content with a single method of deterring slugs. Alan Titchmarsh told us years ago to ‘use several organic methods and reapply them regularly.’
Why settle for one remedy when you have a veritable arsenal of multiple methods for dealing with slugs.

Organic Slug Methods

  • Encourage more slug predators. Ground beetles are the thing and they love undisturbed clumps of Cocksfoot or Timothy grass. Frogs are also a useful predator to slugs
  • Read more about biological pest control methods with multiple nematodes to kill your slugs
  • There are now numerous packaged products to part you from your cash in return for parting you from your slugs.
  • Hoe the ground and bring the slug eggs to the surface for birds to eat.

Book Cover

Copper Based Slug Methods

  • Slugs dislike copper (unlike local metal thieves). You can use copper pipe hammered flat or lightening conductor.
  • Copper tape is sold for slugging it to slugs at most garden centers
  • Copper bands or collars can be very effective against slugs. Use them around your brassicas.
  • Copper tools like trowels are satisfying to use but may not do much to your slug population.
  • Slug and Snail Shocka is a large mat impregnated with copper.

Take extra care around slug favourites!

Chemical Slug Methods

  • If you want to know why you should slug your slugs with some form of chemical treatment look at my Hostas on this page.
  • For hard to find slugs and snails I still use a sprinkling of the old blue pellets.
  • Slug Pellets and Slug Exterminator at Amazon

slug
So Alan may be right a multi-punch mix and match approach may work. You can never do too much to deter slugs and snails from chomping your delicate plants.
If Frank Bruno was a gardener he would slug slugs with more than one punch at once.
However slugs were around before modern gardeners and you could adopt a policy of live and let live.

Credits
Slug by frankenstoen CC BY 2.0
slug by “Cowboy” Ben Alman CC BY-NC-ND 2.0