What's in a Name? Marketing, Money and profits usually....

What’s in a Name?

Labels are big business.  You only have to look at teenagers clothing or cars to see they have a huge influence. 

I’m quite sure, putting on my rose tinted spectacles, that at one time or another there would have just been “Gardening” plain and simple.  Dig the soil, clear the weeds put the household waste into the ground, plant the veggies and flowers and away you go.  There does seem to be more and more “label” types of gardening around. Of course there’s organic gardening which thankfully got rid of some old chemical happy gardeners of the 1970’s who’d happily spray the garden and the family with DDT if they thought it would keep the greenfly off the roses. That type of gardening was advertising lead, mainly by chemical companies who were looking at sponsorship and profits. 

New Methods

There are a lot of gardening methods around and most of the claim to be ‘new’ methods of growing which have really been around for thousands of years. These seem to be ideas that have been utilized and adopted for marketing purposes to sell a brand or lifestyle, put together to look like a club or organization to make you feel part of something special. It gets hard to tell the fact from the adverts.

So Many Methods

We have ‘Square foot gardening’, which was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in 1981. This method tries to ‘compartmentalize’ plants by growing them in pre made squares and bought compost.  There’s Biodynamic gardening from Rudolf Steiner, which includes mystical and spiritual ideas in an organic framework. Then there’s Back to Eden, started off by Paul Gautschi, who has managed somehow to make the whole process about God. Then we have Bokashi composting claimed by Professor Teruo Higa, who in the 90’s stated that composting is better with his mixture of special anaerobic microbes and special buckets(which you buy) All organic grain, bran, rice, wheat mushroom compost, dried leaves, even sawdust can host the micro organisms (which you buy)that flourish in anaerobic, acidic environments, mixed with a bit of molasses.  The idea is just ‘fermented organic matter’ and has been practised in Asia for hundreds of years. And as a matter of interest these microorganisms are in most soils anyway and you can make your own for free.

Merits

All of the methods have their merits, and a lot of merchandizing. In fact all of the methods are taken from age old gardening techniques and rebranded.  Back to Eden is really just mulching with materials, in the same way that forest gardening is done. Forest gardening was happening even before we realised we could garden. The forest was the garden. 

I for one remain open to their ideals/ideas, but still question their origins and agendas (hidden or otherwise). I’ll hopefully take the best of what they have to offer, (which is usually the cheapest option without buying anything), and incorporate it into my garden to suit my own ideas and my growing conditions. 

After all you wouldn’t just stick with one cooking recipe you’d experiment in the kitchen from chefs ideas around the world. It would be very restrictive and limiting to stick to one method, and the garden is no different.

Lasagne Gardening

Talking of cooking, there was one method I didn’t mention and that is Lasagne Gardening. It’s also known as ‘Sheet Composting’, but that doesn’t have the same commercial ring to it, which is more of less the same as ‘Mulching’.  There are books about Lasagne Gardening but thankfully no-one has claimed it as their idea. There are books about the subject but to simplify the process. To me its like “Extreme Mulching” (There’s a good title for a new method of gardening)

It’s Free

Out of a lot of then named and branded gardening methods, I like the lasagne method because it’s easy (always a priority for me) free (another priority) and there’s no digging of the soil or removing grass or weeds when you make the beds.

The first layer of a lasagne garden consists of either brown corrugated cardboard or a few layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the grass or weeds in the area chosen for the garden.  This layer provides a dark, moist area to attract earthworms that will loosen up the soil as they tunnel through it. Anything you'd put in a compost pile, you can put into a lasagna garden. The materials you put into the garden will break down, providing nutrient-rich, crumbly soil in which to plant. You can layer up grass clippings, leaves, peeled fruit and vegetables from the kitchen, manure, compost, seaweed,

Alternate layers of “browns” such as autumn leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of “greens” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings. In general, you want your "brown” layers to be about twice as deep as your “green” layers, but there's no need hard and fast rules to consider, just pile it high. Just layer browns and greens, and a lasagna garden will result. 

Benefits

There are a few benefits to this type of garden method. Like simple mulching, it keeps the weeds down, gives great water retention, due to the fact that compost made by the layering holds water better than regular garden soil, especially if your soil is sandy or deficient in organic matter.

No need to buy any chemical fertilizer, because you planted your garden in almost pure compost, which is very nutrient-rich. The resulting soil is easy to work: crumbly, loose, and fluffy.

Beds made like this can be done at any time of the year, they would break down faster in autumn though and that’s the time of year that most of the leaves will be to hand to make a layer or two.

There you go, I managed to explain a method of gardening without asking you to buy a product, telling you what you must do, sell you a book or lifestyle. 

Feels good.