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.
