{"id":24105,"date":"2023-02-11T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=136659"},"modified":"2023-02-11T10:35:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T09:35:14","slug":"the-7-biggest-gardening-myths-debunked-by-science","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/the-7-biggest-gardening-myths-debunked-by-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7 biggest gardening myths, debunked by science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why you should never use a spade in your garden, and why common slug traps don’t work. <\/p>

By Dr Stuart Farrimond\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 11 February 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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It has taken me 40 years to discover the joy of gardening. Not since sowing a handful of cress seeds into a compost-filled plastic cup at the age of six had I felt the thrill of seeing perfectly formed green life emerge from brown dirt.<\/p>\n

Like so many others, the COVID lockdowns became an opportunity to rediscover the wonders of nature just outside the back door. Gardening is the perfect antidote to doom-scrolling through today\u2019s news \u2013 it reconnects us with the perpetual cycle of life, death, and renewal of which we are all a part. And yet for something as beautifully simple as sowing, planting, and watering, we humans have made gardening terribly complicated.<\/p>\n

Trained as a medical doctor, I know only too well how to bamboozle others with technical terms \u2013 and now as a gardener, I am befuddled by a forest of gobbledygook and strange rituals. What is a perennial? What on earth is mulching? Our adult egos make us embarrassed to ask.<\/p>\n

Old hand or rookie, I\u2019m willing to wager you\u2019ve been confused by Latin names, a mysterious term, or perhaps wondered whether you really do need to put \u2018crocks\u2019 in the bottom of plant pots. Here I explain the misunderstandings and pseudoscience that sprout up in gardening faster than clover.<\/p>\n

1. Using a spade won\u2019t help your soil \u2013 it could ruin it<\/b><\/h2>\n

Soil is the most precious thing in your garden, yet for years it has been mistreated. Digging, we are told, will remove weeds, reduce \u2018compaction\u2019 by adding air or improving drainage, and boost soil fertility. Research now shows that the reverse is actually true. Farmers around the world are catching on, and even more are ditching their ploughs to switch to more efficient \u2018no till\u2019 practices.<\/p>\n

The 200g of soil that you can easily hold in your hands contains 100 billion bacteria, 5,000 insects, arachnids, worms, molluscs, and minute fungal<\/a> filaments that would stretch 100km if laid end-to-end. This mind-blowingly complex interconnected system of life is what makes soil healthy and will nourish and protect any plant that sets down roots within it.<\/p>\n

Healthy soil also has a spongey structure that crumbles and can be pressed back together easily. Air and water freely flow through soil\u2019s vast network of microscopic tunnels, sustaining everything that lives within it. However, this architecture is left in ruins after work with a spade.<\/p>\n

Each slice with a spade severs countless fungal threads, through which plants receive nutrients and water, collapses the many tunnels forged by earthworms, and unearths sleeping plant-digesting microbes, stimulating them to feed and then release plumes of greenhouse gases into the air. Soil that has been dug up actually ends up more dense, compressed, and airless (\u2018compacted\u2019). So make sure to keep the spade in the shed, unless it is for planting and moving plants, or perhaps shovelling compost.<\/p>\n

Instead, protect the soil\u2019s structure and feed its precious unseen ecosystem (called the soil \u2018food web\u2019) while suppressing weeds and reducing the need for watering by simply \u2018mulching\u2019 with organic matter, preferably garden compost.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mulching\u2019 simply means to lay something on the surface of the soil. \u2018Organic matter\u2019 means any dead, decaying or decomposed material that has come from a living organism (i.e. plant or animal), and can include leaves, grass clippings, bark or wood chippings.<\/p>\n

At the boundary between mulch and soil, insects, tiny bugs, earthworms, and microscopic organisms work to digest this organic material, which is integrated into soil \u2013 there really is no need to \u2018dig in\u2019 anything.<\/p>\n

2. Pebbles in a plant pot won\u2019t alter humidity levels<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\u00a9 Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Many a house plant struggles with the dry air of a centrally heated home. Placing a pot plant in a dish of pebbles and water may look pretty, but does nothing to change the humidity in the air around their foliage. Neither does spraying a fine mist over their leaves, which evaporates in seconds. Put humid-loving tropical plants in a bathroom instead.<\/p>\n

3. Compost is actually easy to make \u2013 and could save the planet<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Compost is a wonder food for soil that supercharges plant growth when laid on its surface. It is easy to make from ordinary garden and kitchen waste, and by doing so, you will also be doing your bit for the planet. Discarded food ranks high in the league table of climate crimes. Every kilogram of food waste you lob into the trash, the equivalent of about 2kg of carbon dioxide<\/a> ascends heavenwards from a landfill \u2013 the same as burning a litre of petrol.<\/p>\n

We all know that apple cores, vegetable peelings, and bread offcuts all rot down into brown mush. However, in the vile toxic cauldron that is a landfill site, the air-breathing microscopic creatures that would normally decompose dead stuff are suffocated beneath a mountain of paper, plastic, tins, and broken television screens. In their place, subterranean bacterial nasties go to work.<\/p>\n

Anaerobic (\u2018without oxygen\u2019) demons of the dark ferment our buried food into acids, alcohols, and methane gas, which billows up into the atmosphere. Composting your peelings mimics nature\u2019s recycling process and can be incredibly simple: just collect your food waste (including eggshells and coffee grounds) \u2013 ideally chopped up nice and small \u2013 in a large, sealed container and mix with roughly equal amounts of dry, organic matter, such as shredded paper, brown fallen leaves and\/or cardboard.<\/p>\n

Top it up as you go with a 50-50 mix and give it a stir every so often so that all the microbes can breathe some air and in a few months\u2019 time you will end up with brown crumbly stuff at the bottom that no longer resembles anything you put in. Add it to your garden by either laying it on top of bare soil or to boost the health of everything that grows there. Alternatively, give it to someone with a garden and you will have a new best friend.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n