Lovely, low maintenance and good for wildlife? Jack Wallington is experimenting with plant vigour to make his own garden both ecological and easy to manage <\/p>
I was embarrassed recently when some gardeners popped over to see our garden. If they were hoping for a wow moment, I don\u2019t think they expected it to be: \u201cWow, that\u2019s a lot of couch grass<\/a>.\u201d Despite writing books about embracing wildness, I still imagine the tut of society. But I\u2019m on a mission for minimal maintenance. I don\u2019t want to mulch<\/a>, stake, prune, fertilise or weed ornamental planting<\/a>. Instead, I want the plants to just get on with it.<\/p> You may also like<\/strong><\/p> Before moving to a bigger garden in 2021, I knew I wanted it to look after itself. Like most people, I have a full-time job and a social life, and we spend a lot of time growing organic<\/a> food, which doesn\u2019t leave much time for ornamental stuff.<\/p> Yet I still want excitement, and I\u2019ve been testing interesting combinations requiring barely any intervention from me that will naturally compete with everything else. Across our farm, dandelions, nettles<\/a>, couch grass, dock and other wildflowers<\/a> are prolific, and welcome. In the smaller ornamental garden near the house, however, I\u2019m increasing the diversity of plants for wildlife and us.<\/p> I\u2019m using ecological knowledge of wild ecosystems to plan combinations that largely manage themselves, as in the wild.<\/p><\/blockquote> Essentially, I\u2019m relying on suppressing plants that smother, as well as matching plant vigour, to form plant communities to tip the balance. I\u2019m using ecological knowledge of wild ecosystems to plan combinations that largely manage themselves, as in the wild. When it works, it can reduce maintenance and increase stability for wildlife. If I entice insect populations into a garden with plants, I want to make sure everything\u2019s stable, not dying out after a year or two.<\/p> I\u2019m also concerned about aggressive intervention in garden design using diggers, soil-altering aggregate mulches and weed killers that eliminate what was there before. Over the years I\u2019ve tried to be sensitive; being organic, incorporating existing plants, championing wild plants in design. In our new garden I\u2019m going further by focusing on plant vigour to transition gardens in a gentler, albeit slower, way.<\/p> I started by observing local wild plants in and around our garden, including Valeriana officinalis<\/em>, Rumex acetosella and Digitalis purpurea<\/a><\/em>, matching their vigour with the likes of Veronicastrum<\/a><\/em> and Eupatorium<\/em>. These all grow through and over a thick carpet of dandelions and Prunella vulgaris<\/em> without problem, and are combined with with suppressing plants capable of starving any interlopers of light beneath their dense clumps, such as Brunnera, Geranium<\/a> <\/em>and Polystichum<\/em>.<\/p> My new challenge is out-competing ground elder, and eventually I might tackle bramble <\/p><\/blockquote> I\u2019ve been planting all of these as plugs or from seed into the likes of creeping buttercup and even nettles, and they\u2019re slowly pushing them aside, with only occasional help at the start. If the odd nettle and dandelion live between or below these other plants, so much the better for diversity. My new challenge is out-competing ground elder and eventually I might tackle bramble. For scale, I follow a similar process with shrubs<\/a> and trees. The approach gives above-ground wildlife<\/a> time to adjust, while keeping below- ground ecosystems intact, but it does have problems.<\/p>