BLOGANUARY 2025 DAY 29
I have spent much of today thinking about gardening. Permaculture, to be precise. I have been a longtime fan of this way of producing food, and although I was never able to recreate a proper permaculture garden at my previous property, I was fascinated by the concept. I studied Natural Sciences with the Open University for a number of years and the whole natural systems and interconnectedness of life is a source of constant wonder. Anything that harnesses this systems approach piques my interest, so I have been watching some YT and subscribing to newsletters, and enjoying some incredible land transformations from innovative growers, farmers, and communities from all parts of the world.
We only have a small garden but I’m looking forward to the temperatures stabilising a bit so I can start to cut back some of last year’s growth and remove some of the dead foliage without disturbing the critters underneath too much. Leaving the ground cover is essential for overwintering larvae and detritivores, and birds such as Wrens, Robins and Blackbirds rely on these pockets of food in our borders to sustain them. Dead stems provide perches so that birds can cross the space in safety (and they also look beautiful when covered in frost). Winter is a time for quiet and hibernation, so rustling around and disturbing invertebrates that are conserving their energy is detrimental to a healthy garden later on in the spring. So, tempting as it is to “tidy up” it’s really important to watch and wait, and allow the garden to rest.
I’m interested in growing some pumpkins and peas, and some kale too. All these are great for pollinators, and of course the family of White butterflies all have caterpillars who eat brassicas, so the kale will sustain them. There is a cabbage plant in our front verge that I plonked in as it was spare, and although it’s now limp and frazzled from the snow, frost and windchill, it had caterpillars on it as late as November.
If you have a garden or outdoor space for growing, have you got plans for the upcoming season?
Here is a photo from my volunteering session at Charleston yesterday, where Harry was tending to the plants in the garden:
