How to be a good ancestor

The Untamed Gardener

Aisling Blackburn

Our unintended cabbage white butterfly breeding programme has been very successful thus far. I’d like to take back what I said about not netting the brassicas. Now the caterpillars have taken advantage of the beautiful Pak choi while totally ignoring the tough mizuna in the new raised bed. I don’t mind them eating that as we can’t seem to get the humans to eat it. A very useful green, if a bit boring, just as soon as winter approaches the cooks will be looking for something green and I hope it’s there as “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone” so says Joni and you never miss your water ‘til your well runs dry etc .

Speaking of parched earth, this dry summer has been lovely, many plants have thrived as a result, and the fantastic fruit harvest is evidence itself. Others, specifically older plants like our apple trees seem to have suffered more, which is a little worrying. It’s hard to say what will happen in Ireland in the future; some say our summers will be hotter and dryer and our winters wetter. In mainland Europe, for sure, temperatures are rising, and gardeners are already finding ways around that. On Quintosapore farm in Umbria Italy, twin brothers Allesandro and Nicola Giuggioli (what is it with twins and gardening?), are preparing for a future of over 40 degrees and higher. Through their experience of drought, they are creating a system of resilience based on how nature survives known as biomimicry. They saw how nearby woodlands were not suffering during the drought, nor was there disease or fertilizer applied to create this state. They are experimenting with old-fashioned gardening techniques as well as modern ones like Agroforestry, Syntropic farming, and permaculture. Biochar, microorganisms (known as Ems) and heritage seeds are some of the tools they use. Not only do these techniques tackle drought conditions, but they protect soil for future generations. The statement that “There are only 60 harvests left in the world” – according to the UN food and agricultural association; has been challenged recently in the Farmers Journal, that this figure could not possibly be applied to every country in the world. Yet there are now some countries with zero harvests and only recently the Sustainable Soil Alliance alleged, that the UK may only have “100 harvest left due to the consequences of intensive farming”. The Global Environmental facility estimated that 95% of the world’s land could be degraded by 2050. Even though these are serious figures, all is not lost, and it may depend on how we treat our soil now.

Then again, it isn’t often drought that we find difficult here in the northwest; it’s keeping our feet dry. When the soil is kept covered, using green manures, cover crops or grass, that will help, as well as creating swales and restoring wetland areas- see the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) July 2024.

Planting trees can do no harm either, which is a way to help future generations. Nut trees can take up to 30 years til the first harvest and they grow well in our temperate climate. Sweet chestnut and walnuts need dryer ground and while nut trees like deep soil, cobnuts and filbert are successful in this part of the country, with its shallow soil. I have a beautiful Pinus pinea- stone pine, that grows at an 80degree angle since the storm; it produces cones with pine nuts inside, usually unripe. Holm Oak like the stone pine hails from the Mediterranean, is an evergreen that grows well locally and produces edible acorns. Not all acorns taste good, leave the rest for the squirrels.

Anyone with a little bit of land, could plant a small forest of fruit and nut trees; in line with the goal of the NRL, which also tackles large scale public land areas. One of my neighbours has planted several trees in the middle of the field where he farms sheep. They were very carefully planted in groups of three, staked and surrounded by a fence to protect them from the sheep who love to huddle under the branches now several years later.

They are ordinary pasture trees, that give shade in summer and shelter in winter. I often wonder why more farmers don’t do this.

The Man Who Planted Trees, by Jean Giono, the tale of Elzéard Bouiffer, tells the story of a shepherd’s efforts to re-forest a desolate valley near Provence. Though written in 1953 its message is even more important for us today, and as Anton Chekhov said -

“Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.”