I doubt there are many people who will find it helpful to hear that the creatures that bother our beloved plants ought to be as welcome in our gardens as the ones that support our growing aspirations – but it is true.
It’s all about balance. And balance in a garden looks like an ecosystem where a diversity of living things can find a home, make babies, predate or be preyed upon as well as, occasionally, damaging some of the plants that we covet.
I would be lying if I claimed never to intervene when I fear that some ravenous mini-beast is threatening a crop. I will gently hose off the black fly that congregate on my beanstalks, and have netted the brassicas so that the cabbage white butterflies lay their eggs elsewhere instead of leaving their caterpillars to munch my young kale plants down to stubs.
But, principally, my approach to “pest control” is to ensure that there is as much biodiversity – from birds to beetles, hoverflies to hedgehogs, and spiders to solitary bees – as I can encourage. And I do this through planting flowers and leaving leafy crops such as dill and rocket to bolt for the nectar gatherers to find; leaving parts of the garden to grow wildly; and resisting the urge to be too tidy so that there are diverse habitats for various critters. I accept that there will inevitably be some damage and thievery, though – thankfully – there were enough raspberries to share with the blackbirds this season.
Over the handful of years that I’ve been growing on my East Sussex patch, I’ve noticed the number of insects declining dramatically (evidenced by the fact that I’m having to hand-pollinate the cucumbers in my greenhouse this summer when, in 2020, I was regularly guiding bumblebees out of the door). A report from last year shows that the UK’s insect population has declined by almost 60% over the last 20 years.
So now I’m trying to come up with ways to redouble my efforts because I trust that a vibrant ecosystem will be robust and self-regulating: I’ve seen leaves curling around clusters of aphids and, shortly after, ladybird larvae appearing nearby; and the frog I spotted hiding among my flowering marjoram will surely be helping keep the slug population manageable.
As a result, the one thing that I will always refuse is the use of chemicals to attempt to exert control over my veg patch. This is why I’ve signed an open letter created by landscape designer and writer Jack Wallington, calling for a ban of sales of synthetic pesticides to the general public. I agree with him – and the thousands of other gardeners who would never use chemical interventions in their growing spaces – that buying poison shouldn’t be part of our weekly supermarket shop.
