soil – Lili Barras-Hargan

Linescapes: Remapping and Reconnecting Britain’s Fragmented Wildlife by Hugh Warwick

This year, I have set myself the very modest challenge of reading 12 books about my field. Not limited to horticulture, I’m excited to explore more nature writing, conservation literature and – unexpectedly – books about animals. When you change career, it can be tempting to develop tunnel vision for your new industry, but it is important to explore the periphery too. So to kick this off, I have done exactly that.

In this book, ecologist and hedgehog expert Hugh Warwick uncovers the history of the lines that have fragmented British land, from the reaves in Dartmoor dating back 3,500 years to the rail network cutting a patchwork pattern in all directions. While anyone with a modicum of interest in conservation will be familiar with the high-profile challenges we are currently facing, habitat fragmentation is not nearly as mainstream, considering its enormous impact.

Habitat fragmentation is a fairly straightforward issue – when impenetrable man-made structures such as fences, canals and train tracks are put in place, once sprawling land becomes finite. Resources become depleted, predators face more competition and animals may be forced into urban settings to find food, a mate and shelter.

Fragmentation is much more complex and has bigger implications on the delicate network of nature for me to explain, but when I first started reading this book, I was acutely aware of the parallels that exist between fragmented wildlife in Britain and the ever-narrowing plains in sub-Saharan Africa. Urban expansion – and the consequential transport and energy infrastructure that comes with it – have forced animals into land that shrinks year by year.

When I think about some of the issues I am most interested in, they all come down to the same thing: the natural order has been disrupted. Where animals once fed on vegetation as they moved through the land, boundaries now keep them confined to a space with limited resources to feed growing populations. We often see this as a driving force in elephant culling. Vegetation is destroyed faster than it can recuperate and this leads ecologists to deem a cull necessary – to protect the plants and maintain the ‘delicate balance’.

Let’s just say I have questions.

What if we used a variation of crop rotation, a familiar vegetable growing technique, to give the soil, trees and organisms a chance to recuperate?
Would it be possible to ‘rotate’ these animals around different parts of the larger nature reserves?
Would this allow the important vegetation time to recuperate?
Does it need to recuperate, when we know that dead vegetation created a habitat for a humungous range of organisms?
Would all of this simply be creating more fragmentation?

I don’t know, but this book has brought a lot of questions out of the woodwork for me, which I think is the tenet of any good book. So if you saw this in your local bookshop and were on the fence about grabbing a copy, make sure you do. But be warned, by the end of it, you’ll want to rip that fence out of the ground and plant a species-rich hedge instead.

Gardening Journal – Entry 12

Thursday 29 October 2020

This was by far the most exciting day of the week, as it was our first trip the Barbican Conservatory. It was so lovely to have a change of scenery and do our very outdoors work, in an indoor environment.

We went to the Barbican Conservatory because, although we get plenty of experience working with machinery and doing ornamental horticultural maintenance, there are no facilities or tasks involving propagation at the depot.

We started by looking around the conservatory, which reminded me of a mini Kew glasshouse. It was full of tropical plants, ferns and banana trees. And how refreshing to be surrounded by so much greenery amid the brutalist infrastructure of the Barbican.

We then mixed some soil for the propagation task we were working on. This involved mixing four bags of John Innes No 3 (mature plant potting compost), a large bag of bark, a good few handfuls of perlite and a dash of John Innes seedling mix, to add drainage. Add salt to the rim and there you have it – the most disgusting cocktail ever!

To mix the various components, we made a pile on the floor, adding every ingredient in layers, before mixing by shovelling it over itself. Essentially, we moved the pile of compost across the floor until the mixture looked right and the perlite was evenly distributed throughout. Then, we shovelled it back towards the potting bench, where we shovelled it up onto the bench, ready for potting.

We prepared the pots before taking the soft-wood cuttings of the plant we were planning to propagate. We did this by filling the pots with soil and pressing down with a round pot tamper until it was at the right height (at the lower rim of the pot. Then we watered the soil and filled in any pots where the soil had sunk down.

We took stem cuttings of eight different Pelargoniums, including P. ‘Cola Bottles’, P. unique ‘Donatella Bluet Champagne’, P. ‘Robert’s Lemon Rose’, P. ‘Little Gem’, and P. ‘Grey Lady Plymouth’. We cut about 15cm from the terminal bud (using thoroughly cleaned secateurs to prevent contamination and spreading disease), making sure we took enough to plant eight good cuttings per cultivar. We placed a label in each bucket so we could keep track of which plant we were taking cuttings from.

Then – hot hort tip incoming – I used the sharpie I wrote the labels with as a dibber, as its the perfect size. You can have that plant hack for free. After that, I carefully removed all of the leaves from the stem, apart from the top three or four. You want to avoid leaving too many leaves on, as that is where transpiration occurs most in a plant and results in loss of moisture, which can stop a cutting from rooting and succeeding. To save resources, I used the label I had written when collecting the cuttings to label each tray of the Pelargoniums.

And that’s that! We cleared up, said some sad goodbyes to the beautiful, dry conservatory and headed out into the pouring rain.

Gardening Journal – Entry 11

Tuesday 27 October 2020

Today has been a bit of a slow one – but much needed. It started with a beautiful sky show on the way to work, with a tangerine wash of colour filling my view all the way in. Grumble as I may about the clocks going back, I felt very luck to be able to catch that sunrise on my cycle today.

Today really was a study day, with us only leaving the depot for two and a half hours to fill some containers with soil. The rest of it has been spent behind laptops, trying to catch up on missed college work and get up to speed with our Learner Journals.

The containers we filled have been affectionately named the ‘COVID planters’, as they are technically new sites hat have come about during and because of the pandemic. They will be planted with small trees and shrubs and have socially-distanced seating arranged around them. From what I could see on the planting list, there will be a lot of birch trees collared by a ring of liriopes at the bottom. I also spotted some Osmanthus aquifolum on the sheet.

Much like a lasagne, when planting up a container with a tree, the layering is very important. Coincidentally, we got the order all wrong and spent ages shovelling leca out of the planters. We should have started with a layer of Terram (a geotextile that allows moisture to pass through but won’t allow bigger particles such as leca or soil to pass through and mix), followed by two bags of leca. Then, another layer of Terram was placed on top and we shovelled in the soil. To make sure the soil level was correct, I hopped into the containers and treaded the soil, to find any gaps and remove large air pockets, before filling it to the desired height.

As the trees are only being delivered tomorrow, when we’re studying from home, we did not fill the containers to the top and instead only filled them halfway. This will allow space for the rootball to be placed without double handling of the soil.

Tomorrow is all about catching up on the work I missed while my laptop was being serviced and I couldn’t complete classwork virtually. Wish me luck!

Gardening Journal – Entry 9

Tuesday 29 September 2020

We started the day off with a lovely bit of constant drizzle. Not enough to rain off the day and study from home, but definitely enough to soak you through on your 40-minute cycle in.

We started the day catching up on Learner Journals and updating our time logs. Then we worked for a few hours on stripping out more bedding and soil cultivating, only this time on some raised containers. This was good news for our backs and shoulders.

The rain actually worked in our favour, as by the time we got out there, it had stopped drizzling but the soil was soft enough that the plants came out very easily. I started by removing the edging plants, which were tougher to get out, and then I worked towards the centre. The sub dots were scent marigolds and they came out of the soil really easily. Lastly, we used a border fork to remove the dots: cannas. These were tricker to remove but eventually came out after some teasing. When removing plants from a display, it is important to tap off any excess soil, as this prevents too much soil from being lifted and helps to keep the green waste bags light. We set the cannas aside for one of our colleagues who runs a plant recycling and reusing scheme.

We then used the same border fork to simple dig the containers, lifting and turning the soil methodically across all the containers. After getting the soil level and removing the roots left behind by the plants (and in particular the cannas), we created an edge and swept up.

Then it was back to the study bunker to work on our plant idents and complete some learner journals. Just as we were about to leave, the sun came out for our cycle home. Perfect; still in our wet clothes from the morning!

Gardening Journal – Entry 8

Monday 28 September 2020

Today was a really good day, and a great way to kick off the week. Between pandemic fatigue and not feeling very inspired, I needed a day like this to get me back into the swing of things.

I started off with a litter round first thing, while Laurence worked on stripping out one of the summer bedding displays. Then, we worked on raking off any leaves, stones or pieces of plants removed before. After that we began simple digging.

Unlike single digging – which involves digging a trench as deep as one spit length and backfilling the trench with the next row of soil – simple digging is not as time ( or back) intensive. It involved lifting and turning over the soil. This can be done by thrusting the fork into the soil and flicking it around using the shaft as a pivot. Otherwise, if the soil is more compacted, you can use your foot to push it in to a spit’s depth and lift the soil clear of the ground before dumping it in upside down.

Soil cultivation is important in gardens like the ones I work in, where sites see a lot of foot traffic and, as a result, suffer from compaction. Cultivating the soil also helps to aerate it and allows for gaseous exchange within the soil. When planting bedding – and in particular when planting winter bedding, which requires lower depths for bulbs – it is important to prepare the area by single or simple digging. Otherwise, if you are short of time, a rotavator can be used. Nonetheless, it is important to note that while rotavators quickly cultivate the soil, they cause compaction in the subsoil and should only really be used once per year, either for summer or winter bedding.

Once the soil had been dug over, we roughly raked it to get a decent level before treading. Treading is important in helping the aerated, ‘puffy’ soil sink down somewhat. Without treading, as soon as plants are watered in or it rains, the soil will sink down in an irregular way and could lead to water pooling in certain areas. You tread in by walking methodically across the soil, putting your weight in your heels. It should create almost a herringbone pattern when done correctly.

After that, we began to rake again. Initially, we were raking to collect up any detritus, such as leaves, rocks or dried clumps of soil. I learnt last week at college that you can use your rake to collect together any larger lumps of soil and bash at them with the rake and it breaks them down nicely. It also feels good to give something bit of a bash after digging and raking for two hours!

The final rake is the most important one, and what usually takes the longest. The aim is to create a level. Sometimes, it can be difficult to create a level if digging or rotavating has lifted the soil height too much. In this case, it is best to create a gentle gradient upwards towards the middle, as this will not be noticeable once planted and will help drainage towards the edges.

After lunch we worked on another bed, in exactly the same way. We stripped out and raked off any debris. However, due to time constraints, we used a rotavator to cultivate the soil. At the beginning of my apprenticeship – and on a chaotic day where everything went wrong and the shouting was WAY too much – I used a very old and very confusing rotavator that had about 10 levers too many and had bits falling off it as we used it. (If I have learnt anything in my nine months’ experience it’s that old machinery needs to get replaced).

Luckily for everyone involved, this machine was newer, lighter and very simple to use. Before our colleague started it up, he said, “Just to let you know, it’s quite fast,” and was immediately dragged about 5m into the bed. Important information: this man is the tallest person I’ve ever met and with legs twice as long as mine. Needless to say, I turned it right down to a modest Gear 1 before taking it for a spin.

To get the best out of a rotavator, it is worth bouncing weight down on the handles, as this helps the blades penetrate deeper in the soil. It is also advisable to switch off the blades when moving it back into position, or you’ll give Lili a heart attack as she sees the blades spinning over concrete – and your feet.

After that, we raked – following the same steps as above. Then we called it a day. I’m really glad the weather is changing and making hard work like today much more bearable. I didn’t even break a sweat while digging, raking, rotavating or lugging tools around in a wheelbarrow. I’ve got autumn to thank for that.