Starting With Community Gardens ...

Gardening for Wildlife goes well with Gardening for Community

CONTENTS

The Garden at Fritz - Feeding Food Banks
Transformation - from lawn to no-mow to bursting with wildlife
Some species to look out for this month
Another bird killing virus
It’s just too hot …

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The Garden at Fritz - Gardening Differently

Mostly when I’m talking about gardening in these newsletters what I’m referring to is gardening with and for wildlife. This week I’m going, for a brief moment, to go slightly off piste and tell you about something different. We are all aware that things have changed in recent years and unacceptable proportions of our populations, whichever country you are reading this in, are compelled to make use of food banks to get them through the week and feed the kids. Personally, I find this dreadful, but I’m not here to talk about politics. What I want to tell you about is an activity which communities can make, or at least can consider making, to support these food banks and those suffering what has been named as food insecurity.

The Garden at Fritz was started 11 years ago. I’ve been volunteering with it for 10 years. The garden is on land in a corner of a small town park. It’s not a huge area. Around 10,000 ft.² or a plot roughly 100 feet on each side. On this plot volunteers from the community last year grew a bit in excess of 2 1/2 tons of fresh produce with a retail value in excess of $16,000. We donate this food to local Food banks who distribute it to those in need. What our food banks tell us is that while they can generally get donations of packaged and tinned foods, items which have a good shelf life, they want to be able to provide their clients with fresh food whenever possible and that can be difficult. Difficult because somebody has to grow it for them or they must have the money to go to local supermarkets and purchase it. It seems that many supporters prefer to give packets of food or tins of food rather than money to purchase food … for whatever reason. So we work together to grow organic produce which we can give and help out as much as we can. Depending on the climate, the food that’s grown varies. We have not yet tried to grow salad crops, other than radishes, because despite the sterling efforts of our local fox population, there are too many rabbits around and we all know Mr. McGregor’s dietary preferences. This year we are growing things such as tomatoes, peas, climbing beans, squash, cucumbers, courgettes, peppers, aubergines, garlic, and onions. Onions are wonderful. You can stick a seedling in any odd corner and up it will come. They are bombproof, you just wait for the edible onion to magically appear.

I think any caring community could try to do something like this, provided they can find land and have knowledgeable leadership. Citizen’s associations, churches, youth groups and the like might get the ball rolling. Maybe there’s a local landowner or farmer that will let you use a corner of one of their fields. Socially conscious local companies usually have some land around their buildings that be turned over to the cause - there are several examples of this near to us and the companies that take part seem enthusiastic. Then, like us, you can approach your local council. Tell them your plans, explain the need and, ask them nicely if they will let you install your garden in a corner of a park. Schools usually have land to spare and it would be a great educational opportunity too. Almost inevitably there will be some resistance because this is a new idea, and those in authority are often wary about doing things differently, but there are examples like ours, to which you can refer them which demonstrate that these ideas can be made to work. Indeed, there was some suspicion in our town at the beginning and frankly, I think some of the councillors at the time thought it would not last more than a season or two, but we’re now in our 11th year and the town has been able to benefit from what we do. It’s a feather in their cap and something to crow about. It makes the town look good to the extent that they now give us an annual budget to help us cover basic costs like seeds and fertilizers and rabbit fencing. There is government funding available to pay a basic wage to a couple of local students for the key summer months. The town authorities have also helped us plant a small orchard beside our vegetable plot and as those trees mature we hope to be able to offer boxes of apples and pears and plums and cherries and apricots to our food bank customers in the years ahead.

Anyway, there is demonstrably a need for community ventures like this. Even in well off communities, there are families who need help putting food on the table and volunteers who may not be able to dig deep into their own pockets can contribute by offering time and expertise. Maybe this is something you could start in your community? I guarantee that the food banks will fall over themselves if you approach them. If anybody has any questions I would be more than happy to offer experience and advice about how to get this sort of project off the ground. Meanwhile, here is a few photographs and a link to our gardens website.

This was a one-off and I will be back to wildlife gardening next week. That’s a promise.

https://gardenatfritz.com/

In not un-related news …

A larger population and the climate crisis demand trade-offs, but if the landscape of the future is expensive boxes in the sky, devoid of aesthetic merit or opportunity for community, it will be a gift for the new hard right. More building demands more public control. Rather than scrapping planning laws and letting big builders rip, the next government must use regulation to ensure that everyone gets the best homes – and green space – possible.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/04/the-guardian-view-on-gardens-needed-for-council-homes-not-just-stately-homes

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Transformation - the 1001 Species Garden

Pour encourager les autres … this is what can be achieved in a suburban garden (mine) over a transition period of about five years … help those creatures you enjoy having around you to have somewhere pleasant to cavort. from the first decision to no longer mow the lawn to a native plant mead, replete with flowers and seeds and birds and butterflies and bees. Start with a small corner and take it from there.

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Why Birding is Good for You …

https://www.swarovskioptik.com/at/en/birding/stories/why-birding-is-good-for-us

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Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Labidomera clivicollis) Larva

Milkweed plants have a toxic latex in their sap with cardiac glycosides. Milkweed Beetles have evolved to tolerate these toxins and use them as protection against predators. The beetles store the toxic compounds in their bodies, making them unappetizing and dangerous to potential predators. Their bright red and black coloration is a further further warning to predators of their toxicity.

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Margined Calligrapher (Toxomerus marginatus)

Margined calligraphers are just one of many, many species of hoverflies and surprisingly important pollinators. They mimic bees and wasps with their gold and black colouration.

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Large Flowered Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora)

Also known as Merrybells - a native plant that prefers moist soil and partial shade to full shade but can tolerate occasional dry soil. The root system is rhizomatous, from which offsets are often produced and can occasionally form colonies. Works well in woodland gardens, shady borders or allowed to naturalize. A great companion to ferns, Hostas and other woodland plants.

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Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)

A migratory breeding bird fairly common in eastern North America. The male's orange and black plumage is reminiscent of the coat-of-arms of the 17th-century Lord Baltimore, hence the name. Most often found in open woodland, forest edges, and partially wooded wetlands. Forage for insects and fruits in brush and shrubbery.

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Another Bird Virus

Yet another avian virus is wandering the planet. This time, it’s a virus first observed in South Africa that has now reached Europe. It appears that particularly, but not exclusively, affects European Blackbirds which are related to our American Robins. Fingers crossed that the Atlantic is an effective barrier - all the more so because human infections by the virus in sub-Saharan Africa have been noted.

But now the songbird is facing decline, and the British public has been asked to contribute to a survey by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to find out why. Their numbers have plummeted in Greater London and southern England at rates not seen in the rest of the UK. It is thought the bird is suffering from Usutu virus, first detected in the UK in London in summer 2020. This disease is potentially fatal to blackbirds and is thought to be spreading across south-east England. It was first identified in South Africa and has spread across mainland Europe. The growth of the disease has been attributed to climate breakdown; native UK mosquitoes can transmit the virus when it is warm outside.

Blackbird numbers in London fell 50% in 2020 compared with 2019. Numbers recovered somewhat, but are still about 32% lower now than in 2019. Overall, their numbers have decreased by 18% UK-wide since the 1970s due to factors including habitat loss.

The virus is maintained through a cycle between passerine birds, mainly blackbirds (Turdus merula), or magpies (Pica pica) and Strigiformes, such as the Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) as amplifying hosts and ornithophilic mosquitoes as vectors. More at this link.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9980716/

Climate Changes - It’s just too HOT!

Speaks for itself …