Ask Clueless1

1. How did you come to join Gardeners Corner?

Having bought a piece of land in the countryside, I had great ambitions of making a positive contribution to the environment by filling it with lots of native wild plants that are in decline due in part to modern farming practices. I had a vision of the place being full of wild flowers, and supporting a wide range of wildlife. Sadly the only wildlife it seems to support in any numbers is rabbits and wild deer that destroy everything they can.

2. Name the countries or counties you have lived in …

Blighty (Britain)

3. Describe the type of work you do.

I make my living being a computer programmer, or a 'button presser' as I've been called (among other things). As penance for sins in a previous life I try to manage 3 acres of countryside armed with just manual tools (ok I occassionally borrow a rotorvator and a chainsaw), just me, my dad and my mate Paul (who can't help with all jobs as he plants potatoes upside down ).

4. Describe how you first got into gardening …

I was always vaguely interested, but used to think if you can't eat it, there's no point growing it. I had an allotment when I was younger and grew lots of veg, then nothing for years due to work commitments etc. I rediscovered my interest when I took on my land, and then that interest increased when my wife became pregnant and I decided instead of repeated half hearted attempts at looking after the back garden, I should make a real effort to make it a nice place for my son to play in.

5. What would be your dream type of garden and do you think you will ever be able to achieve it?

Something that looks natural but tidy, colourful at all times of year, with water features in it, and lots of buzzy, chirpy, fluttery things in it.

6. Have you any particular favourites in celebrity gardeners, flowers, shrubs and/or vegetables?

I'm not much good with names, but I like posh bloke gardener who I think was on gardeners world. I liked that he was always willing to experiment and go against established procedures in order to discover new ways of doing things.

My favourite shrub all round is Rosemary, looks and smells great and of course has a multitude of uses in the kitchen. It is also the key ingredient of my hangover cure (a sprig of rosemary and a slice of lemon in a cup of hot water).

Of course I have other favourites for other situations. For example, the often underrated Nasturtium is ace for quickly filling in a temporarily empty patch of ground, looks good, is perhaps the easiest thing in the world to grow, and it seems popular with the bumblebees. You can eat it too, but it tastes horrid.

7. Have you ever entered any of your plants into shows?

No, I'm not that good.

8. If you had a garden created in your memory, what plants do you think would most adequately sum up you and your life?

That's a tough question. I'm not sure. Maybe when I've been around a few more decades, and learnt a lot more than I know now, I might have an answer for this one, but for now I'm stumped.

 

What made you decide to take on the land?

And I think you mean Bob Flowerdew (the one with the flowing golden locks) but there are a couple of "posh" ones-or at least posh voices-Steven Lacey is another one.

 

It was (technically still is as I'm still paying it off) my dad's. He's decided that his age he no longer has the energy to look after it (although he works at least as hard as I do when we go up there). He reluctantly decided to sell, and I wanted to keep it in the family. First and foremost, I wanted my dad to continue to have full access to the place whenever he wants, and still play a major role in its maintenance, even if it is just to the extent of giving his opinion as to what we should do with it. Other than that, I wanted some sort of anchor to 'home', as living away in a rented house in a place I don't like, I think that helps. I also didn't like the idea of some random stranger having it, and potentially ruining the place. Its only 3 acres, but in that three acres there are a lot of features and different types of habitat. I'd hate to see it go to waste. Finally, its an investment. I'm no good at looking after my money, so if its tied up in the land it isn't getting squandered in the pub, or on baccy, or whatever other pointless purchases.

The guy I'm thinking off has short dark hair. He is very well spoken but not in a pretentious way. I think he works for Kew. In one programme I saw him in he'd divided a piece of garden in two, and was watering one side with collected rainwater, and not watering the other side at all, just to see if his drought hardy garden could manage without mains water. In another he had several specimens each of several different species, and had used different means of protecting them from slugs on each one. He showed is the devastation that had happened with the plants protected one way, and the healthy growth of the plants protected using a different method.

 

What's the one plant or flower that brings a smile to your face and why?

 

Any that I plant that thrive cheer me up, just because I like to see them succeed. If I had to choose just one, it would be the Sunflower. The reason being that the wife grows them, and she is so enthusiastic right from the point of filling a pot with compost, to tending to it as it grows. She treats each one as an individual and nurtures them. It makes her very happy and that makes me happy. They say a smile is contagious, it works for me

 

Hi, Clueless1. Your 3 acres of land sounds a lot to take on, but I feel sure that you enjoy it. How is this divided up? Are we talking about rich low meadow land, or is it moorland?

Have you conducted your own survey of what's growing on it, and is any of it woodland? If so, which type? I ask, because many people would like the opportunity to have something like this, including me.:hehe: :thmb:

 

Hi Strawman.

My 3 acres is a lot to take on, but fortunately as my goal is to keep it natural while still being fairly tidy, it is not too much work really. It is not really divided up, other by natural features. There is a deep ditch/shallow ravine (whatever you want to call it) running down the middle to the beck. On one side of that is my 'top field', which is largely just a flat grassy area. On the other side it is all steep bank sides. Parts of it are woodland, mainly along the beck that forms my boundary. It is natural woodland consisting of oak, hazel, elderberry trees, rowans, the odd sycamore that probably just landed there a hundred years ago, and various others. No conifers.

The land is on the edge of the moors, but no heather or bilberries on my site (not that I have any objection to them, I just don't have them).

I did start to conduct a wildflower survey, but never finished it. One time before my son was born I assigned the wife and my young niece the task of taking my wildflower ID book, pen and paper, to record what was there. To be honest it was mostly to keep my niece off my back (she whinges a lot), but she got bored after 10 minutes and started doing my head in so I suddenly had an urgent job to do across the way. Luckily for me the topography of the land is such that it is easy to hide if you want some peace, and once hidden, if you hear the person you're hiding from getting too close, there is a good network of low ditches, bank sides and woodland to get about undetected.

 

Hi Clueless1, I've noticed that even near where I live, the boundary between the open moorland and the enclose fields, do seem to be quite different from one another. On one side of a wall, a variety of heathers grow, whilst on the other it's all bracken and a mixture of Sycamore, Beech and Birch. Just what causes these stark differences I don't yet know.

A wild flower survey is useful to let you know what the soil type is. Of course, you don't have to survey the whole of your land, but merely a number of metre squares (made of wood) and placed at random on the ground.

Over a long period of time, perhaps five to ten years, open land can become colonised by shrubs, and not necessarilly those you have growing there at the moment. This is how the British landscape changes over the years. Every now and again, it becomes necessary to keep the growth in check by grazing, or burning the stubble each spring. One particularly nice SSSI I know of very well, is managed in this way and it has a fantastic level of flora and fauna on it.

Thanks again for explaining your plot to me, I appreciate this very much. :thmb:

 

Hi Strawman, I think the main reason for the stark difference between my land and the moorland just across the road is its use over the years. Before my dad owned it, it was part of a farm and was grazed by sheep. When my dad had it, he had a couple of ponies, and a goat on there. There are two distinctly different flat grass areas. When my dad had it, one side was ok for grass (and therefore ok for his livestock to graze) but the larger area was struggling. He paid one of his farmer pals to bring the tractor and plough in, and they only did one side. My dad reckons the plough was set too deep, so it brought up a lot of the subsoil rather than just turning the topsoil. The result is now that one area is fairly diverse and one isn't, yet (I'm working on it).

We've done some initial soil surveys. We've determined that the soil in the main top field area (the only bit that is almost purely grass), and found it is mildly acid, but has good structure. That's kind of consistent with what we'd expect given it would once of been heathland. Next year, in early summer, I'm going to set some time aside to really log what is there. The ultimate goal is to bring back as much naturally diversity as I can, and it would help if I worked with what's already there.

As for keeping the shrubs tidy, we have been doing this, and I have to say we had some fun with it. I sought guidance from DEFRA before chopping any trees, to make sure no laws or guidelines were being broken, and we gave a Blackthorn thicket a very severe haircut. We are trimming it in such a way that birds and other small animals still have somewhere to hide and shelter, while at the same time allowing sunlight to reach the floor. Since doing it a range of as yet unidentified wildflowers have started to appear where before there was nothing.

Bracken is proving to be a problem. We pulled a load out by hand recently, but there is more to do. I think it may be in part due to a blunder of inexperience on my part. The place used to be full of gorse but we cleared most of it, and didn't grass it over so there was lots of exposed ground for stuff to take hold. I don't want to use chemicals on it because I don't want to kill off any wild flowers that might be trying to grow in there.

On the grazing point, the land is being grazed, unfortunately by an army of wild rabbits and the odd deer. The shape and size of the plot makes it impractical to rabbit proof fence the lot, but we've done a few experiments into ways of avoiding damage, and we're learning as we go along.

In 10 years time if you walk onto my land, you will find it full of bumblebees, butterflies, moths, dragon flies, amphibians, birds etc. etc. All feeding off natures bounty provided by the diverse range of flowers, berries, nuts etc, and taking shelter in the the trees and hedges. That's my goal, and as long as I don't lose sight of that goal it will happen, although I'm sure there'll be a fair few blunders (learning opportunities) along the way.

 

Thanks for sharing, Clueless1.

Your quest to manage the piece of land is the stuff of dreams, but I can clearly see that you will achieve your aims to have land that is full of wildlife of all kinds. I once had an idea to do something like this myself, then the rising price of housing and the land that it takes, suddenly put something like this way beyond my reach.

As for the deer and rabbits, yes, they do some damage, but they are also a part of your land's ecology and the way it works at the moment. Where I come from, deer have lived and roamed the New Forest for centuries along with the rabbits, but they haven't destroyed it because the forest is managed, just as you will eventually manage your plot of land.

 

Thanks for the encouragement Strawman. I know land prices have risen through the roof in recent years, but if you search about, there are still some very affordable plots kicking about if you wanted to go for it. I briefly considered expanding my empire, so had a look about. The prices vary so widely, but I've found that if you get a plot in the middle of nowhere, with no planing permission, and with a topology that makes it impractical for commercial farming practices (like my place), you can get some good deals. Another option is to approach a landowner who has a patch that he considers not much use (my land was such a patch, which is why my dad bought it years ago - and then sold it to me), and see if you can rent it cheap. In fact it may be possible to persuade a farmer to let you look after it for a pittance, in return for you managing it in a way that enables him to claim for the environmental stewardship grants.

 

Cheers, Clueless1. I really appreciate your advice because it makes it seem so tempting, and right up my street where my interests in nature are concerned. You know, I'm truly amazed about what I've discovered since joining the GC forum. There are so many nice people, all offering a host of fantastic hints, tips and general advice. It makes me feel kind of special. Thanks again...