Home » Home & Garden » Gardening » Organic Gardening

Mediaeval Gardening - Organically for the benefit of Wildlife

Ranked #6,421 in Home & Garden, #97,160 overall

Working With Nature

Gardening organically is healthier for the environment and, when growing vegetables for the kitchen, the family. Growing it medieval style (like an English Country Garden) can be easier as you're working with nature and it can be fun; especially if you incorporate a wildlife (not fish) pond into your scheme as you observe the eco-systems find their own natural level.

To see this garden in its full glory visit Nathanville Wildlife Organic Garden.

AKA English Cottage Garden

Gardening practices of medieval gardens, aka an 'English Cottage Garden', was first practiced in England during the Roman occupation (almost 2,000 years ago) but was abandoned after they left in the 5th century and not revived until the beginning of the Agricultural revolution in the 16th Century.

Cottage gardens of English origin are typically random and carefree in form. Originally, these gardens were created by the peasants (workers) who lived in village cottages to provide themselves with food and herbs, and flowers planted in for decoration (companion planting).

The more common flowers in cottage gardens, in addition to flowering herbs, were hollyhocks, delphinium and daisies. The method of planting closely packed plants reduced the amount of weeding and watering required.

Today, a cottage garden is often primarily flowers and completely free-form in nature. Many gardeners attempt to use traditional varieties of plants in their cottage gardens to preserve the antiquity of the method

Organic Gardening

For the benefit of the wildlife

Organic gardening aims to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to the wildlife and to humans. Wildlife benefiting from Organic practices in the garden includes foxes, hedgehogs, squirrels, and birds, all of which can help with pest without the need for the use of chemicals.

Organic pest control involves the cumulative effect of many techniques, including:

* Allowing for an acceptable level of pest damage.
* Encouraging predatory beneficial insects and animals to flourish and eat pests.
* Encouraging beneficial micro-organisms.
* Careful plant selection, choosing disease-resistant varieties.
* Planting companion crops that discourage or divert pests.
* Rotating crops to different locations from year to year to interrupt pest reproduction cycles.

Organic gardening also helps to reduce pollution, is healthier for the soil, aids water conservation and can extend the growing season all of which is beneficial to wildlife.

Hedgehog's visit to the garden

Wildlife Gardening and the Wildlife Pond

Toads, Frogs, Newts (no fish)

Wildlife gardening aims to create an environment that's safe for and attractive to native wildlife such as birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects and mammals. A wildlife garden is generally informal, often wild, and will usually contain a variety of habitats that have either been deliberately created by the gardener such as:-

1. Ponds to attract frogs, newts, toads and dragonflies

2. Nesting boxes for birds and hedgehogs

3. Log piles which can provide shelter for lizards and slow worms

4. Dry-stone walls for frogs during the winter months and

5. Native plants to attract 'beneficial insects' such as ladybirds.

Raised Beds

favours plants over weeds and extends the growing season

A raised bed is a planting area above ground level to a convenient height. The sides can be made from almost any material durable enough to hold in the soul, wood or stone (bricks) are most commonly used.

The Nathanville Wildlife Organic Garden (the companion site to this lens) has several photos in its album showing raised beds made from brick walls cemented together and for the benefit of wildlife some natural stone dry walling.

Raised beds have a number of benefits, in particular they extend the growing season because they are warmer and offer good drainage, they reduce the need to rely on poor soil and if properly designed can reduce weeds.

Robin - The Gardener's Friend

The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula), also known as Robin redbreast.

As any British gardener well knows the Robin being relatively unafraid of humans is a friendly bird that likes to come close when the soil is being dug, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up. And when the gardener stops for a break the robin is known to use the handle of the spade as a lookout point. In this photo the Robin stayed within a few feet of me, sometimes only a foot away, while I was clearing and tidying up parts of the garden, and was more than happy to pose for the camera.

The European Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

HERBS

Herbs in the Mediaeval Garden

In the newly built raised back border, and in containers by the wildlife pond, herbs are being grown to add to the diversity of the garden and for kitchen use. The herbs include Mint (black peppermint, lemon mint, Indian mint (Satureja)), Sage Icterina, Parsley, Bronze Fennel, French Marjoram, Feverfew, Laurus Lobilis (Bay Tree), Lemon Balm, Rosmarinus (a trailing form of Rosemary) and Thyme including Doone Valley and Thyme Silver Posie.

Culinary uses of wild Dandelion and Nettle, and making herbal teas from the garden are also covered in the Herb Garden.

Details of these and other herbs can be seen in The Herb Garden on Squidoo.

HANGING BASKETS
Also, in the gardening section on the Nathanville main website (link at the top) are details of a novel approach to hanging baskets designed.in an attempt to work with nature,

Working with Nature

For the Benefit of Wildlife

Many organic gardeners being sympathetic to the philosophy of wildlife gardening will often incorporate some aspects of the wild garden into their own gardens to both act as a means of biological pest control, and for its value in promoting biodiversity and generally benefiting the wider environment.

Some exotics planting may be included but the wildlife garden will often feature a range of native species and managed in a way that enhances rather than damages the natural eco-system.

As with other forms of gardening, aesthetics plays a central role. Wildlife gardens involves working with nature rather than against it and are therefore generally water-wise gardens achieved by using plant species native to the area and by adopting other good practices to improve the micro-climate and reduce the dependence on watering e.g. ground cover plants, growing plants close together and mulching.

The wildlife pond in this photo is now 10ft x 5ft (3m x 1.5m).

Heather in Full Bloom

In a Cottage Style Garden

How Green is your Gardening

Organic vs Chemical Gardening

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Share this poll
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- Email

Working for an Easy Life

Your Say

Add your gardening tips or comments here

submit

Reply

Tipi Jan 25, 2012 @ 12:43 pm | delete

I love your mediaeval gardening ideas and taking care of the wildlife is certainly a benefit well worth the extra work involved...the results speak for themselves in beauty, blessed!

Reply

Tipi Jan 25, 2012 @ 12:43 pm | delete

I love your mediaeval gardening ideas and taking care of the wildlife is certainly a benefit well worth the extra work involved...the results speak for themselves in beauty, blessed!

Reply

VickiSims Apr 1, 2011 @ 3:48 pm | delete

What a lovely garden and made so much more fun and interesting by the presence of all of the wild creatures! Blessed by a Squid Angel

Reply

theraggededge Feb 19, 2011 @ 12:48 pm | delete

I am very impressed with your lenses. Have another blessing!

Reply

Feb 1, 2011 @ 10:54 pm | delete

Great lens very informative, i really enjoy reading , looking forward for more lens of yours.

pest controllers perth

Reply

Stazjia Sep 25, 2010 @ 5:41 am | delete

Informative and beautifully illustrated lens - blessed by an Angel.

Reply

teakbenchesqtb Aug 27, 2010 @ 5:53 am | delete

nice lens....learned so much from it.

_________________________________________

get the perfect teak furniture for your garden and dining room

Reply

davemin May 20, 2010 @ 7:07 pm | delete

wounderful lens, nice picture of the beautiful little robin that visits your garden, love your wildlife pond such a great idea to have in the garden,

Reply

greenspirit Mar 12, 2010 @ 5:32 am | delete

I love it when the robin hops around my feet or sings so sweetly from the bushes nearby. Carry on spreading the organic good news.

Reply

roamingrosie Jun 9, 2009 @ 9:05 pm | delete

Great lens! Lots of really nice photos, too.
Load More

Show All

Share this Guestbook
- Stumbleupon
- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Digg
- Delicious
- RSS
- Email

Make A Difference

This Lens is the proud member of Make A Difference on Squidoo.

"The essence of social networking is connection and communication. Let's start something and Make A Difference".

Mediaeval Gardening - Organically for the benefit of Wildlife

Working With Nature

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance