Andrew Oldham writes about Pig Row, which is three gardens over a quarter of an acre in Scouthead. Visit their website at www.lifeonpigrow.co.uk
CRACKLING BONFIRES were once found in kitchen gardens and walled gardens across the country in the cold month of November.
A month associated with bonfires was also the time gardeners got to grips with tidying their plots.
Any rubbish was burnt by gardeners, allotment holders and journeymen as they all cleared vast tracks of ground of dried out potato haulms, dead or diseased foliage and old sacks. Even tools beyond repair went into the flames.
A good blazing bonfire was an opportunity for the gardener to sterilise potting soil for the following spring by heaping homemade compost up and around the flames.
The heat of the fire would continue under the heap and the compost would heat up and smoke, sterilising it and killing all the bugs and microbes in the compost.
The Victorians even industrialised this process by placing the fire beneath a metal trough, stripping away the need to sieve large pieces of burnt wood out of the compost.
Though we have kept our bonfires alongside fireworks and Guy Fawkes, we rarely use them in the garden anymore unless it’s summer and it’s a barbeque.
We have become detached from our gardens in the cold months, favouring our warm houses instead and this has had a surprising positive effect.
We have learnt that as gardeners we shouldn’t be too tidy. We should leave wood piles in a corner and avoid burning them as they create homes for predators and other beneficial bugs.
An overgrown garden or piece of land is not a terrible eyesore as untended soil is quickly colonised with flora and fauna.
This month consider what you can do to stop our obsession with being tidy and you will benefit in the long term by creating a thriving eco-system.
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