Project Title:
Location:
Organic Food Garden and Wildlife Haven
Gloucestershire
Key Images
Key Aims:
- To expand and deepen my current gardening knowledge
- To strengthen my connection with nature
- To improve mental health through gardening
- To grow a bit of food for myself
- To attract and support wildlife in my garden
- To enjoy the process and have fun
Theme and Emphases:
Organic, low/no dig gardening, to provide food and beauty and to also be a wildlife haven.
Planting Layers
• Canopy Layer:
Pear, apple, and plum trees. Fig bushes. Rose, beech hedge. Pyracantha, bay bush
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• Vertical Layer:
Climbing beans, cucumbers, honeysuckle, roses. Jasmine, ornamental ivy
• Shrub Layer:
Various flowering shrubs eg. Elaeagnus. Raspberries, blackcurrant bushes, gooseberry bushes, apple and pear espaliers, sage, lavenders, roses
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• Herbaceous Layer:
Numerous flowering plants as well as herbs and alpine strawberries. Strawberry patch and lettuce etc. growing in the raised veg beds
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• Ground Cover Layer:
Numerous flowering and ornamental plants as well as herbs, e.g. Calendula, Marjoram
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• Rhizosphere Layer:
Beetroot
• Other:
Pond plants
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Constructed Features
• Pond or Water Source:
Small nature pond with frogs, newts, grass snakes and many insects including dragonflies and their larvae, seen emerging as adults from the pond
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• Hedgehog habitat:
Seen in front and rear gardens
• Mammal habitat:
Piles of stones and logs placed around the garden e.g. under beech hedge. (Log store a favourite with the mice)
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• Bird habitat:
Bird boxes around the garden and a thick beech hedge.
• Bat habitat:
Garden attracts lots of evening insects which are food for the bats emerging from the local woodlands.
• Bee habitat:
Bespoke bug hotels, green roof, and many flowers providing pollen and nectar
• Insect habitat:
Bug hotels, crevices in rocks around pond, woodchip paths
Outputs
• Fruit or Berries:
Apples, pears, plums, strawberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries & figs
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• Medicinal Plants:
Mint for herbal tea, Calendula
• Vegetables:
Climbing beans, cucumber, lettuce, courgettes
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• Herbs:
Sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, chives
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• Companion Plants:
Calendula, nasturtiums
• Root Crops:
Beetroot
Soil Quality
• Strategies:
No/low dig, Add compost, green manures, cover crops, chop and drop, leaving dead roots in situ, avoid compaction, organic seaweed tonic, comfrey feed
• Plants:
Clover, alfalfa
Architecture . Resilience . Community 