LETTING NATURE DO THE WORK

Trust in nature, says Becky Searle who argues for less intervention in our approach to gardening

- Becky Searle

When we work in our gardens we aren’t just decorating, flower arranging or nurturing produce, we are collaborating. We are only doing a small proportion of the work. Nature is doing the rest. Our gardens are ecosystems, whether we like it or not. An ecosystem is a collection of organisms living in and interacting with their environment. It’s a chaotic symphony of life, death, eating, pooping and multiplying.

Usually when we think of a garden ecosystem we think about the plants, birds, frogs and hedgehogs, the bees, butterflies and worms. But the reality is much more complicated. What we see buzzing, leaping, flying and walking through our gardens is only a fraction of the whole story. Arguably the most important part of our garden’s ecosystem is what exists below ground.

DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM