Garden Organic

Are you serious about organic gardening?

You are probably one of the 80% of UK households which has purchased an organic product/s at your supermarket or local shop. You may grow one or two vegetables or fruits in your garden using organic methods. Or you might be a total convert, embracing a fully organic lifestyle. Either way, the fact that you have clicked on this article means that you are probably interested in knowing more about organic gardening.

We all know that organic food sales have seen dramatic growth in recent years. According to the Soil Association, UK organic food sales reached £1.12 billion in value in 2004. Although the sector is growing, it is still a relatively small proportion of total food sales at just 1.2%, which demonstrates the potential that still exists for future growth. We are still largely dependent on imports for organic food, although local farmers, independent food retailers sourcing locally and vegetable/meat box schemes are rapidly increasing their presence within the overall organic food sector. And of course, more and more gardeners like you are looking at how they can grow organic produce at home.

If you want to know more about organic gardening, there is one organization that you should definitely get to know. “Garden Organic”, formerly known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA), is a charity which boasts Europe’s largest organic membership. It’s moto “we are dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food” tells us what they stand for, but delve a bit deeper and you’ll find that they have lots of interesting projects and schemes that merit a closer look.

First stop is a visit to their web site http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk Look at the story behind the early years of this charity for an interesting insight into how it has evolved from its early days as a research association where members were encouraged to do experiments in their own gardens and report their findings back to headquarters. In 1954 Lawrence Hills, a horticulturalist and journalist established the HDRA, inspired by Henry Doubleday (hence the original name), a Quaker smallholder who first introduced the comfrey plant into Britain in the 19th century. The HDRA philosophy was for many years considered to be cranky and luddite by mainstream scientists and it was not until the 1970s with the resurgence of allotment gardening and self-sufficiency (remember “The Good Life” with Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) that wider public interest was generated. In the 1980s HDRA opened an organic garden display at Ryton, Coventry and this was followed in the 1990s by further display gardens at Yalding near Maidstone and at Audley End near Saffron Waldon. Today Garden Organic boasts a 30,000 membership.

The Ryton garden is strongly recommended for organic gardening enthusiasts. This beautiful ten acre site has grown rapidly since it was established in 1985 and now boasts 30 different attractions including themed gardens (such as The Rose Garden, Memorial Garden, The Allotment, Woodland Walk, Paradise Garden, All Weather Garden and Bee Garden), as well as wildlife areas, educational displays and regular courses – all demonstrating the wonders of organic gardening. Children are also well catered for at Ryton – they can learn about vegetables in The Vegetable Kingdom visitor center where there are interactive games and a colourful cast of vegetable characters. The Children’s Garden also offers a great place for children’s play and discovery. As you would expect, there’s an excellent restaurant which sources from the gardens as well as a shop which has one of the finest selections of organic food and wine in the UK.

The Yalding garden is also interesting because it offers the combination of a journey through garden history and organic gardening techniques, set against a backdrop of beautiful mixed borders. Its 16 gardens illustrate some of the significant developments of garden history in the UK, ranging from the medieval Apothecary’s Garden to the Tudor Knot Garden, through to the developments of the 19th century with a reconstructed Victorian glasshouse and Edwardian herbaceous border. There’s also a Children’s Garden and a teaching garden to help novices grow vegetables.

Audley End is a collaboration with English Heritage which owns the Jacobean stately home on the property. Since 1999, Garden Organic has been restoring the gardens to how they looked in the Victorian times, using organic methods of course. But they have also added a 21st century garden to demonstrate modern organic gardening techniques and there is a fruit orchard (not currently open to the public) where the development of non-chemical fruit growing is being explored.

One of the really interesting elements of Garden Organic’s many activities is The Heritage Seed Library. It aims to conserve and make available vegetable varieties that are not widely available. Its collection, mainly of European varieties, contains seeds that have been dropped from popular seed catalogues as well as a large number of varieties that have never been in a catalogue. You can become a member of the Heritage Seed Library and have access to around 200 seed varieties via their catalogue. There is also an informal Seed Swap section run between members themselves and some members even become Seed Guardians which means that they grow seed for the Heritage Seed Library.

Child nutrition and Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners were a hot media headline in 2005. But well before all this media hype, Garden Organic, appropriately sponsored by Duchy Originals, launched its Garden Organic for Schools Project in 2000. This encourages schools to run projects that allow children to grow their own vegetables and learn about food. From planting their first potatoes to experimenting with old and unusual varieties from the Heritage Seed Library, children not surprisingly have benefited enormously fom this project. Not only have they become more experimental in their food, but also many have been inspired to care more about our impact on the environment.

We have just touched on just a few of the initiatives run by Garden Organic. You will find a wealth of information, fact sheets, projects, events, publications, local groups and more on Garden Organic’s excellent web site www.gardenorganic.org.uk - in fact, all you need to know to get serious about organic gardening.

For this article Garden Organic kindly allowed us to reproduce information and pictures (copyright) from their web site.