Going Deeper

It is staggering to think that British gardeners spend around £2 billion a year at garden centres and nurseries. In fact, from the slums of Addis Ababa to the leafy suburbs of London, taking care of one’s little patch of land is a positive sign of well-being.

It is strange just how much emphasis is placed on our gardens – and this is by no means an exclusively British phenomenon. And yet, from a Christian perspective, perhaps it isn’t so strange after all. In fact gardens occur quite a lot in the Biblical story of God’s relationship with his creation: they frame the Biblical narrative at both ends and feature strategically at the central climax too.

According to Genesis, the first human beings (whether you take this literally or figuratively) were created and placed in a garden - the Garden of Eden – and told to look after it (Gen. 2:15). The Bible’s picture of our future hope looks forward to the new Jerusalem which is now a garden city (Rev. 21-22). Standing in between these two gardens is the climax of history, when God became human in Jesus who lived, died and was resurrected for us and all creation. Gardens again feature prominently, both in the garden of Gethsemane and by the empty tomb, when Mary thinks that the resurrected Jesus is the gardener.

Possibly noone expresses the significance of this better than GK Chesterton, ‘
On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realised the new wonder; but even they hardly realised that the world had died in the night. What they were lookng at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in the semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening, but the dawn.

The garden category of Living Lightly is packed full of ideas as to how we can look after the land in our care in ways that benefit the earth and its inhabitants, rather than inadvertantly causing problems. Most of what is in this category is self-explanatory, but there are four points in particular that need exploring some more.

Firstly is the suggestion to use heritage or heirloom seeds. With modern methods of production and processing, and the reign of the supermarket, vegetables have been bred with particular qualities in mind: uniformity, longevity, tough skins to withstand mechanical processing and the need for the whole crop to ripen at the same time for picking. Home gardeners, however, have other qualities in mind, with taste being paramount and a long cropping season to avoid gluts coming a close second for many.

This clash of priorities, combined with complicated and expensive EU regulations, has meant that many old, traditional varieties of vegetables are being lost. It is important that we save these varieties, not only because many of them suit the home gardener much better than the commercial strains, but also because, with our changing climate, we need to maintain a broad genetic base.

As suggested, Garden Organic is the most well-known place to get hold of heritage seeds, through its Heritage Library, but look out too for local initiatives and see also the growing Seedy Sunday movement.

Secondly is the recommendation to avoid peat-based products. As the horticultural industry boomed over the last fifty years or so, so did the extensive use of peat as a soil improver and medium to grow plants in. Peat is partially decomposed plant debris which forms when the debris accumulates faster than it is broken down. The bogs that result are very important areas for wildlife, providing unique habitats for many species, as well as being ‘lungs’ that absorb CO2. But, the intensive extraction of peat has meant that very little of these areas now remain and it is vitally important that we protect that small amount that is left. Only by avoiding products that contain peat will we be able to do so (and by letting the garden centres know that this is what we want).

Thirdly, there are a cluster of points around the state that we should keep our garden in. On the one hand, gardeners are keen to keep a sense of order and tidiness around their garden, if only to avoid leaving things lying around that could harbour slugs and snails with their voracious appetites! One the other hand, though, this has been taken too far through the ‘Gardenforce’ tradition, in which gardens were forced indeed and became predictable and sterile, with little thought given to making room for wildlife.

The reality is that wildlife needs a little messiness if it is going to be attracted to our gardens! We shouldn’t be too hasty to cut the dead-heads and sweep away the piles of leaves.

Fourthly there are a number of suggestions regarding water usage. We are now very well aware both how unpredictable our climate is becoming and also how water scarcity is an ever-increasing worry. There is no doubt that, in the UK at least, we do not suffer from water problems to the same extent as elsewhere (for example, the UN Environment Programme reckons that twenty-five countries in Africa will be experiencing water stress by 2025). Nonetheless, the natural water tables in the UK are lowering and we cannot afford to treat water as a limitless resource. Thus, it is imperative that we do all we can to reduce our water usage and re-use as much as we can.

Rain water harvesting is a great way to do this whether through one or more water butts or a tank (see www.water-guide.org.uk for more information on the many different varieties on offer). Another ingenius way, if the lay-out of your house allows it, is to use a ‘WaterGreen’ that lets you siphon the water from your bath or sink and use it in the garden (or on your car, if you have one). See http://droughtbuster.co.uk for more details.

Whatever we do, let’s remember that our work in gardening, and the pleasure we get from doing so, reflects in microcosm our original call to tend the earth and take care of it (Gen. 2:15).

Ruth Valerio, 10/05/2009