Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr15/vegsocuk.zip/GARDEN.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-13 | 20KB | 336 lines

                            VegSocUK Information Sheet
                            GARDENING FOR VEGETARIANS

   Gardening seems a very innocent pleasure, but for vegetarians it can be a
   minefield of difficulties! There is a lot of information available about
   organic growing, but organic is not synonymous with vegetarian.

   Although organic methods try to prevent damage to the environment, they often
   necessitate the use of slaughterhouse by-products and other items derived
   from animal slaughter like blood and bone meal and fish meal. Organic methods
   also display no qualms about killing so called pests.  Many vegetarians want
   to garden without using animal products and without any unnecessary killing
   of even the humblest animal. We don't pretend to be laying down definitive
   rules on this subject but  here are a few notes that might help you to manage
   your garden in a way that causes the minimum of animal suffering.

  FERTILISERS

   Try not to use peat if you can help it. Britain's peat bogs are rapidly
   disappearing with the consequent destruction of wildlife. Two million tonnes
   of peat are sold to gardeners every year! Use home-made compost if you can or
   buy composted forest bark a renewable resource from managed plantations. A
   brand new product will be appearing in garden centres during 1990, composted
   coconut fibre or coir. This consists of the outer husks of coconuts so it is
   an ecologically acceptable, renewable resource. Trials have shown it performs
   as well as peat-based compost.

   Spent mushroom compost, spent hops (as a top dressing) and composted stable
   manure are alternative fertilisers.

   Dried blood and fish meal are often used to add nitrogen to the soil, these
   are definitely not vegetarian products. You should also look out for various
   kinds of composted manures that are on sale these days, some even labelled
   organic as many of them contain manure from factory farmed animals or
   droppings from battery-kept chickens. Brands carrying the Soil Association's
   symbol come from free range houses.

   Seaweed fertilisers are a good and acceptable substitute. Calcified seaweed
   however, is crushed coral, which is technically animal and besides, the way
   it is harvested is not good for the sea-bed environment! Bonemeal is a
   slaughterhouse byproduct. In addition to being non vegetarian, we hear that
   now organic growing is on the increase, bonemeal is being imported from South
   American countries where cattle ranching is helping to destroy the
   rainforest! There is no evidence yet that BSE might be transmitted through
   bonemeal, but in view of the uncertainties about the origin and transmission
   of this disease and the fact that the causative agent seems to survive heat
   treatment, this is something that should be taken into consideration. There
   is also the probability that bonemeal may actually contain the cremated
   remains of pet cats and dogs. Don't use a product called worm compost without
   investigating its source. Some methods of making it are acceptable, but
   others may cause injury to the worms, or even kill them.

   If you make your own compost, you know what's gone into it so you can be sure
   that it is acceptable! Invest in a compost bin, or make your own, or if you
   are really short of space, use a heavy duty polythene sack. Put a shovelful
   of soil at the bottom to provide the organisms that start off the fermenting
   process, then add layers of kitchen waste, fallen leaves, grass cuttings and
   any other organic waste matter, even shredded paper will compost, used
   kitchen roll and paper hankies (if you must use them! There are more
   environmentally-friendly alternatives) will compost very easily. Tough things
   like cabbage stalks and banana skins should be cut into smaller pieces.
   Annual weeds can be put in whole but perennial weeds should have their roots
   cut off and discarded, never put any part of the plant bindweed into your
   compost, even small pieces will root and your garden will have a wonderful
   crop of bindweed when you spread the compost!

   Make sure you don't add quantities of extra soil when you add weeds, it can
   slow down the fermentation process. If you are using the polythene sack
   method, tie the sack off when it is nearly full and pierce two or three air
   holes in the sides and leave to rot down until about a third of the original
   bulk is left, then turn out and spread on your soil. Most compost bins have
   provision for you to remove compost from the bottom without emptying the
   entire bin so the process can be continuous.

   Some completely inorganic fertilisers are available, although frowned upon by
   the organic movement, they do have the advantage of  being produced without
   any animal exploitation.  Phosphate rock is mined from natural deposits and
   superphosphate is produced by treating it with sulphuric acid. Potash
   (potassium) is also mined from deposits of potassium chloride laid down when
   ancient seas dried up. Potash is suitable for immediate application and
   doesn't need further treatment.

   Inorganic nitrogen fertilisers are based on ammonia, which in turn is made
   from nitrogen extracted from the air.  The usual fertilisers are ammonium
   nitrate and ammonium sulphate, the latter is also a byproduct of the steel
   and manmade fibre industries.  The Fertiliser Manufacturers' Association says
   that as far as it is aware, no animal testing of inorganic fertilisers is
   done in Britain as the fertilisers have stood the test of time and, if used
   properly, should do no harm. However, some foreign companies have carried out
   animal-based research.

   If you have just treated your garden or lawn with an inorganic fertiliser, do
   keep any vegetarian pets like rabbits and tortoises from grazing on it until
   there has been a good fall of rain to wash the fertiliser in, concentrated
   fertiliser can poison if ingested. One of the objections to vegetarianism you
   sometimes hear is that without animal farming, there wouldn't be enough
   manure to make organic farming possible.  People who think this forget about
   their own waste products.  Human faeces can be safely composted without
   hazard to health if a simple process is followed.  This provides a truly
   humane source of fertiliser, it saves the pollution of waterways and coasts
   caused by our present system of sewage disposal, it conserves plant nutrients
   one person's  annual excrement is the equivalent of 25kg of commercially
   produced 20:10:10 NPK fertiliser.  There is no real objection to using human
   excrement as fertiliser except in people's minds.  For instructions on how to
   construct a simple, safe, odorless Eco-loo, contact Practical Alternatives
   and/or the National Centre for Alternative Technology.

   Plants of the pea family, including ornamentals like sweet peas and lupins,
   have the ability to fix nitrogen from the air. They do this by means of
   special bacteria which live in nodules in the roots, so after growing a crop
   of peas, beans, sweet peas etc don't pull the roots out when the plant is
   finished, dig them back into the soil to release the nitrogen.

  PEST CONTROL

   Perhaps the best way to control insect pests is to invite natural predators
   into your garden. If you have room, dig a pond to encourage frogs, this needs
   to be an informal pond with varying depths and at least one side sloping up
   gradually so the frogs have easy access.

   Toads too are good friends. They don't spend as much time as frogs do in
   water but they need some undisturbed, dampish nooks and crannies to hide in.
   Always have a bird bath and make sure it is kept topped up with clean water
   and that it doesn't freeze over in winter. Encourage the birds to stay near
   your garden in winter when there are few insects by putting out bird food.
   Plant some leafy bushes or small trees so the birds have places to hide in
   and feel secure. Shrubs with berries in winter are even better as they
   provide more winter food. Encourage hedgehogs by not being too tidy, leave
   some scrub and leaf litter under sheltered hedges and in dark corners for
   them. If you have a large garden, consider nesting boxes for birds (advice
   from the RSPB) and little kennels for hedgehogs to hibernate in.

   Nesting boxes and hedgehog boxes can be bought from: Jamie Wood Limited
   Birds, Cross Street, Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6BN. Tel: [phone]. Leave
   some corners of the garden deliberately undisturbed for wildlife.

   Hedgehogs suffer in times of drought, put out a dish of water for them.
   Natural insect predators can be encouraged into the garden by having a
   variety of plants.

   Don't plant up large beds of the same crop; have small patches interspersed
   with bright flowering plants like marigolds. This not only attracts insect
   predators, but makes it harder for the pests to spread rapidly if one patch
   of crop does get infected. Phacelia is said to be a magnet for hoverflies and
   hoverflies prey on aphids. Ladybirds are your friends! Avoid disturbance of
   hedge bottoms where they lie up in winter. Common predatory insects are
   ladybirds, blue bottles and green bottles, lacewings. Natural predators for
   various pests can be purchased if you don't have them in the garden already.
   Look for biological controls in gardening magazine small ads. Do learn to
   identify the larvae of beneficial insects as they may look very different
   from the adults. For example, the black, caterpillar-like larvae of ladybirds
   may often be mistaken for pests! Practice crop rotation.

   Try physical barriers against pests, for example, a fence of polythene
   sheeting around carrot plants stops carrot flies from getting in. Tight
   fitting discs of felt or old carpet around brassicas discourages cabbage root
   fly. You can now buy horticultural fleece, a material which lets in light and
   rain but keeps out flying insects looking for a place to lay eggs. Vegetable
   crops can be protected by stretching this fleece over wire or cane hoops to
   make a tent over the plot. Plastic plant pots, lined with newspaper and
   balanced upside down on the top of garden canes will trap earwigs and vine
   weevils, which can then be physically carried away from the garden.

   Larger pests like caterpillars can also be picked off by hand and carried
   away. Pests like greenfly can be washed off plants with a medium to high
   pressure hose.

   Plant resistant varieties. Plants that are in good health have a better
   resistance to pests so always make sure you provide the optimum growing
   conditions for any particular variety take care with things like soil pH,
   light, drainage, exposure to winds etc. The use of home-made compost
   strengthens plants and increases resistance to pests. Liming discourages
   brassica club root. Coversely, don't plant varieties that you know from
   experience don't do well in your garden.

   You should be aware that derris and pyrethrum, the pesticides allowed in
   organic horticulture, are not particularly selective and may kill beneficial
   insects like ladybirds, bees and butterflies. They are also poisonous to fish
   if they get into a pond or stream.

   Chemical pesticides, on the contrary, may be highly selective indeed though
   of course, you have to remember they may have been tested on animals. So
   please think very carefully before you spray anything, ask yourself is it
   really necessary, try other methods of pest control first and if you feel
   spraying is absolutely imperative, make sure you are using the right one for
   the job. If you absolutely must spray, do it at dusk when bees, butterflies
   etc are not active to minimise any chance of hurting them. Don't be in too
   much of a hurry to spray, pests initially increase at a faster rate than
   their natural predators, but often if you wait, the predators will catch up
   and do the job for you.

   Slugs are a nuisance but most commercial slug killers contain the very
   poisonous metaldehyde. This kills off beneficial soil animals as well as
   slugs, is dangerous to pets, hedgehogs etc and the poisoned bodies of the
   slugs may get eaten by birds who are poisoned in turn. If you don't want to
   kill slugs, you can protect susceptible plants with a physical barrier like
   soot, sharp gravel or sand (slugs don't like irritants on their delicate
   undersurfaces!). If you are lucky, this sometimes works. Or you can trap
   slugs alive by putting out half orange skins, or sinking pots into the soil
   with some bait inside, then physically take them away from your garden.
   Gardening Which, in one of its trials, found that the beer trap, so beloved
   of organic gardeners, actually killed more beneficial creatures than slugs!
   So they advised you to drink all your beer and cut 4 inch deep rings from the
   plastic bottles to make slug barriers for individual plants.

   These need to be buried at least 1 cm deep in the soil, but proved very
   effective at keeping slugs out until the plants have grown enough to be able
   to withstand a little slug damage. By the way, it is the little grey and
   white slugs that damage plants, the big black and brown ones are useful
   scavengers!

   There is compound called Nobble which acts as a kind of slug birth control by
   destroying the eggs in the soil, which presumably is less cruel than
   poisoning adults.

   If ants are getting into your kitchen from the garden, try to find the point
   of entry and place a line of red chilli pepper, paprika and/or dried
   peppermint there to deter them. Washing kitchen surfaces with equal parts
   vinegar and water is also said to work.

   Wasps get a bad press but actually they are not vicious, they don't sting
   unless provoked so don't panic and wave your arms about when one appears.
   Keep them out of the house with net cutains at windows and a bead curtain at
   the kitchen door. Wasps feed their young on other insects and do a good job
   of keeping down pests in the garden.

   Mammals can sometimes cause damage to gardens. Cats can be deterred by
   placing stems of pruned roses around the base of plants. Old lemonade bottles
   or jam jars half full of water and left in strategic points around the garden
   can also help persuade cats to go elsewhere!

   Moles are said to dislike vibrations and sticking children's plastic
   windmills in their runs may persuade them to go next door! The same effect
   can also be produced by sinking bottles into their runs so the wind blowing
   over the open top makes a noise.

   It is said mice can be deterred by companion planting with spurge (Euphorbia
   lactea or Euphorbia lathyrus or Caper Spurge). It should be sown around the
   garden, one plant every six metres. I've also heard that mice don't like
   getting their feet dirty and a ring of soot around seedlings will keep them
   away but that might just be an old wive's tale!

  WEED CONTROL

   The organic movement is right to discourage the use of all herbicides. Weeds
   can nearly always be controlled effectively by other means. In a vegetable
   plot, hoe between the rows regularly to keep weed seedlings from taking root.

   Or use a mulch of black polythene, newspaper, leaf mould etc to help suppress
   weed growth. In the ornamental garden you can again use mulch, composted bark
   or gravel looks attractive, or you can underplant your shrubs etc with ground
   cover plants so there's no space left for weeds. This means some weeding for
   the first few years, but once the ground cover is established, the weeds get
   smothered. Suitable ground cover plants include: vinca, epimedium, lamiums,
   saxifragas, heathers, sedums, etc.

   If you have stubborn perennial weeds like thistles, cut them down two or
   three times during the summer and in particular, just before they flower.
   This not only prevents them from setting seed, it also uses up their food
   reserves and weakens them, so eventually they die out.

   Some recent German research suggests that many weed seeds need only a short
   flash of light to trigger germination and they postulate that working the
   ground at night, without any artificial light either, could reduce the
   germination of weeds considerably! However, there is a risk that eventually
   there would be a build-up of species that can germinate in complete darkness.

  ENDANGERED SPECIES

   Do be careful when buying bulbs. Over the last few years it has become
   fashionable to grow the species of various kinds of crocus, dwarf iris,
   tulip, daffodil, snowdrop etc. Often these are gathered from the wild in vast
   quantities, so much so that they are becoming endangered species in the wild.

   Please don't encourage this trade, always check that your bulbs come from a
   reputable supplier and are nursery propagated. (Van Tubergen and Thompson &
   Morgan guarantee this). If in doubt, don't buy the species, buy a named
   variety because then you can be sure it has been nursery bred.

   Needless to say, you should never gather seeds, bulbs or rooted plants from
   the wild yourself as this could cause irreparable damage to environments. If
   you want to plant a wild flower garden, it is possible to get seeds and bulbs
   grown in cultivation by reputable dealers.

   If you like flower arranging, be careful when buying dried everlasting flower
   heads at Garden centres, make sure they come from cultivated sources and are
   not picked from the wild, especially the more exotic kinds. Several species
   prized for their beauty as dried heads are on the endangered list! Also, do
   think several times before buying stone for rockeries, paving etc. All over
   Britain valuable wildlife habitats are being destroyed by quarrying.

   Think twice before having a bonfire, it adds to the greenhouse effect,
   releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But if you must have a bonfire,
   before lighting it, do check that no small animals have crawled into it. A
   bonfire makes a very inviting bedroom for a hedgehog, for example.

  FURTHER INFORMATION

   Peatlands Campaign, RSNC, 22 The Green, Nettleham, Lincoln.

   Alternatives to Peat (leaflet), Henry Doubelday Research Association,
   National Centre for Organic Gardening, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Coventry, CV8 3LG.

   Fertiliser Manufacturers Association, Greenhill House, Thorpe Wood,
   Peterborough, PE3 6GF.

   Successful Organic Pest Control by Trevor Forsythe/Thorsons has a good
   chapter about attracting natural predators into your garden.

   Practical Alternatives, Victoria House, Bridge Street, Rhyader, Powys, LD6
   5AG. Tel: [phone].

   Composting Domestic Sewage. 80p. Centre for Alternative Technology,
   Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ. Tel: [phone].

   ___________________________________


//
This article is copyright to the Vegetarian Society (UK), but may be freely
copied for non-commercial use provided it is kept intact, not altered
and these lines are included.

For futher information contact: The Vegetarian Society, Parkdale, Dunham Road,
Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 4QG, England. Tel: (England) 061 928 0793
email: [e-mail]
//



[The text of this file was obtained from the Vegetarian Society (UK) in
March 1995.]