organic gardening – When Life Gives You Lemons

Random post? Well, maybe a little. But I have been thinking about worms a lot recently – especially since last week when I cleared part of the vegetable patch for planting. For the first time in seven years, the soil was full of worms (and other rather interesting beasties). We have been gardening organically since we moved in, yet it is only now that our soil has recovered its full health.

Whatever chemicals were used before we arrived, I hate to think, but they certainly destroyed almost every creature living in the soil. Most of you, I’m sure, garden as we do, but if you do not, or have friends/relations who do not, let this post be a plea on behalf of the earthworm, to whom we owe so much.

**Pretty? No! Vital? Yes!** Image: Sippakorn -Yamkasikorn on Unsplash

The earthworm’s champion

The greatest advocate of the earthworm was none other than Charles Darwin. He dedicated over forty years to researching their habits and effects on the soil. His book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits (1881) outsold The Origin of the Species.

It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures.
Charles Darwin

Darwin promoted this humble creature because he realised that worms are essential to the health and fertility of soil and thus the health of everything that depends on it from grazing sheep to fields of cultivated wheat.

How do they do this?

These tiny invertebrates can almost move mountains. It is estimated that the worms found in an acre of cultivated land would be capable of shifting up to 8 tonnes of earth. (nypl.org.blog) The import of this? Well, all that moving of earth from under the ground and back up to the top ensures that the topsoil is rich with nutrients. Worms take plant matter into the soil and transform it via their intestines into ‘fertile pellets’. Their movements within the earth also aerate it and improve drainage. They are effectively mini composters who also ‘plough’.

And it is not just the gardener who benefits from this little pink fellow, but other wild life too. Worms are part of the food chain that feeds birds, badgers, hedgehogs, foxes and dozens of others. Take them away and these ‘higher’ animals will be forced to search for food in an ever depleting natural pantry.

**A tasty breakfast** Image: Istvan Hernek on Unsplash

Seagulls are the most ingenious at tempting out their next meal. Since worms cannot survive in water, they come to the surface when it rains. Though they cannot hear, they can feel vibrations, so the seagulls ‘paddle’ the ground in the imitation of rain and then gulp down their prey as it emerges. Evil but effective.

‘Truth is never afraid of mockery’

Poor Darwin was the constant butt of ridicule. His theories of evolution were met with derision and his book on worms also. Punch especially enjoyed mocking this great thinker, but of course, time has more than verified his truth.

Thank goodness that he held fast to his vision and was not cowed by popular opinion, or our understanding of natural history would be so much the poorer.

Sadly, despite the easy accessibility of his knowledge on the positive impact of worms on the soil, there are dozens of products on the market that are designed to extinguish them. Worms leave ‘casts’ or little piles of soil as their food goes through the digestive process. These casts are unsightly on a perfectly manicured lawn, so some folks flood their greens with insecticide. Please don’t. A few tiny earth towers hurts no-one, whereas wholesale destruction of the gardener’s friend hurts us all.

Evolution

My sentiments towards worms have improved greatly as I came to see their value in my garden. What once made me say, ‘Eeww!’ and shy away now makes me smile. However, I like to think that I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for these less than beautiful creatures. My favourite poem from childhood is by Spike Milligan and I shall use it to end this rather whimsical post.

Today I saw a little worm

Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly.
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the telly!

Spike Milligan

Illustration for ‘Today I saw a little worm’ *A Children’s Treasury of Milligan*

Happy gardening!

Perhaps I watched too many episodes of Little House on the Prairie or The Good Life* in my youth, but I have always been in love with the idea of self-sufficiency. Growing up in an urban environment, I was not deterred from my desire to live mainly in nature. I spent my time running around the local woods with my friend Jennifer; creating snail hotels in the garden and making rose water on summer afternoons.

Not much, it seems has changed. I’ve swapped the woods for a garden with a decent sized vegetable patch; snail hotels for a dog and fruit vinegar for ‘eau de rose’. (Of course, the rose water never worked. It was just pile of slushy petals festering in a jam jar – but one has to begin somewhere!)

Fruits of our labours Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Now I have my own home with its little patch of land, I wish to use it to create an ‘urban homestead’ where I can learn at least a little self-sufficiency. No doubt that seems perverse when everything we need is just a click away. But that is the point. When things come too easily, they lose their value and their magic. And in handing over the responsibility to others to feed and clothe and meet our every need, we also hand over a little of our independence.

Going green

One of the reasons I am embarking on this quest is an attempt, small though it is, to reduce my carbon footprint and heal the tiny piece of earth under my control.

Our garden is fully organic, which means we do have to deal with a fair amount of loss due to insects and our fruit is seldom free of ‘little friends’. Yet, sharing benefits us all in the end. Even snails, I discovered, are as likely to be pollinators as pests and if they eat my perfect young cucumbers plants to the nubbins, I will not starve.

I would gladly sacrifice a few leaves for this beauty! Image: Harald Arlander on Unsplash

Our garden is significantly enhanced by our wildlife. Pollinators like wasps swarm the rocket flowers and then our own ornamental ones. The caterpillars who nibbled our broccoli plants have now returned as beautiful cabbage white butterflies. And this abundance of insects ensures that the wide variety of garden birds are fed.

And what we eat comes without any travel miles at all.

From seed to plate

I have started trying to be a real gardener – and that means growing from seed rather than picking up plants from the nursery. It can be a very hit and miss affair, with some little seeds never making it to seedlings and others growing like Triffids.

Yet, when it works, it is truly miraculous. The minute seeds I planted in propagators and kept on the window sill are now three feet high broccoli plants. The £2 packet of summer squash seeds have yielded many, many pounds of patty pan, gem squash and courgettes.

A good day’s harvest Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

My husband is especially proud of his purple beans. They are currently plentiful and the flavour of a just picked bean is hard to surpass. We try to eat our vegetables and fruit as soon as they are ready and sometimes, of course, you have a glut. Yet, abundance provides the joy of giving. In pre-Corona days, I would invite friends over, give them a carrier bag and tell them to help themselves. Now I drop bags off on their doorsteps.

Preserving

When there is more produce ready than we can eat, I have turned to preserving. It is laborious and time-consuming, but laying the results away brings me infinite joy. These last few months, I have learned all sorts of ways to successfully preserve – largely thanks to YouTube and foodie websites. The easiest way is to freeze and my freezer drawers are now crammed with apples, squash and rainbow chard.

I’ve also attempted pickling for the first time. My cute rainbow beets are now preserved in spiced vinegar. I feel I ought to try some chutneys too. We certainly have enough apples!

Drying has proven to be an excellent method for storing items long term. I routinely dry my lavender and herbs and this year tried rose petals. You don’t need any fancy equipment or even much space for drying. Either tie in bunches and hang upside down in paper bags in a dark place or lay out on sheets of paper (this works best for flowers like rose petals and elderflowers.) Leafy items such as kale and parsley do well in a very cool oven over a long time. For tiny bunches of parsley, lay them on a cooling tray over a baking one to increase air flow. This method also works very well for apple rings.

When the children were young, I often took them to the local fruit farm to pick strawberries and then I made jam. This year, I had just enough blackcurrants to make my husband a jar and I’m planning in the next few days to make apple berry jams with our garden apples and wonky frozen fruits.

By approaching all this as a sort of science experiment/culinary adventure, the outcomes become less pressing. The process is interesting enough. If I succeed in making something delicious, that is a bonus. My favourite discovery this year is making fruit vinegars from scratch. They take about a month to mature, but the result is a sweet, milder vinegar that is perfect for salad dressings – or even as a probiotic when a teaspoon is added to water.

First batch of vinegars and preserves Image: Jeff Costello-McFeat

Lock-down has not been great for many things, but it has given me the perfect opportunity to pursue my ideal of self-sufficiency. Learning the skills needed takes oodles of time. These last months, I have been granted that.

Through all the learning and the waiting and the monotonous manual labour, I have discovered that working slowly and patiently brings its own rewards. Whatever we create from nothing – a vegetable from a seed; a meal from a newly picked squash – gives us an enormous amount of joy. Ask anyone what they are most proud of and I’m sure that 9 out of 10 times, it is something they have made.

I am endlessly grateful for the privilege of living in the modern world with its technology and comfort, but I also believe that we do well to sometimes remind ourselves that survival really is hard. When we practise self-sufficiency with all its frustrations and struggles and slowness, we remind ourselves to be grateful for all those things we take for granted. And gratitude is key to our well-being. And now, I need to stop typing and make some more apple sauce.

* The Good Life was a successful British sitcom where an idealistic middle-aged couple sought to live self-sufficiently in their home in Surbiton outside London.

Tag: organic gardening

Ode to the Humble Earthworm