Encourage the wildlife

There are many creatures who would love to be able to share your garden with you, and who would repay you by eating many of the pests in your garden. Put n a pond, for example, and any frogs who live in it will eat up lots of slugs. Hedgehogs and slow worms will also eat their fair share of slugs and snails. Thrushes are also useful here, though they will also want to share your fruit with you.

Biological control

There are now many companies who supply parasitic creatures that you can introduce into your garden or greenhouse to control pests. I do have some reluctance to use these, especially if they are not native species. However, these parasites are very specific to the pest they are intended to control, and are therefore much safer in the environment than organic sprays.

Gardening techniques There are many little tricks you can use in order to reduce the incidence of pests and diseases. Leaving the main carrot sowing until early June, for example, will reduce the risk of rootfly. Laying rhubarb leaves on the ground will attract slugs to shelter there - it is then a simple matter to collect the slugs up and move them on to wherever you want to move them. Any good book on organic gardening will include many of these techniques. It is very important to try and be as tidy as possible in the garden.

Leaving things lying around, for example, will give slugs a place to shelter. Great if you are prepared to check all these places each day - but not if you have just been lazy and are not prepared to check. If you do get a disease in the garden, then try to treat it as soon as possible. Remove the diseased material, burning it if absolutely necessary.

Encourage the wildlife.

We have already mentioned the value of wildlife in the garden for helping to control pests and diseases. It is also important that we all try and provide suitable conditions for native creatures in order to counteract to some extent all the habitat destruction that is or has taken place in this country. There is a very large area of land taken up by gardens and allotments and these can provide a wonderful habitat for a wide range of creatures.
Encouraging wildlife is not about putting out scraps of food each day for the birds, or putting out a bag of peanuts on a bird table. Whilst it might be lovely to watch the tits feeding, what you are actually doing is making the creatures dependent on you for their food. If you should stop feeding, perhaps because you move house, then these creatures will have lost their food source and might die.

It is better to provide a more permanent and natural source of food by planting appropriate plants. There are many fruit-producing trees and shrubs, for example, that will supply food for the birds and various other creatures. Many other plants will provide nectar and pollen for bees and butterflies. A pond will attract a very wide range of insects, amphibians and other creatures. Grow a wildflower meadow and you will be surprised at just how many butterflies and moths will come along to say thank you - and you will also probably be treated to the sight of swallows swooping low over the grass to catch some of the insects that will abound there. Wherever possible, choose native species for wild-life plantings, though there are many non-natives such as buddleia and cotoneasters that would also be very useful.

Grow perennial species where possible.

The gardening world, especially when it comes to growing food, has become besotted with annual crops. These are much harder work to grow simply because you have to be preparing seed beds, sowing seeds, weeding etc every year if you want your crops. There are plenty of alternative perennial food crops available. These are much easier to grow - once established they will come back of their own accord year after year. They can also be much more productive - especially if grown in mixed plantings of complimentary plants.

Vegan Organics - Further Reading

There are many good books on organic gardening - here are just a few to choose from.

* L. Hills. Grow your own Fruit and Vegetables
Excellent basic guide.
* M. E. Bruce. Commonsense Compost Making. Faber. 0-571-09990-4
Excellent little booklet dealing with how to make good compost by using herbs.
* J. Larkcom. Salads all the Year Round. Hamlyns
Comprehensive guide to temperate salad plants.
* L. Woodward. Green manures. Elm Farm
Green manure crops for temperate areas.
* P. Allardice A - Z of Companion Planting Cassell, 0-304-34324-2
Well produced and very readable.