JUNGLE DRUMS - December 2008

Now we are well into December I'm sure most of you are thinking of Christmas. We have lots of beautiful, evergreen plants for gardeners and, may we also remind you of our Gift Vouchers, available from the nursery or web site.
The weather here has been bitterly cold for weeks but all the plants in our borders are doing fantastically well and on a cold sunny day it is a pleasure to work outdoors at the nursery, surrounded by evergreen exotics. If you are in the area over winter please drop in and see us - and the plants.
We look forward to updating you in following newsletters of new stock arriving in spring. In the meantime we are sending you an update of our new project and some of the reasons for embarking on this venture - The Edible Jungle.

URBAN JUNGLE GIFT VOUCHERS AVAILABLE HERE

Edible Jungle Garden Update - Why Grow Your Own?

There is an ever more urgent rush to embrace the organic/local/healthy way of providing food for our families and ourselves.
Supermarkets are demonised, we shop there almost guiltily and we frown on the displacement of small local businesses ever more.
Knowledge of the pollution, contamination and adulteration of our food is becoming more widespread. The ever-advancing technologies used to mass-produce our 'daily bread' are becoming farther removed from nature and common sense.

Adapting to change
All of us have concerns about our own and our family's health. Even if we are not motivated to affect widespread change in society, now is the time to bring real nutrition back into our lives. A major shift in our society has been happening over the last few years. These are rapidly changing times in many ways and some of us are bound to feel that growing our own is an added burden to a busy schedule; some may envisage problems and setbacks and be disheartened - even discouraged from starting. This is where we hope to help by setting an example (of how not to do some things as well probably).

Realistic targets
Having catered for our customers' love of plants - artistic and (sometimes single minded) collecting desires we know that not all of you are happy to rip out your palms and pretties. You may not be ready for the Bob Flowerdew 'gardening out of old tyres' style but we feel that it is possible to maintain an attractive garden in the exotic style and feed yourselves from the self same plot, and we feel that it is not necessary to start off by doing a 'Good Life' and going self sufficient. By combining the pretty and the productive you can start gradually - and realistically for your busy home and work schedule.

Don't Cut off your Nolina to Spite your Fatsia
It is important to be able to envisage this. Not many people are willing to turn the garden they have worked hard to transform into a paradise, into an allotment full of canes, bits of plastic and scarecrows. It's not just about looks either - you can still entertain, dine, bbq and sunbathe in an Edible Jungle without having to don wellies and sit on an upturned bucket!

Having our cake and eating it
Our garden will not compromise on the practical needs of growing fruit and vegetables; in our plan, we have positioned the ornamental plants so that they do not cast shade or create root competition. We have laid out the vegetables, fruit and herbs in as ornamental a way as possible in strong geometrical forms and flowing curves. All the practical aspects of the garden such as paths, compost heaps, arches for supporting vines, benches and seats are laid out according to the 3 interlocking circles of our design. Our three circles represent the three principles of this project:

PRODUCTIVITY - BEAUTY - PRACTICALITY

Inspiration
Some of the inspiration for this new garden has come from a wonderful film called 'The Power Of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil'. It is a case study that has a useful lesson for us all about the rapidly diminishing oil reserves and how much we rely on oil based products to produce our food, but is also a heart warming tale of people learning to live from the land again and rediscover their communities. You can learn more about the film at http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php and view it on You tube!

Transition
The situation isn't as desperate as that faced by the Cubans during the missile crisis, when their oil was embargoed, but there can be no doubt that we have had it easy for a long time in the west and things are starting to change. We now have a group in Norwich called Transition Towns who are beginning to work towards community based sustainability - you may have heard of the Totnes branch who have their own currency - the Totnes pound.

Swots
We have done an awful lot of research - spending hours in the library, staring at computer screens and generally making pains of ourselves by asking lots of questions to those 'in the know'. We've unearthed some fascinating and some horrible facts that have motivated us and informed us which we would like to share with you below. The first is an article describing (or rather understating!) the disasters that can come about by using herbicides. The second is a fascinating and thought-provoking talk about meat production. And finally a brilliant and very funny book that might make you rethink everything you thought you knew about nutrition.
Home-grown veg ruined by toxic herbicide
Michael Pollan: The omnivore's next dilemma
Book - 'In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating' by Michael Pollan

We are looking forward to revealing the design in our next Blog.