As an organic gardening, landscaping, fencing and property maintenance company, part of Mossy Rock’s business mission is to educate garden owners on the harm that using chemicals in their gardens can cause. This comes as part of a wider ambition to eventually eliminate the use of chemicals in the British garden.
Of course, it begs the question as to how this can be done in an environmentally friendly way while continuing to keep gardens free of pests such as weed and disease. Writing on the Mossy Rock blog, company director Ben Barnard shares greener ways of doing away with such problems.
Hard surfaces
Unless you have the time to sit and hand-pick weeds out of your patios, the use of a commercial flame gun kills all but the deepest of rooted weeds and this is a preferred choice of weed removal for large, hard surface area other than chemicals. When you have flamed the main bulk of weed, you should then keep on top of re-growth manually.
You can also use cornmeal to destroy seeds in the ground that are re-emerging. However, this method requires some skill in application, since you must time it when the seeds are just awakening [when forsythia, daffodils and spring bulbs are just flowering].
Lawncare
Regularly mowing your lawn will keep weeds down and prevent them from taking over. Mow with a little more height, enough so that your grass is standing upright and you cannot see the ground 3-5 centimetres [1.5-2 inches] for a formal to a lawn with regular usage.
In the event that weed growth on the lawn has become out of control, then there is no better alternative than to use a selective herbicide to remove these weeds. This is not a regular option and leaving a month between treatments will mean that you put the least amount of chemicals into our precious soil.
After the weeds have been dealt with, then regular mowing at the correct height with organic lawn care treatments will maintain a healthy lawn, healthy soil and a healthy environment for you to enjoy. This is as simple as being just a little more mindful about your chemical usage.
At Mossy Rock, we use a lawn feed that is 100 per cent organic and actively eats moss using living enzymes leaving no mess or discolouration. It is also important to choose a non-iron-sulphate based moss treatment, since this just kills the moss, leaving an unsightly black mess and adds more iron than is necessary to your lawn.
We would also encourage anyone reading this to have a look at the different chemical treatments that lawn care companies offer as a regular treatment. Ask yourself upon reading: “Is this really good for the environment?”. Many companies have developed chemical treatments that change and alter the way in which the grass grows, how the soil retains water in an unnatural manner, and the complete obliteration of all life forms within the soil.
Alternatives are the use of nematodes that are 100 per cent organic, target only the undesirable life forms within the soil and have a definitive life span. These are tiny micro-organisms that feed of the likes of slugs, snails, ants, chafer grubs, Japanese beetle, vine weevils and leatherjackets. They are living and die off and are easy to apply.
Plants and borders
Regular manual weeding will prevent over-ridden borders and can stop a small job escalating into an extensive one. The same goes for cutting back and pruning plants at appropriate times.
The best way to prevent insect attack on plants is to keep soil in the best condition possible. Soil is the foundation for which the plants either thrive or not. If the soil is throwing up loads of weeds, this is said to be mother nature’s way of trying to fight back and replenish the soil with nutrients.
Plants stand the best chance of thriving if they are healthy. I have observed many times the same plants planted near each other with only one of them having been decimated by insects, but the others have not even been touched. Plants are living and have their own defences and immune systems. We notice this if growth is affected, and the insects will notice if a plant is weak. Keep plants healthy and they will look after themselves. Strong plants will also out-compete weeds so that they will not grow.
You should also plant ground cover such as creeping ground plants, wildflower areas if an area of the garden is going to be left fallow, or better yet, a green manure. You can buy the seed easily enough and all you must do is rotavate the green manure back into the ground before you are ready to re-plant. This puts the nutrient specific manure back into the ground with little work. It will keep the ground weed free and they look great as well, saving a lot of money and vertebrate.
Ponds
You should clear ponds of all clutter and plant oxygenating plants. Keep the pond clean and certainly clear away anything that will rot and provide nutrients to the water which will encourage algae and weeds. The less nutrients in the water, the better and clearer the water quality. Oxygenating plants will not only oxygenate the water but will also use up the nutrients in the water. This will encourage pond life and a biodiverse garden.
Organic gardening is really very easy with a little bit of knowledge. It is the same as eating a wholesome plant-based diet which is easy if you are mindful about what you are eating. Our mission is promoting biodiversity throughout the country and reviving our love of natural hedge rows [destroyed by chemical farming], biodiversity [destroyed by big corporations demanding a monoculture system of agriculture] and doing everything as organically as possible.
The simple [but long-winded] description of our ethos will alleviate pressure on the NHS, ensure obesity levels in children reduces, solve world hunger, turn around climate change and as a benefit, reinstate our wild and native areas. This is, in reality, very easy to achieve. We just have to take the action to do it.
Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash
