The use of artificial chemicals is one of the main differences between Organic and Regenerative farming.

“Under the Soil Association’s organic standards, all weedkillers are banned, and farmers are only able to use a very limited number of naturally-derived pesticides as a last resort (like citronella and clove oil), but only under very restricted circumstances.

Instead of relying on pesticides, organic farmers aim to create a natural balance between plants and animals to prevent pests.”

Synthetic fertilisers are avoided in Organic farming too.

Keeping soils healthy is at the heart of both Organic and Regenerative farming but in practise, regenerative farming still might use synthetic and toxic chemicals to control pests, kill weeds and feed the soil and plants.

For a long time, as a Gardener and Designer, we (the design and build company I worked for) often sprayed off gardens with glyphosate to make it ‘easier’ to work. I last used it 15 years ago and remember worrying how it could really be safe if it was considered so bad to get on your skin.

I stopped using it and all artificial chemicals once I began to learn more about soils and natural plant growth. It is so obvious to me now that the whole garden or farm system is a holistic whole and every action has a reaction. More on this as we go on in the series, but if using chemicals is so destructive for soils, plants, wildlife and us (we are what we eat eat1 - I don’t want to eat chemicals) it is an obvious choice not to use them.

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Agroforestry is a land management practise where trees and shrubs are integrated with crops or animals within agroecological farming systems.

For many decades, hedgerows and trees had been grubbed out to increase production on farms. When it was once thought that maximising a single crop was key, now a polyculture is widely believed to be the far better approach.

There are a whole heap of different ways that agroforestry is integrated, including;

Hedgerow &/or shelter belts - where fields are defined, extensive field edge habitats, extreme weather buffering and protection to livestock.

Silvopasture - These are trees in fields to protect livestock from weather, further create habitats.

Silvoarable - Trees grown in arable crops, in rows between fields, usually set to suit machinery on the farm. These can also provide an additional crop in fruits or nuts.

Agroforestry brings many benefits -

• Additional income.

• Protection from extreme weather, reducing flooding and protecting waterways.

• Improved soil quality and health

• Enhanced diversity and habitats

• Carbon sequestering.

According to the Woodland Trust1, the 3% of farm land that currently practises agroecology has found a 20% increase in yield. Which seems to me a win win.

The government has reported that if even only 10% of arable land and 30% of pasture land would significantly help us reach the climate change and nature recovery targets. Agroforestry planting is recognised in the Sustainable Finance Initiatives2 and I hope many more will do so.

In our micro farms, allotments and gardens, we can do much to increase trees and shrubs, and therefore incorporating those benefits of agroforestry in our own spaces.

It was only last year that I began looking at how I could do this in the walled garden and plots here. Before hand I had grown shrubs in the field plot and largely kept the gardens to perennial and annual planting. Mostly, I had retained that much maligned idea that too much planting created ‘competition’, affecting production.

Early Spring this year I incorporated fruit trees and shrubs into borders around the walled garden. So far, rather than ‘take’ from the soil and planting already in place, they have thrived and so has that which grows at their feet.

I’m starting a big project this autumn to increase the trees and shrubs in the gardens after seeing the benefits, increase my plant palette for arranging and resilience in the diversity of plants in face of severe weather. Here is are planting list from this Spring and aiming for this autumn;

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It has occurred to me whilst researching this series that cultivated land, farms, allotments and the home garden, have in the most part, served one group only.

People.

We have either shaped the land to make it ornamentally beautiful or used the land to produce a product.

We forgot that whilst the land might be ‘owned’ by us, unlike a brick and mortar house, we are not the only residents. Mammals, insects, reptiles et al just don’t see those boundaries like we do.

One the most biodiverse land covers, feeding and sheltering many species has traditionally been meadow.

Systematically since the 1930’s (almost a hundred years now), meadows have been in decline. And with it, a huge amount of biodiversity that relied on this land cover.

What actually is a meadow?

A meadow is often used to describe any largely unmanaged natural area with a proliferation of grasses and flowers.

Kew Gardens

Originally they were valued for haymaking and feeding cattle over the winter. Meadow land once made up an important part of productive land, valued for haymaking and feeding cattle. With it supporting a huge array of wildlife that in turn maintained a balanced ecosystem which supported crop pollination and growth, soil fertility and health.

From the 1930’s, several things happened to reduce meadowland; alternative winter feeds meant the meadows were worth far less than before, the Second World War encouraged ploughing up margins for productions and continued until 1987 when either farmed or built on, over 97% estimated semi- natural grassland had been lost.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), incentivises farmers to cultivate flower rich grass margins, blocks or in-field strips and grassy field areas or blocks. Including Meadows is an important agroecological land management practise.

Why are these types of habitat so important?

Meadows and species-rich grasslands can support a huge range of wildlife including wildflowers, fungi, bees, flies, beetles, spiders, moths, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, bats and birds.

The aim with different agriecology practises within the wider farm is to create different habits to increase the resilience of plants and wildlife reducing the reliance on chemicals, resulting in far better and nutrient dense produce.

The government suggests these borders ought to be around half an acre give or take, in areas to qualify for the financial support.

How can we help as gardeners, allotmenteers or micro farmers when our growing spaces might be barely more than this and often a lot less?

On these smaller scales, we are doing far more for wildlife than we might realise. Just as Fergus Garett realised in the biodiversity surveys carried out at Great Dixter, flower plots and home gardens, especially when a large variety of flowers are grown, carefully managed diverse spaces, are hugely beneficial spaces to wildlife.

Kew’s definition above is crucial to this different way of looking at meadows. Whilst most native meadows are grass dominant, but arguably have a short ‘useful’ period arriving in May and are mown in September.

For gardeners and flower farmers (and growing flowers productively on market gardens), another option could be a seeded perennial meadow (SPM), a dense area of planting that returns every year, comprised of herabcous perennials and grasses.

These SPMs are designed to stay standing for the whole growing season with flower colour starting in April running through to the autumn providing more beauty and cover for wildlife than any standard native meadow. They all have their benfits. What is important is to create spaces that are largely, once sown or planted, are lightly cultivated or ideally left right alone as meadow.

Regular meadows are typically grown to a single height, around 60-80cms or so as a final height. SPMs have around 80-120 plants per square metre, with layers and diversity in height, some flowers reaching about 2m.1

Meadow land, or densely grown unmanaged space is beneficial in a garden or any growing space no matter what the area.

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Benefits of flower dense, unmanaged space include

• support insects like bees, butterflies and hoverflies

• increase pollination of food crops

• provide food and shelter for birds and their chicks

• help protect neighbouring plants and crops by providing habitat for insects that feed on pests like aphids.

On my own plot, I’ve left areas of grass long around the margins. These are mown at different points in the year; some close in the spring for bulb emergent and then left to grow, flower and seed, others left over winter for hedgerow biennials and cut down during the summer. These all provide different habitats and food. I’ve also left patches of nettles for butterflies, harvesting these for composting.

Building upon #10 No Dig ground management, allowing meadow, unmanaged areas in any size of plot both benefits the biodiversity of both above and below the soil. I’m often reminded that my garden and growing spaces are homes to thousands of other residents.

I have been inspired by the seeded perennial meadows and can see how that would be a great way of managed some of the beds in the plots here whilst also providing cutting material thought out the year. I will come back to this as I design my own and share the planting list and developments over the next year.

Do you leave areas largely unmanaged? Has this agroecological practise inspired you to include meadow areas in your growing space to support wildlife?

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Next up in the series is #8 Agroforestry.

To till or not to till. That is the question.

What on earth is tilling?

In agricultural terms, tilling is turning the soil to clear a crop and/ or in preparation to plant one. Traditionally, farmers turn the soil with a phough to remove weeds (by turning them under the large clods). It can also help break up heavy soil by exposing it to winter frosts.

There is min. till, direct drilling, no till and zero till. And probably a lot more terms around this ancient technique.

Ploughing turns the soil over but min. (minimal) till cultivates to a shallower 15cms depth, and includes passing over with machinery less often and crucially not turning the soil completely over. For no till, no cultivation machines are used and seeds are direct drilled into the stubble of the previous crop.

The benefits of no till and min till are -

• improving soil health by reducing damage to soil structure.

• keeping water in the soil and reducing run off

• keeping nutrients in the soil (less fertiliesr required) & organic matter

• reducing labour and fuel costs.

Far large scale farmers, the less the soil is reduced, the better the benefits.

For cereals, rape and cover crops, no till works really well. Machinery has been developed to drill these seeds. This works best on a stable and well draining soils. This is less suitable for field vegetables or forage crops.

Min till works better on heavy clay and light sandy soils.

In the Organic v. Regenerative farming worlds, no or min tilling is one of the main topics in the which is the better agroecological practise argument.

The main issues, according to no-till advocates, is that by turning the soil, carbon is released and soil fungi with a whole host of other soil biology is disturbed. Water is lost, soil is eroded and CO2 released.

For organic farmers that do plough, they maintain that this is better for soil and plant health and biodiversity because herbicides are not required (which completely destroy soil health and are now known to be damaging to human health too).

So why I am only listing this agroecological method at #10? It seems pretty important.

Well, yes, I think it is important in large scale farming. There are new machines now that farmers can use to harvest and plant new crops in one movement. As we’ll explore more in this series, methods to reduce the need to till or plough.

But in a garden setting, do we need to dig and how much damage is caused when we do?

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Whilst all these methods are worthy of further scrutiny, I am interested in what practises they are made up of, how we can understand their benefits and crucially how we can apply them to our growing spaces, no matter what the scale.

Ideally, an agroecological system

• Provides nutritious food

• In a way that empowers and benefits the local community

• While being rich in biodiversity

• Resilient in the face of climate change

• And using natural resources, such as soil and water, as part of a regenerative system.

I think we’d all agree that is what we all want.

So what makes up this system and what can we learn about them to use in our own growing spaces and gardens?

In the next few episodes of this series I am looking at the Top of the Pops1 style count down to what I consider the best practises and how we can apply them.

I thought it would be easy. The practises are but the politics and nuance is not. My list is not what I consider to be the best agroecological practises per se. It isn’t about which particular technique is best but what I consider to be the most useful of these farming practises for us as small scale growers or gardeners. Most of us don’t have machinery or growing acres of one crop. We simply do not have the same challenges but as I have discovered by growing productively myself, and noticed across both vegetable and flower farms, there is much to be applied that will both improve your own growing whilst understanding our farming systems and the power of our choices as to how our food and products are grown.

The first one #10 in the Top Ten Agroecological Practises and how you can apply them at home or on your plot is coming tomorrow.

Let’s carry this discussion on in the comments - let me know what you think!

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There are several practises developed that farmers, growers and now gardeners are using. They all have inspiring adjectives for the type of farming. Sometimes they seem to appear interchangeable all in all really good. What actually are they, which is best and how can I do this at home in my garden or on my plot?

This series is all about just that. This week I am getting clear on the different types of let’s say sustainable farming practises before next week introducing you to the methods that all of these utilise and how they are applicable to the home or small scale grower.

The main ones are organic and regenerative practises but I see the terms of agroecology and permaculture used too. What are they? How do they differ? Which are you drawn to? Which is best!

For a start, these are all agroecological farming systems that intend to benefit society and the environment.1

Currently most farming systems rely on degenerative systems whereby soil is eroded, water systems polluted with chemicals and run off, insect and biodiversity loss, antibiotic resistance and pandemic threats.

We need to rapidly move away from degenerative systems and towards restorative methods of farming immediately.

Within agroecology, there are essentially two different approaches, regenerative and organic farming.

Organic.

This is a legal definition; to call your produce organic, you must be certified. Most organic goods or land is certified by the Soil Association and Of&G.

Whilst even Organic practise has its limitations but it is a comprehensive whole-system approach. With an aim to sustain people, animals, ecosystems and soils, rather than harming them.

Some of the main elements in include -

• Working with nature to increase biodiveristy and habitats

• Protecting the soil and building fertility naturally

• Not using artificial weedkillers, pesticides or fertilisers

• Not growing GM crops

• Highest animal welfare standards of all farming

• Minimising waste and feeding back into the farm

Regenerative Farming

This is not a standardised system like organic but more of a mindset or practise. There are lots of overlapping principals. The aim is to restore, soils, water and biodiversity.

Groundswell, the UK’s annual gathering of regenerative farmers, describes five key principles:

• Don’t disturb the soil by tilling, which damages its complex structure and biology.

• Keep the soil surface covered with plant-life, to protect it from erosion.

• Keep living roots in the soil, to feed the bacteria and fungi that keep it fertile, and also prevent erosion.

• Grow a diverse range of crops, rather than growing one crop intensively and repeatedly.

• Bring grazing animals back to the land, as part of a fertility-boosting rotation of crops and animals.

Two major differences between regenerative practise and organic farming is how soil is look after; regenerative practise avoids the plough and turning the soil (or tilling) which is very much how Charles Dowding ‘no dig’ practise works for the smaller grower. But regenerative farming doesn’t explicitly preclude chemical use (especially glyphosate). Organic farmers in principal look like they prefer to use the plough to kill weeds instead.

Both are damaging - there are organic farmers that use ‘no till’ methods and regenerative farmers that don’t use chemicals

“The best organic farmers are regenerative, and the best regenerative farmers are organic,” says Harriet Bell, regenerative farming lead at organic veg box company Riverford.

Agroecology

Is a set of farming practises but also a social and political movement, and scientific discipline.

By studying the relationship between the soils, animals, people and plants, ecologists inform agroecologists to design farming methods that mimic natural ecosystems.

It’s an umbrella term that covers both organic and regenerative practise.

Ideally, an agroecological system

• Provides nutritious food

• In a way that empowers and benefits the local community

• While being rich in biodiversity

• Resilient in the face of climate change

• And using natural resources, such as soil and water, as part of a regenerative system.

It is not just a farming system but also a human system considering how people are affected by farming the land - land justice, food secrurity and wages. Organic certification doesn’t have to reflect this. Riverford ‘bakes’ this into it’s company being employee owned, paying a living wage and having a supplier charter.

Permaculture

Finally, permaculture. I keep coming across this principal but admit to not knowing much about it. The other methods being more visible both in terms of labelling, marketing and public use.2

But thinking about the differences between organic and regenerative and their principals, I’ve still got questions about chemical use, green washing and impact.

There is no one definition for permaculture - it is a an ecological design system and can be used in practise and in anywhere from a flat or balcony right through to farms, towns and whole regions. Even the Permaculture association doesn’t give a clear answer but instead, they embrace that, enjoying the nuance and ways in which that can be applied to almost anything.

permaculture.co.uk has had a stab at it though -

1. An innovative framework for creating sustainable ways of living.

2. It is a practical method of developing ecologically harmonious, efficient and productive systems that can be used by anyone, anywhere.

Sounds amazing but I can see how the lack of clarity makes it hard for a gardener or grower to easily apply it’s principals to their own space.

One of the issues I have found researching this piece is that bar the legal definition of Organic, agroecology is full of great principals and practise but cynically I see greenwash for larger brands and little support for farmers and growers working at the highest agroecological level and combining all practises.

Organic being certified is certainly creates assurance of sound practise, but is it enough? And what about the smaller grower or gardener?

I’m confused and like I always do at times like this, I’m off to get my hands in the soil and think this through.

In the next episode of ‘How’, I want to start exploring general principals of agroecology, which seems to cover all of these practises and how we can apply them to our growing spaces, no matter what the scale.

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Intrinsically connected, but commercially separated; yet all concerned with the same occupation; growing plants.

How plants are grown or animals reared is shrouded in much mystery. We are fed images of play farms against a hilly backdrop, carefully curated branding of lush market gardens in sunshine but unless we buy food with a solid certified label, we victims to marketing and unlikely to be aware of the highly intensive processes used.

That is not to say those methods are essentially bad but truth is, agriculture, horticulture, landscaping and floristry are some of the most polluting industries1, growing or rearing our food ranks high in every polluting way (the only industry to do so) for water pollution, air pollution, carbon generating and waste production. How can a supposedly ‘natural’ process be so destructive to our environment; no wonder it’s such a surprise when we find out.

I’ve experienced this myself, in horticulture (take compost production, peat extraction, waste, plastic, transportation) or floristry (transportation, chemical usage, water and air pollution). It seems utterly unfathomable how this has been allowed to happen for such a long time but for decades, we have been able to buy almost any fruit, vegetable or flower whenever we want. And cheaply.

Even after 15 years of working in garden design and horticulture, I didn’t really question it. The true impact of my actions never crossed my mind while in the industry. When I think of all the bamboo I planted, thick concrete pads laid and ‘perfectly safe’ glyphosate sprayed.

However, life took me in a different direction and once I started growing flowers, something changed. I began to notice what it took to grow and what grew naturally. I began to tune in with seasons, thinking in 4 dimensions. It took growing productively, noticing the issues, repetitively adjusting inputs and their effects, each and every new growing period, to explore different ways but above all, question the very foundations of my doings; what am I doing!

I started to wonder what it took to eat an asparagus in July once I saw ‘Peru’ on the label. I questioned roses in February when my plants outside were about to be pruned to the ground.  I noticed the difference between my own flowers, the scent and energy as they danced in the vase over days, rather than too weak to open when slung in the trolled. Or the taste of a warm tomato off the vine in the garden compared to the cold tasteless one in November from a plastic tray.

Connection and discussions round tables has been my most best teacher. I had a client come on a course, un-knowingly enlightening me on animal welfare in agriculture, the polluted fisheries and plight of a chicken when she told me her dietary requirements were ‘plant based’ due to inflammatory illness. Once I knew, I couldn’t ignore it. I’d taken the red pill2.

The more I work in these different worlds, I am frustrated at how disconnected they are. The terms used to separate the practises and green wash others. I am certain, that the more connected we are to our local and natural worlds, the more conscious we are to what we consume, be in food, products, media, and everything. That for me, has been a good thing.

However, with many new terms to describe beneficial growing practises, be it in horticulture or agriculture, I am confused. Organic was, is, the gold standard yet other terms are being used. Are these as good? What do they bring and what is missing from them?

Through much research, trial and error, I’ve learnt that good large scale agricultural practises are the same methods you can use in your garden. The best approach for growing food and flowers, for improving soil for planting, for landscaping doesn’t need to be complex. In fact growing naturally and simply is certainly the best way.

This is a new series looking at ‘sustainable’ agricultural practises for growing food and flowers, demystifying the processes and cutting through the greenwash. The aim is that you can be more familiar with them and make informed choices. But mostly, inspire you to use them in your own garden or plots to grow so that your spaces are full of biodiversity, strong nutrient rich soils, vibrant flowers and produce.

The next instalment is on the three main sustainable practises or methods of growing starting with agroecology and how it differs from organic and regenerative practise.

Which really is best?  You might be surprised.

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