Читать книгу The Organic Garden - Allan Shepherd - Страница 35

Grass is the most obvious soft landscaping choice for a seating area. If you’ve got a large lawn and want to cut down on the mowing, think of leaving some of it to grow longer into meadow and keep only a small patch of regularly cut lawn for seating. Meadow lawns need only be cut two or three times a year, saving energy and creating a habitat for wildlife (see page 165). You can get different mixes of grass seed nowadays, catering for different uses and sites: www.organiccatalog.com is a good place to start looking. Wiggly Wigglers, www.wigglywigglers.co.uk, have also launched their own cut wildflower turf which you can lay like ordinary turf.

For something a little shorter than a meadow, plant an informal lawn with flowering bulbs. Plant spring bulbs and your lawn will be free of flowers and ready to walk on by the time it comes to summer socialising. Remember that lawns get very scuffed up if you have to do heavy work in the garden. My own lawn is more or less dead but I plan to reseed it with a shade-tolerant seed mix when work is complete.

Woodchip can be used as a non-living soft landscape material for seating areas and paths. It can be laid directly onto the soil, but to ensure seating areas and paths are kept weed free, it’s best to use a permeable geo-textile membrane underneath. The membrane is laid in a single layer and the woodchip poured on top until it covers all the membrane to a depth of at least 5cm. Most garden centres sell woodchip – usually recycled from forest waste. Geo-textile membrane tends to be made from plastic: for a more natural alternative try Hemcore Biomat. This is made in Essex from hemp grown in the UK without the use of pesticides and herbicides.

www.traceytimber.co.uk, sell woodchip made from reused pallets. Biomat is available from www.amenity.co.uk and www.ewburrownursery.co.uk. Try www.rooster.uk.com, www.drgrowgood. co.uk, www.specialistaggregates.co.uk – all sell shells, a by-product of the fishing industry. Recycled glass chippings are available from these sites: www.derbyshireaggregates.com, www.decogem.com and www.rbgc.co.uk. Also try www.stevemassam.co.uk for crushed brick from factory rejects, and www.salvo.co.uk and www.reuze.co.uk.

Woodchip is a low-impact material and will need replacing as it rots. Hard landscaping materials such as timber decking and concrete paving slabs last longer. Both of these can be destructive to the environment: source FSC-approved timber decking or reclaimed materials from salvage yards. Try Ashwell’s Recycled Timber Products, and Wideserve and BPI Recycled Products for recycled decking. A wide range of long-lasting ‘chipped’ hard landscaping materials – shells, glass, crushed brick – are available. Again these should be laid on top of a permeable membrane to prevent weed growth.