Sir, – I call it red gardening because red is the opposite colour to green and green is the symbolic colour of sustainability and organic produce.
Many of the prize-winning gardens and examples shown on the various TV gardening programmes are red gardens. They involve the importation of materials such as stone, beams and cladding. All these come with a high carbon footprint.
In the name of low-maintenance gardening the current trend is fake lawn grass. Twenty years ago it was decking, the worst possible surface for an Irish garden. Slippery when wet, in need of chemicals to remove moss and stop rot, it ended up rotting anyway and is being dumped and replaced with something equally red in the name of low maintenance.
Worms, insects, fungi and bacteria all play their part and are killed by overlaying with artificial grass and the soil eventually turns to dust. Hectares upon hectares of fake lawn are being laid in suburban gardens.
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I have a small lawn, 10sq m. It supports about six starling families as well as blackbirds and wood pigeons. The starlings, while they have a brood, are particularly adept at pulling high protein food, worms, leather jackets, slugs, for their chicks from this plot.
Vegetable growing has become just as red. Raised beds are the unquestioned default standard when planning a vegetable plot. They involve the importation of wooden frames, and filling them with soil, usually peat-based compost – all having a high carbon footprint.
Furthermore, raised beds may look well, but are hard to spade and are prone to drought as their height means they drain quickly. This requires irrigation, another aspect of red gardening.
If we need inspiration for a garden design, look to those gardens laid out over 100 years ago. No raised beds and no fashion materials in need of replacement in 20 years or less.
– Yours, etc,
PAUL MacCORMAIC,
Kilbarrack, Dublin 5.