[Scpg] UK gardeners "going green" and fossil-free?

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

 (http://transitionculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/GW_Nov_cover.jpg) 
_Monty  Don_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Don)  is the presenter of BBC’s ‘
Gardeners World’ programme, as well as  a prolific writer on organic 
gardening, including the book ‘The Complete  Gardener’. Recently he heard the talk I 
gave at the Prince of Wales’ Food and  Farming Summer School, and was quite 
moved by it. The result, once the mental  dust had settled, is the following 
article, which is an edited version of one  that appears in this month’s 
Gardeners World magazine. 
Why Local is Best by Monty Don. 
_http://transitionculture.org/2007/10/31/monty-don-on-peak-oil-and-gardening/#
more-791_ 
(http://transitionculture.org/2007/10/31/monty-don-on-peak-oil-and-gardening/#more-791)  
I might be accused of bias, but I tend to think that gardeners are the nicest 
 and best people there are. Find someone who cares for their plot and you’ll 
find  a decent human being. But the simple truth is that gardeners guzzle gas. 
We  might be organic, love and care for all the wildlife, and recycle all our 
waste  into perfect compost, but most of us still leave an ugly footprint in 
our wake.  It’s not just about oil, but let’s start with that. Of course, 
there’s the  petrol we use to fuel our lawn mowers, hedgecutters and so on. It 
may not amount  to a great deal, but it’s the easiest to cut back on. There’s 
also the fuel we  use scooting to and fro from garden centres, when in the past 
we took more  cuttings, collected our own seeds or swapped divisions with our 
friends and  neighbours within walking or cycling distance. 
Then there are endless deliveries thanks to the internet, using a huge van to 
 bring us a pair of gloves or a few packets of seeds. But even this is just 
the  tip of the iceberg. All garden centres are supplied by a stream of lorries 
 ferrying plants and materials around the motorway system from central 
warehouses  and distributors. Most of the plants are produced using extra light and 
heat to  keep the supply constant or even against the season. Many gardening 
products are  flown in from overseas. 
And if all that’s not enough, there are the plastics that we use in almost  
everything. All plastics, fertilisers and pesticides, polyesters, most  
packaging, even the ink you write your labels with – as well as the pen and the  
label itself of course – are made from oil. There are two reasons why this is  not 
very clever. The first is that oil is running out, and the second is that  
its consumption is the key factor in climate change. Let me put my cards on the  
table. If you think that climate change is one of those whipped-up press 
scares,  then stop reading now. I believe it to be the biggest crisis ever to have 
faced  mankind. Yes, that is scary language, but we ought to be scared. Note 
that I say  mankind, not ‘the planet’, as is fashionable. The planet will be 
fine. It won’t  look much like it does now, but that’s because it will 
regulate itself in order  to survive however it can, even if that is just on a 
bacterial and amoebic  level. But human life as we know it will certainly change, 
and there is every  chance it will disappear. Who would have thought that 
gardening would come to  this? But gardeners really can do something about it in a 
hands-on, direct  way. 
There is a new book about to be published by Rob Hopkins, called “The  
Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience”. It’s a brilliant  
exposure of how struggling to find alternative ways to keep on doing exactly  
what we’ve been doing for the past 50 years is absurd. He believes that this  
crisis is an opportunity to make the world a better place, with a higher quality 
 of life for everyone. 
The first point he makes is that we are reaching the peak of world oil  
production right now. Oil won’t dry up, but the cost of producing it will rise  
inexorably as it becomes harder and harder to get at. Biomass, hydro, solar and  
wind power are useful but can’t possibly replace our current consumption of 
oil.  It would take 67 new nuclear power stations to do that. No, replacing oil 
is the  wrong way to go about it. It’s like trying to lose weight by eating 
low-cal  versions of your existing diet without altering your lifestyle. We must 
all  consume less of everything now. Instead of using up diminishing 
resources, we  must become resourceful. 
This is easily said, but means some radical changes. Hopkins advocates  
developing oil-resilience – creating a lifestyle that can cope as well as  possible 
with as little oil as possible. The less oil you need to garden with,  the 
more resilient you are. 
Seek out alternatives 
The first thing to do is an oil audit. Look at your garden and write down all 
 the things that use oil – every plant bought from a non-organic grower, 
which  will have been raised with oil-based fertilisers; every plastic pot; every 
piece  of plastic moulding; every plastic bag; your garden machinery. Some 
things are  easy to replace. 
At Berryfields we’ve been using pots and containers made from plant fibres – 
 these biodegrade and are very good. And existing plastic pots can be reused  
until they fall apart. Seed trays can be made from wood – just as they always 
 were. Push mowers and hand shears don’t just cut the grass and trim hedges 
as  effectively as mechanical versions, but also give us all more exercise. We 
can  make our own potting compost instead of buying it in. We can ask for – or 
insist  on – recyclable packaging. 
We are a consumer society, eager to be seen to spend money on the newest bit  
of kit and jettisoning it once there’s a slight problem with it or a newer 
model  comes out. We must relearn to value objects, not for their newness but 
for their  age, utility, simplicity and ability to last. But gardeners 
instinctively know  how to do this. Where else do you see a collection of trusty old 
tools, repaired  endlessly, but in a garden shed? 
We just have to have the confidence to take it a step further. One of the  
ways we can do this is by helping each other. Local is the key. ‘Local’ will  
vary from person to person, but I define local as where you can walk or bicycle 
 there and back in a day. Parish may be an old-fashioned concept, but it’s 
very  apt. We all know what it means. We need to develop local garden clubs and  
societies. This will make it easy to share plants, equipment and skills. One  
man’s waste is another’s need. All of us produces an excess of something, be 
it  cabbages, grass cuttings or nicotiana seed. 
If we don’t share this locally then it’s waste. But it can almost certainly  
be bartered locally for something that we genuinely need. We should set up 
local  networks where you can advertise items that others would gratefully use, 
but  which you’d otherwise throw away. As soon as a culture of care and 
longevity  becomes established, people will hunt out good, reliable old tools and 
kit  rather than be fobbed off with shiny new versions. 
All of this means a radical rethink of how we live our lives. I must admit  
that I’m one of the worst culprits – I love gadgets and use machines a lot, 
and  I’m always short of time, so tend to take the line of least resistance. No 
one  needs to change more than I do. The garden centres, oil companies, 
horticultural  industry and all those who depend on the current way of doing things 
to earn a  living won’t thank me for any of this. But we really have no 
choice. 
It’s already too late. We can’t undo the harm already done, but we have to  
radically change the way we all live, and make the future a sustainable,  
resilient place for our children and grandchildren to live in. And that begins  at 
home – in the garden. 
The November issue of Gardeners’ World Magazine is in newsagents  until 22nd 
November. It is available by post by calling 0844 848 9717 or  emailing 
gardeners.world at dovetailservices.com. Find out more about Gardeners’  World at 
www.gardenersworld.com. 







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