Gilbert White - A voice from the past

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia contributor

Gilbert White's Contribution to Gardens -

He was born in Selborne, Hampshire, England in 1720. Another phenologist and recorder of nature he is so worth reading at regular intervals. His diaries on natural history, ecology, landscaping, and also the relationship between plants and animals have been pioneering documents because of his extraordinary capacity for observation and recording.

He also worked with William Markwick (born 1739) on identifying and cataloguing many birds of the area. so between them their contribution has been immense.

So far the greatest jewel I have discovered on the internet in respect of this subject ( and something I will pursue further) is the Gutenberg Project which provides a FREE downloadable e-text of “The Natural History of Selborne” by Gilbert White based on a series of letters mainly to Thomas Pennant, the top zoologist at this time..Nothing can beat the original text for a sense of time and place and a tool to anchor us in our present day lives to the not so far away “Then” . Consider his description of the effects of the weather in 1780 for instance in his first letter when he describes a severe hot summer and a preceding dry spring and winter when the ponds dried and the wells failed... so familiar to my ears and eyes in this year 2009.... the fall of a huge important oak tree brought down in a big storm and attempts to recover it.

The wikipedia entry from Gilbert White reminded me of this comment which we should forget at our peril. I know I wish my garden had some of these (not so) common earthworms:

"............Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm [...] worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them..."

Links

www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk

www.theaa.com In-the-footsteps-of-gilbert-white-at-selborne-420525

here is quite a useful reference from AA (Automobile Association) if you would like to walk “In the footsteps of Gilbert White” about 5 kilometers long and walkable with dogs on leads which has got to be a plus.

My Garden and I - September and a glut of fruit

Having let the last two weeks slip somewhat in the garden we are faced with a glut of our staple fruits. Last year's fig preserves were a great success but do you think I can find the recipe which I had carefully squirreled away?
So I made a guess and overcooked my first lot. Like baking one should not be trying this when a little below par..... Having binned that attempt I went back to the internet and did some more research. I was also wanting to check the charts reference altitude cooking as one must allow a little extra time for the standard English jam/preserve recipe.

I had cottoned on to this problem because here in Spain I never seemed to have a good cup of tea despite appearing to adhere to the normal rules of tea making. I finally had to come to the conclusion that the water was not getting hot enough and checked this out on the internet.

Many people do not realise that Spain is in effect the highest country of Europe after Swizerland. The highest of Iberia's mountains is down the road in the Sierra Nevada – Mulhacen at 3479 meters.
Generally northern Spain is at an average of 800 meters above sea level and southern Spain averages 400 meters. We live at 750 meters.

This charts the difference in boiling point at a variety of altitudes:

Alt in ft Alt in mtrs Boiling pt F. Boiling pt C.

< 0 0 212.0 100.0
500 152 211.0 99.4
1000 305 210.0 98.9
2000 610 208.2 97.9
3000 914 206.2 96.8
4000 1219 204.4 95.8
5000 1524 202.6 94.8
6000 1829 200.7 93.7
7000 2134 198.7 92.6
8000 2438 196.9 91.6
10000 3048 194.0 90.0
12500 3810 189.8 87.7

Because of the changes in air pressure food starts to bubble before reaching boiling point at sea level. This has implications for a lot of food preparation and preservation.

The point of all this is, it is very often necessary to cook jams and say, chips in fat, for some minutes longer and possibly invest in a pressure cooker if in Spain. You may need to experiment with baking as well.

My garden in August

It rained...
for 45 minutes.....

Amazing how it greens things up and rescues us from the risk of bush fires though. Bad year here with the loss of a number of spanish firefighters.
All that aside, the growth and ripening of all the summer crops is well advanced and we have started picking our mammoth crop of almonds at least a week early. Crops are dropping in local fields as they remain unpicked because of the big August Holiday so the boar and foxes are truly having a field day - get it?
Most spanish people flock to the coast for most of August quite sensibly but it does mean it is hard to get anything meaningful achieved at this time. I can get a little annoyed with other nationalities who come and expect to achieve big things in the month of August and then return to their native countries complaining about the spanish people and their manana culture. People should take note of the temperatures here which have been well in excess of 42 degrees C.


Managing our fig crop

I have been positively over the moon about eating our own grapes and honeydew melons as well as courgettes and pumpkins this year. I found an ace site on the internet which said that pumpkins make great chutney which lasts and lasts, so I mixed two recipes for chutney to use my ripening figs to make a very tasty "Susie's Kitchen Chutney". I will also make fig preserve which was a big hit last season.

I am drying black and green figs already. I have constructed my own box consisting of a black plastic tray which allows air through it and lined it with some mosquito net material to keep the insects and birds off them. The figs are laid out without touching each other. Hopefully they should dry in a couple of days in this heat. Prickly pears are already ripe (this is actually another form of fig) Prickly pear leaf pads break down to make an excellent composting material too.
Interestingly I seem to be growing wheat in the nearly prepared raised bed filled with straw and horse manure.......

Where are the bees?

The most worrying feature apart from the increase in temperature this summer is that there are hardly any bees and wasps around this year. Now up til now I havent heard of the local bee keepers complaining about problems so this is merely an observation at this point.

Bits and bobs

I have received my tree and bush propogation pots from Lee Gardens in Canada - of course one should really start things off in the Spring... and my summer sale seeds from secretseeds.co.uk in Tiverton. The penstemons, corriander and rhubarb I planted on my return from UK are up and running. I am also drying off seeds from the root crops etc for next season's planting. Word of advice from the newly wise - make sure you label well as you wont remember what is what when it comes to planting up seeds later on.

It can get quite chilly in the early hours so we are experiencing the greatest daily temperature variations so we need to be on our guard.

The German Garden - 2

I fall over the most interesting and excellent insights into the European World as it is whilst bringing myself up to speed on something that has galvanised me. Having written a little about West Germany - the one I knew about - I wanted to look at the gardens of East Germany - where I wasnt allowed to go - in the 70s. Some fascinating material around but it was the paper by Elizabeth Meyer Renschausen called "Geese in the Garden" which brought me the greatest insights especially into small holdings, allotments and private vegetable gardens and just as in UK economically difficult times leads to a greater interest in vegetable growing and allotments. She gave a paper in USA in 2002 and in it she has a good stab at defining "Small Holder" and "Vegetable Gardener" and how they can overlap....
But the statistic she quotes which puts so much into focus for Germany, its agriculture and the people in the east is this:
"The rapid integration of the GDR (the former East Germany) into the Federal Republic of Germany (the former West Germany) threw 89 percent of those employed in agriculture out of their jobs as early as 1990/91..............Up to two thirds of those unemployed or at most temporarily employed are women. " This was an excellent read.

What she describes is how the Peasant Wife - women's contribution to the agricultural economy - has become such a vital factor as a second and important source of boosting their livelihood either directly by producing food for the family's consumption or as part of the barter economy/payment in kind.
While many such women would prefer waged work because of its social connectivity to others they are aware that the food they grow "...simply tastes better...."

During the difficult years since the wall came down hobby farms and gardens have given many people in the provinces of eastern Germany a way of holding on to a valued sense of meaningful activity, usefulness rather than slipping into feelings of helplessness, grandparents supplying fresh produce for children and even grand children. In fact there has been an attempt to re-evaluate the future of Self Work suggesting that policy makers acknowledge and encourage self-help initiatives.

Dessau - Goethe was apparently totally inspired by Dessau. The formal gardens there are stunning and important to the whole of Europe and the world. In 2000 it was included as a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Leopold III Frederick Franz, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau (b. Dessau, 10 August 1740 - d. Schloss Luisium near Dessau, 9 August 1817 - Wikipedia) and generally known as Prince Franz began its development in the 18th Century, the golden age of formal gardens and much influenced by England and France's gardens.

Gartz on the Oder - near the Polish border gets talked about in "Geese in the Garden" but it is worth remembering that this town is in the one of Germany's National Parks - the lower Oder National Park.

Dresden - so badly bombed in World War Two by the British developed its gardens out of necessity fundamentally on bomb sites. Dresden has started a multicultural garden project I remember being told by a german friend who lived in the country and visited her mother in war-torn Berlin at the end; how she had sat on a bench to eat her lunch and being watched by half starved city people.

Leipzig seems inordinately important if you are physically or virtually interested in gardens of all kinds. The Leipzig Tourism site is in three languages and worth a visit for starters. They have superb photos to tempt and is a good place to start investigating their allotment gardens too.
Lovers of this area included Goethe:
- Goethe in Faust "Mein Leipzig lob' ich mir! Es ist ein klein Paris und bildet seine Leute. (I praise my Leipzig! It is a small Paris and educates its people."


Notes

I include this definition which has come out of many conference on sustainability - SARD (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development) as a process which meets the following criteria:

* Ensures that the basic nutritional requirements of present and future generations, qualitatively and quantitatively, are met while providing a number of other agricultural products.
* Provides durable employment, sufficient income, and decent living and working conditions for all those engaged in agricultural production.
* Maintains and, where possible, enhances the productive capacity of the natural resource base as a whole, and the regenerative capacity of renewable resources, without disrupting the functioning of basic ecological cycles and natural balances, destroying the socio-cultural attributes of rural communities, or causing contamination of the environment.
* Reduces the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to adverse natural and socio-economic factors and other risks, and strengthens self-reliance.

Postscript to Allotments UK

On that really great programme "You and Yours" (BBCRadio4)today there was an interesting article on Manchester Community Allotments Project (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/02/2009_20_fri.shtml) which led me on to check out their website for other interesting bits...
There are photos on line to follow their progress.

This one is about schools putting aside a little piece of land to give children hands on experience at growing and then eating...
hhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/01/2009_21_wed.shtml

and this item is interesting about how councils are pursuing people when there allotments remain uncultivated when and how "... local authorities can meet the challenge of more than eighty thousand people waiting for an allotment."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/03/2009_22_fri.shtml

The German Garden - 1

Germany's population's lives is very much apartment-based and use of public space for social use is a central plank in policy. Here is a first go at looking at some of their formal gardens and a little of their history.

Hanover-
Herrenhausen Gardens - formal gardens in Hanover. Capitol of Lower Saxony, and closely linked to the Hanoverians. Thus directly to the English kings and queens of the 20^th century.The gardens were strongly influenced by the English Garden which was de rigeur architecturally and botanically in the 18^th century.

Immaculate formal gardens which at the time did not sit well with me as it meant you were not able to walk on the grass which kind of defeated the idea of a garden for me. However Germany makes up for this with their thousands of wanderwegs** I suppose.

Not very far away is -Schloss Schwoebber (now a hotel with golf course and other amenities) but I lived within the castle for nearly two years in the 70s). The castle was surrounded by an English Garden which has become synonymous with an informally landscaped garden perfected by Capability Brown in a number of famous parks in Britain. The park was full of specimen trees, the schloss edged with a lake, swans, a tea house and an ice house below it.

This castle has a very strong literary connection as the castle had originally belonged to Baron von Muenchausen.

- The tea house set in the English Garden is a gardening preference that gets copied all over fashionable gardens of the 18^th Century. George Washington's home showed his passion for gardening and Thomas Madison 's home has the most delightful teahouse over the ice house. In USA. These connections come together in a spectacular way in

Munich

which has a classic and huge English Garden (Englischer Garten), This equates with Richmond Park near London and Central Park in New York.

It owes its development and style to an American soldier Benjamen Thompson, born in Massachusetts and who fought on the English side. After their defeat in USA he moved in to the service of Carl Theodor. An interesting collaboration which actively had soldiers gardening and learning methods of agriculture in order to create recreation areas which would also be open to the public. In 1789 Friedrich von Sckell the Royal Gardener became consultant to the project. Von Sckell had studied landscape gardening in England and we begin to see how these gardening ideas got to be repeated all over Europe and beyond.

Nowadays the Englisher Garten has a Japanese Teehaus and one park of the park where nude bathing is permitted. And there is a standing wave for surfers..... the ultimate in water features?

Berlin - Botanical Garden in Berlin

Dessau - The Garden Kingdom of Desau-Worlitz - more of which anon

Potsdam - botanical garden can be found the Orangery Palace

**Wanderwegs are well marked walks through woodlands etc.

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Allotments - Spain

Whilst researching various topics I have come across a number of references to academic studies and the promotion or otherwise of what we must translate as public allotments. This piece of research done by Geography Department of Barcelona University I discovered on a site "City Farmers" (See (1) below - a title I like and may be a better way of looking at the issue these days. However here we have data on "vegetable gardens" in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona. At the time of the research 132 plot holders were interviewed. Their characteristics generally were of post-retirement working class men who had migrated to the region and used their gardens for what appears to be a mixed and common set of aims for many allotment holders in Europe ie supporting their families with extra food, a social element and a general bonding which keeps rural traditions alive.
The authors go on to say though that there is a contradiction in public policies between those who would eliminate these urban gardens and the "greening of the city" and policies of sustainability. Where have we heard that before?
There is a great deal of evidence I could drag on to this site which shows that private business interests will succeed over public and neighbourhood policies but I wont bore you with it... except to say that image promotion of a potential Olympic city draws out promises given to the indigenous population not necessarily implemented by planners (Barcelona, Athens - so watch out London!) and to quote what I consider to be an important pointer to the future in this quote (2) :

"One particular case of urban agriculture is allotments located in public land in periurban areas. Although they are considered as marginal in areas such as the Barcelona metropolis, this is one activity which, if carefully regulated and even suitably promoted, can contribute to structuring peri-urban areas, generating laudable landscapes and satisfying the needs of many people. Examples of this can be seen in the outskirts of many central and northern European towns and cities. Private allotments can be compatible with traditional open spaces or incorporated into new metropolitan open spaces.Transforming this avocation, removing it from marginal spaces and relocatingit in suitable locations where it can be regulated, is something which needs to be done, but we can also see it as a good solution to shaping to our open spaces. Many European cities are going back to the policy of including allotments in public parks, thus reclaiming the tradition begun in Germany at the end of the 19th century."

There is very little mention in the literature of any other sensible town and public policy for Spain other than Barcelona. I believe Valencia has made some moves in this direction. However I was intrigued when I heard that some of the Spanish "townies" had been asking around for available plots of unworked land. Maybe there is change in the wind here as well.....

References
1.
http://www.cityfarmer.info/urbanization-and-class-produced-natures-vegetable-gardens-in-the-barcelona-metropolitan-region-mrb-spain/

2.
http://ddd.uab.cat/pub/prmb/18883621n47p91.pdf