Blogspot - Interia Dezain

One of the things I love about living in Bulgaria is the abundance of herbs that are literally bursting out of the pavements here. This time of year the wild larder is stocked high with so many wonderful plants, this morning my attention was taken by Chamomile. Every year we harvest this plant and dry it for a supply of herbal teas. The first time I collected chamomile I was confused in trying to identify the plant . Browsing through herb books to look up the herb I found many names, both common and scientific. First of all the word chamomile is sometimes spelled camomile then there’s Roman (or English) chamo­mile, a perennial, and German (or Hungarian) chamomile, an annual. The German species might be listed as Matricaria chamomilla , Chamomilla recutita , or Matricaria recutita . Roman chamomile is referred to in some sources as Anthemis nobilis , in others as Chamaemelum ­nobile . To be bring some clarity to this issue I present the following. The currently accepted nomenclature i...

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth and development and although around 78% of the earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, plants cannot utilise this. Plants instead depend upon combined or fixed forms of nitrogen, such as ammonia and nitrate. Currently the majority of this nitrogen is provided to cropping systems in the form of industrially produced nitrogen fertilizers. Use of these fertilizers has led to worldwide ecological problems, such as the formation of coastal dead zones, and requires a high energy input to produce. Biological nitrogen fixation, on the other hand, offers a natural means of providing nitrogen for plants.    Legume aka Pulse Crop) in association with Rhizobium bacteria.   Biological Nitrogen fixation is an important component of organic gardening/farming, forest gardening and other agro-eco practices. Through a partnership with micro-organisms in their roots, some plants can turn atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen fertilizers useful...

A beetle from the Scarabaeidae family Wandering around the garden this morning I brushed past a Tamarisk branch sending a flurry of winged insects into the air.  The plant is always stunning at this time of year, each branch adorning candy floss pink flowers, but until today I hadn't realised the enormous diversity of insects that the plant attracts. A brief count up revealed at least eight different species, some nectar feeding, others hunting the nectar feeders, all seemingly as mesmerized as I was in this spectacular plant. Robber Fly - Asilidae (i think ) Eristalis tenax - European Hoverfly As well as being a good biodiversity plant, Tamarisk branches can be used for basketry, the nectar is forage for honey bees and the plant is relatively unique it that it can tolerate saline soils and actually concentrates salt within the plant. This makes Tamarisk a good choice for planting around gray water outlets. Overtime, gray water systems often accumulate salts in the surrounding so...

Welcome to part two of a series of posts looking at a range of beneficial organisms commonly known as bugs, critters or creepy crawlies that can contribute to a healthy, productive and pest free growing environment in your temperate garden ( For part one click here ) . As well as identifying key species that serve as allies to our efforts in the garden, we will look at ways to attract and keep these organisms around. Here we look at the different types of wasps we commonly interact with in the garden and although it may sound bizarre to want to encourage wasps, they do us a great service . The wasps are insects placed in the order Hymenopteran, along with bees and ants amongst others. This is a huge order containing over 40,000 known species in Europe alone, and is the only order that we find truly social insects (termites are the exception). I have selected three superfamilies of wasps to talk about here that highlight the behavioral diversity of these organisms as solitary hunt...

These terms are used so often, yet the meaning of them and differences between them are generally not very well understood so here is a short post that "was" intended to provide some clarity. Compost is the intentional accumulation and placement of organic matter, the aim being to accelerate the decaying process. The intentional part is important. Dead stuff on the ground is NOT compost, just decaying organic matter. It is the controlled, or semi-controlled conditions that make it compost. Compost, even if mature, is still breaking down and supplying nutrients. When applied in your garden it has the immediate effect of adding nutrients available to plants and bacterial components that contribute to a healthy soil food web. As the seasons progress and decay continues, it eventually converts to humus. Humus is supposed to be a stable organic component, the result of the decay of organic matter whether that be natural decay or, as we see above, decay during composting. Humus bei...

When back in the UK I always enjoy visiting the excellent gardens in and around London. One of my favorites is Wisley. Tucked away in the far North of Wisley Gardens is a ground-breaking research project called "Plants for Bugs". Here a research team  have set out to investigate whether the origin of the plants grown in gardens - be it British natives or introduced exotics - affects the sorts of insects that are attracted to a garden.   Map of Wisley Gardens This four year experiment will examine the value of native and non-native plant assemblages for biodiversity leading to evidence-based advice for the ecological gardener. The Context of the Experiment It is generally accepted that some plants are better at supporting wildlife than others. However, wildlife planting guidance for gardeners is largely based on anecdotal evidence or, worse still, assumptions that have been shown to be untrue, for example that nettles in gardens will attract butterflies (Gaston et al. ...