drugs. Plants can genuinely be a useful way to treat all sorts of minor, everyday complaints, but it is vital that you first receive a professional medical diagnosis, especially if you have an underlying medical condition, are taking medication, or are pregnant. Ifyou think you may be sensitive to any of the ingredients, do a 24-hour skin test first to check for allergies. It is also important to use common sense when using plant-based remedies: don’t give any of the remedies to children under the age of 2, or to children under 16 unless specified as safe in the recipe. (See also the special section for ‘Kids’, see here).
But enough of that. Let’s get started. Your own living pharmacy is just a few steps away.
GROWING: IDENTIFY YOUR GARDEN TYPE
I’ve never been a slave to strict horticultural rules & regulations. That said, the textbooks do have some good advice; the most important point to note is that you should spend a little time in getting to know your site. To put it simply, if you understand the growing conditions of your site and pick your plants accordingly, gardening can be transformed. A never-ending labour and struggle against nature becomes a simple matter of a splash of water now and again as you pop out to forage in the flower border. In this section, I outline how to determine the specific conditions of your own site, be it rolling estate or window box, and show you how to work with, not against, your local conditions to get the best possible results.
Your garden’s microclimate
Probably the single most important factor that influences what will grow best in your site is its climate. Each plot – no matter how small – has its own unique microclimate.
We may all complain about the British weather – and let’s be fair, it isn’t exactly southern California – but the United Kingdom nevertheless has the mildest climate of any place at an equivalent latitude either side of the Equator. This enables us to grow an enormous range of plants, which gardeners in many other parts of the world can only dream about. Why? Well, here comes the science: this unusual climate is produced because our weather is heavily influenced by the warm Gulf Stream current that flows up from the tropical Atlantic, bathing our island in a blanket of mild, wet air. This protects us from the harsh winters experienced by continental cities such as Moscow, but also gives us soggy, mild summers for which we are world-renowned. The further west you go in the country, the stronger the influence of this system, which is why most of Cornwall, south-west Ireland and western Scotland are so well suited to growing subtropical species like sun-loving acacias and lush tree ferns. Interestingly, the natural ecosystem of much of these regions was once temperate rainforest, much like that covering New Zealand, Chile, south-west China and the western coast of North America. Picking plants native to the mist-shrouded forests of these regions makes an excellent bet if you live out west.
On the flip side of things, the further east you go, the more the climate is influenced by the continent. Without the mediating force of the Atlantic, there are much wider extremes of temperature. Summers here are sunnier and drier, but winters are colder – with the possible exception of London, which has a unique climate all of its own. Like most big cities, London’s urban sprawl traps heat and releases it slowly at night, which means it rarely – if ever – suffers major frosts, the centre being several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. With its comparatively low rainfall and greater amount of sunlight, the east and particularly the south-east is a good place to grow drought-tolerant, Mediterranean-type species since it has a broadly similar climate (more or less; I’m allowing myself a little artistic licence). Interestingly, the north-south divide is far less pronounced in our small island; there are warmer summers the further south you go, but that’s about it.
In this section, I describe four specific types of microclimate that are typical of gardens in the United Kingdom, and suggest the kinds of plants that are suited to each. These are, of course, just examples; you may have a site that is exactly the same as one of the types described here, but the chances are that it is a combination of two or more. As in those magazine personality tests, there are no hard-and-fast rules, but identifying roughly the type of plot you have will make gardening a whole lot easier.
Type 1 – City-centre gardens and the far south-west
It might sound strange to lump the gardens of urban Hackney estates and quaint Cornish cottages together in the same category, but there is method to my madness: city-centre spaces and the far south-west enjoy similar growing conditions – some of the best in the whole country, in fact.
City-centre gardens are often considerably warmer than those of the surrounding countryside, the concrete jungle acting as a giant heat trap to shake off frost. The larger the city, the warmer its centre, which means that all over central London subtropical trees like avocados and citrus are a plausible option for die-hard exotic fans like me. The same concrete ‘hot-water bottle’ phenomenon applies to the domestic garden too: the closer a plant is positioned to a large wall (particularly a sunny south-facing one), the greater the protection it has from the cold. This is a trick that has been used since Victorian times to improve the growth of semi-tropical plants and even boost fruit and flower production on entirely hardy trees. The only key difficulties here are the size of plot needed – growing a 30m eucalyptus tree may not be very practical – and the potentially hazardous effect caused by very high pollution. A fact not often mentioned is that plants can absorb the toxic heavy metals from exhaust fumes, which are then concentrated in their tissues. Because of the potential effects of these, avoid eating plants that have been grown in extremely heavily polluted areas (close to a six-lane motorway, for example). Common sense is always the best rule of thumb; most urban dwellers are fine to get growing and eating.
In the far west and south-west of the country, similar conditions are achieved without the need for urban sprawl, and the extra rainfall and air humidity combine to create almost greenhouse-perfect growing conditions. This means that gardens abandoned for decades – such as the recently restored Trebah Gardens and Lost Gardens of Heligan – thrived for close to a century with almost no intervention from gardeners, though they were buried beneath a thorny forest of brambles. If there were only a Chinatown nearby, I’d be moving straight away!
In these conditions, you can grow the widest range of plants in the country, so you can pretty much take your pick. Gardeners on these sites are at a great advantage for growing tender species that would be impossible to grow anywhere else, and they also have the ideal conditions for growing most species native to the United Kingdom. The small handful of species that are at a slight disadvantage here are species that require frost to produce a good crop, such as blackcurrants and gooseberries. Luckily, these are few and far between.
Type 2 – Blustery hilltop spaces
Apart from the chance of having an amazing view from your deck chair, a hilltop garden can be a mixed blessing. Situated above the shelter of trees, buildings or indeed other hills, these gardens can suffer from strong winds, which can damage plants, either directly or by drying out the soil. The latter can exacerbate the tendency for hilltop gardens to be rather dry anyway, as rainfall drains quickly off these high places. In these conditions, delicate-leaved or moisture-loving plants (such as weeping willows) are unlikely to fare well. On the other hand, drought-tolerant, hard-leaved species (such as rosemary, lavender and thyme) will really shine. The good news for hilltop gardeners is that many of the most common medicinal plants come from Mediterranean climates, which means they thrive on dry soil and will cope well in windy conditions.
In situations such as these, protection from winds can radically improve growing conditions, and can be as simple as putting up a slatted fence or even just planting a simple evergreen hedge. Either solution will lessen the impact of wind damage and, in doing so, allow a much broader range of plants to be grown.
Digging a bit of organic matter (such as compost, leaf litter, even leftover vegetable peelings which have been rotted down in a compost bin) into the soil can greatly improve its ability to retain water on dry hilltop sites, the organic fibre acting exactly like a sponge.