Chris Beardshaw-The natural way

[Patsy]

In August edition of GYO Chris Beardshaw comments on page 19 that segregating different types of vegetables is placing an unnecessary strain on individual crops and their naturally balanced habitats. Is he just saying that all veg should be planted with the appropriate helpful companions or does he mean rotation of crops is against nature? What about build up of pests and diseases if you don't practice rotation? Anybody got comments on this?
Our garden club is having him as a speaker at an open meeting in September but I don't know if I've the guts to question his comment there!

[SimonCole]

To be honest, I don't see that method working particularly well on a veggie plot: If you needed to spray tomatoes for blight you'd have to chase through the plot looking for each plant. It would also be hard to protect each plant from slugs and other insect pests that move from choice plants (i.e. lettuces or cabbages) to the next nearest crop. You'd have to net all plants to protect you brassicas from caterpillar damage. Then comes the hard bit of harvesting.

The argument that a 'natural' and 'balanced' habitat is created can easily be dismissed through the simple fact that most vegetables aren't natural or native to Great Britain.

The late Geoff Hamilton best created a balanced cropping garden on his series 'The Organic Kitchen Garden' and I strongly recommend this series. He used a range of plants including flowers, shrubs, fruit and herbs that combined with vegetables were able to create the right habitat to maintain production. Thus the flowers that attracted the hoverflies reduced the aphid numbers and the fruit that attracted the birds, reduced caterpillar numbers. I cannot see this method working with just vegetables.

[Flummery]

I really liked Geoff Hamilton and his methods. They sounded sense to me. As to Chris Beardshaw - Hmm. Old Blue-eyes is back!

[moggssue]

Simon, that sounds perfectly sensible to me - I just have to learn how to put it into practice but I am trying! Flummery - I'm a fan of Geoff's too!

[poozie]

But he's yummy............

[Tigerella]

Hi

On my lottie the only pest I have had is slugs. I havnt grown very much because it is my first year, so my plots consists of luttuce and weeds, weeds and some flowers mixed with everything.
No caterpillers, just slugs, if I had been there more often I might have captured the slugs.

I think that is the type os planting CB would have meant.

Tigerella