The Man Who Planted Trees

This, like all powerful fables, starts with an impelling maxim "For a human character to reveal truly exceptional qualities, one must have the good fortune to be able to observe its performance over many years." The tale is a time-travel odyssey marked by the cumulative effect of a self-appointed man's quiet, determined propagation and planting of trees.

First published in 1954 the book establishes Giono as a futuristic seer. The protagonist, Elzéard Bouffier's evening ritual of sorting out a hundred viable acorns to plant each day whilst shepherding his sheep is a runic charm. It counters the present bleak, desolate discontinuity of a landscape and ecosystem denuded of trees due to historical clearance for agriculture and fuel. In the mystery of these acorn kernels lies the future promise of restoration of natural systems that will support life - flora, fauna and people.

Though set in a valley in the foothills of the Alps in France our own wooded lands have followed a similar historical trajectory as discussed in this article British Forest Landscapes, The Legacy of Woodland Fragmentation' by Kevin Watts, @Watts_km. Trees colonised Britain after the Ice Age, and approximately 6000 years ago 75 % of the landscape was forested. Systematic clearance of the trees began in Neolithic times and by the beginning of the Iron Age, 2500BP, the woodlands had been reduced by 50%. Domesday records, 900BP, show that only 15% of woodland remained. It is currently estimated that there is 13% woodland cover, however this is in main due to afforestation, plantations of exotic conifers, which accounts for over half. Ancient, semi-natural woodland (that which has a continual history from at least the 1600s) which counts for the highest diversity value is extremely fragmented, unfortunately these woods are very small and isolated from each other.

The slim book richly illustrated with wood engravings by Michael McCurdy and printed on heavy stock, held in hand evokes an immediacy to our relationship with trees and wood despite our home environments becoming more and more veneered in man-made materials and distanced from the natural world.

This enchanting allegory should be a prescribed story for primary school pupils. Its a compelling political creed and manifesto that should inform our actions as gardeners and citizens. It is our targeted, determined efforts that will contribute to the cumulative, joined-up effect of planting mixed hedgerows along garden boundaries and at the very least a well-considered tree in each and every garden (even if it is on dwarf rooting stock). We could be more aware of how our councils manage our street trees and planting of public spaces. We could take proactive measures to protect our existing woods against development. We could contribute our time and money to forest restoration projects. We could spend time exploring and experiencing our woodlands.

The Man Who Planted Trees
Jean Giono
Wood engravings by Michael McCurdy
ISBN: 978 07206 1334 6
Peter Owen Publishers<

The Woodland Trust
Trees For Life
The Tree Council

Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life

It is only August but by the time we’d read Chapter 6 we knew this was our best read of 2015.

George Monbiot, @GeorgeMonbiot, describes wild Britain through the urgency of his own “wild-yearning”. He transcribes his observations with enthusiasm and a raw immediacy: “The berries of the hawthorn exuded from the woods like specks of blood.” Neither of us grew up in the UK, we were beyond lucky to experience living with access to wild, biodiverse landscapes. The book reiterated our perceptions of how tamed, clipped and subdued British flora and fauna is – Monbiot does not beat about the bush, he declares our landscape sheep-wrecked, in which we are all implicit through our tax payments redistributed as subsidies and our atrophied and limited expectations of what a wild Britain should be. His book holds a stethoscope up for us indoor types to perceive the waning ebb of the wilderness that would and could burgeon again if given the chance. He challenges our compartmentalised perception, as weekend eco-tourists, of the other-worldliness of wilderness and shows us it is our arena, yours and your childrens'.

We were aware of the lost woodlands and megafauna of London, our adopted home city. We remember seeing models showing the prehistoric/pre-industrial deforestation of the area and exhibits such as the 60 000 year old tooth of the Old Baily rhino* on visits to the Museum of London in the early 1990s. We’d seen for ourselves the wolf head on the Aldgate Pump, supposedly marking the last wolf slain in the City of London. However we were intrigued to learn about trophic cascades, where the life cycles of animals at the top of the trophic pyramid can have deep reaching implications in the composition and chemistry of soil, the atmosphere and oceans. We were intrigued to learn of the vestigial adaptations of Britain’s trees to prehistoric megafauna. We learnt that the actions of megafauna impact the distribution of vegetation and thereby rivers and watershed systems – the science is easy to comprehend, it is common sense and should be common knowledge.

Monbiot calls for the rewilding of Britain, he proposes an inclusive model where the minority echelon of landowners should be held more accountable for their stewardship and management of land that is essentially the nation’s natural heritage and future security against climate change and loss of biodiversity. He suggests changes be made to the criteria of farm subsidies so our money can be used to future-proof our nation's ecology. He advocates a forward-looking, effective plan for the reforestation of uplands, the reintroduction of megafauna such as boar, lynx, wolf and badger (we’d like to see more raptors please) to allow ecological processes to do their own thing. He advocates that the conservation of some protected natural areas be less managed to facilitate the reintroduction of megafauna. We cannot agree more, after all how can we expect other developing nations to safeguard their megafauna and biodiverse habitats from man-made eco-disasters such as palm oil farming when we’ve eradicated our own and won’t make restorations?

We’ve not stopped talking about the book nor thinking about Rewilding since we turned the last page. We have started by re-evaluating the ways we manage our own tiny scrap of garden as fragment of a wider ecosystem. We have put more effort into being more informed about the way our local green spaces are managed and take a wider interest in national issues.

Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life
George Monbiot
ISBN-13: 978-0141975580
Publisher: Penguin (5 Jun. 2014)

Trees For Life

In addendum:
Wild Beasts of Prehistoric London , james read, guest Museum of London Blog author, 24 Sep 2015

Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life

Of a cold and frosty evening, we’ve been relishing dipping in and thumbing through ‘Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children's Tales’ by Marta McDowell and published by Timber Press (2013).

The book is generously illustrated with photographs, past of Beatrix’s life and present of her legacy. We are especially awed by her generous and purposeful donation of some 4,000 acres of lake district countryside and 14 farms to the National Trust, for which we are beyond grateful.

Amongst the vivid watercolours interleaved between the sketches and illustrations by her hand is a botanical illustration of a mushroom, Agaricus sylvaticus. We weren't aware before reading the book that Beatrix was initially preoccupied with botany, particularly the study of fungi and lichens encouraged by her discussions and collaborations with the naturalist Charles McIntosh whom she fist met in his capacity as a postman. Beatrix pursued this interest as far as cultivating spores, observing them under a microscope and writing up her findings in the form of an academic paper. Sadly, predictably, it seems her precocious talents in observation and inquiry were given a cool reception by the chauvinist botanical establishments of the time and her career as botanist ended.

Following the course of friendships, partnerships, landscapes and gardens Beatrix forged whilst creating her "little books" this biography leads to a dreamy, zoetropic, armchair ramble around Lake District gardens through time and changing seasons. Within the “little books” and her design and handiwork of Hill Top Farm garden is her saturated wardian-cased world of the quintessential English walled cottage garden; an every-countrywoman’s bailey keeping a treasury of pretty old-fashioned flowers as preserved, observed, interpreted and championed by Beatrix.

Part two, ‘The year in Beatrix Potter’s Gardens’, has made us linger and relish Winter's hoar frosts, yet long for the quickening of Spring (piqued further by a sprinkle of snowdrops outside our back door). The evocative illustrations of Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddleduck, Peter Rabbit and the Flopsy Bunnies that punctuate the book are chinks breached by scintillating, motley Summer that stitches memories of our childhood dreams whilst leaning over the little pages with present, future plans – may 2015 be floriferous.

We’ve been musing over McDowell’s gardening insights and her comprehensive list of plants that Beatrix grew in her garden or included in her illustrations is proving inspirational - we’ve added saxifrage 'London Pride', peonies and candelabra primrose to our ‘Must Grow’ list.

Lunchtime snack

We've been growing mung bean sprouts indoors to try out the 'Sprouted Beans with Garlic, Lemon and Cumin, Funguyela mug nu shaak' from Meera Sodha's 'Made in India'. It's a winner.

Food for Foggy Days

It is always a lottery digging up the tatties and this year these Red Dukes were a damp squib. Oh well, enough for a pot of minestrone. Truth be told, another note for next year's To Do List, we ought to pull our socks up and put a bit more effort into feeding and earthing up.

Another of all time favourites we use Marcella Hazan's 'Minestrone alla Romagnola' recipe.

I Say Tomato

Our adventures continue. Now for the something new:

We tried a Parsi recipe 'Bombay Eggs' from our new cook book 'Made in India' by Meera Sodha...

...with a side of garden green beans with mustard seeds and ginger also from Meera's recipe book. "Deelish"! These are going to become seasonal favourites.

Elderflower Cordial

♥ Our annual batch of elderflower cordial.♥

We discovered Richard Mabey's book 'Food For Free' many years before this blog; it is the inspiration for a number of our seasonal forays that have become tradition, good times lived, good times to live. This 2012 edition, ISBN 978-0-00-743847-1, is filled with beautiful macro, micro moments of the countryside. We loved paging through this book in the gloom of winter in anticipation of the sap rising.

Prepping for Salad Days

A summer project we've planned for this year is to make provision for growing salads. We may have something cat and pigeon proof ready in time for a late salad crop. Prompted by a Fennel & Fern post on how to make chive blossom vinegar we remembered the bookmarks in our copy of 'Preserves' by Pam Corbin, a River Cottage Handbook, ISBN 978-0-7475-9532-8. This little book is the concise, complete reference that has taught us how to make jams, cordials, preserves and to scald our jam muslins.

The Bee's Knees

We find ourselves thumbing through this book by Michael Chinery, ISBN 978-0-00-717966-4, on a regular basis; it's helped us solve numerous entomological mysteries.