Why foxes, wasps, fungi and flies can all be good for the garden
BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Frances Tophill explains all
When you’re swatting away wasps at your summer barbecue, trying to deal with fungi in your lawn or tackling flies on your compost heap, it might be a good time to consider how beneficial these so-called garden ‘nasties’ can be.
Acceptance of pests and diseases is all part of the ethos of modern gardening, says horticulturalist and BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Frances Tophill, whose new book The Modern Gardener offers a practical guide to gardening creatively, productively and sustainably.
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“The modern gardener is someone who wants to grow to provide for themselves in as many ways as possible, and to provide for nature in as many ways as possible,” Tophill explains. “We need to have an acceptance of the natural life cycle and its complicated food web.”
How can we live happily with wasps and flies, foxes and other historic garden nuisances?
“It’s about changing your perception of them, and understanding what their role is and how we can re-imagine our perceptions of these animals,” she adds. “You can’t encourage certain things to your garden, while excluding other things. Nature doesn’t work like that. You can encourage everything in to end up with a balance.”
Foxes
Tophill says: “Foxes are one of the last carnivorous wild animals we have in this country. Not that long ago, we would have had wolves. They naturally control the population of rabbits. Humans invented horrendous diseases to try to control the rabbit population, so foxes do that for us.
“There is obviously a problem if you are keeping livestock like chickens, but build what you can to build safe areas for animals that you are keeping.”
Foxes can also keep down pigeon populations. And if a fox poos in your garden, you can use it as manure – but you would want to cover it up with soil and leave it a long time before using, while flies and wasps help decompose it and, within six months to a year, it would have good nutrient content (although herbivore manure is probably better, notes Tophill).
Fungus and bacteria
“We live with fungus and bacteria in our own bodies, [and we are] learning about our gut microbiome and how important it is for our health generally. The word bacteria sounds horrible but there are so many – and such a varied range,” says Tophill.
She says research is indicating that the fungi in soil offer channels of communication and help plants with nutrient uptake. “Mycelium is the equivalent of the root of the fungi. It spreads through the soil. You can buy mycorrhiza, which is a multi-purpose mix of different fungi that you sprinkle on the roots of plants as you are planting them, to encourage mycelium to start growing roots beneath the soil.
“It is believed it’s fungi connect the roots of plants which enables a communication between them. There’s a lot of research in woodlands to look at this. It’s been found that this communication allows trees to understand what’s happening in other parts of the same woodland.”
So, if there’s a pest or disease which has infested or infected a tree, the fungi will cut off that mycorrhizal connection to the specific host tree, so that it isn’t able to spread through the roots to other trees.
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What if mushrooms appear in our carefully manicured lawn?
“I think our attitude should be one of balance. If there are areas we want to be pristine, then we keep them pristine. But we should also have areas where we don’t mind so much,” says Tophill. “I personally like a lawn that’s got a bit of moss, a few weeds and a fairy ring.”
Wasps and flies
“They are beneficial in so many ways,” she insists. “There are more than 7,000 species of wasp [in] the UK. Two of them are the black and yellow ones that sting; the other 6,998 are different. Oak gall wasps, for instance, live on oak. Little round balls form on the oak tree, where the wasps live. They are not in any way harmful to the tree but they live symbiotically with that oak, as part of nature’s rich tapestry.”
Wasps which disrupt barbecues are ‘incredibly helpful decomposers’, she adds. “They decompose compost, leaf litter, garden debris which falls on the ground, turning it into humus and useful nutritious compost. The maggots of flies are also helpful decomposers. Plus, a lot of flies and wasps pollinate plants. When we think of pollinators, we think of bees, but actually loads of flies and wasps are crucial in pollinating plants too.”
Parasitoid wasps are predatory to other insects and will feed off aphids, which can cause massive damage to plants. Lacewings, ladybirds and parasitoid wasps help keep aphid numbers at bay.
Spiders
“These control insect populations,” says Tophill. “They stop any one species becoming too dominant. They will eat anything that lands in their webs.”
Vine weevil
“I would argue that there’s a place for them, but not necessarily in your prize plants. They are a real pain but my policy is not to kill them. In pots, if you get an infestation, you will probably lose your plant, but in the garden they will be in the soil and will have more choice of where to feed.”
Their benefit to the garden is that the grubs are delicious for birds such as song thrushes, whose numbers are declining, and who will dig through the soil, says Tophill.
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The Modern Gardener: A Practical Guide To Gardening Creatively, Productively And Sustainably by Frances Tophill. Available from 31st March.
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