Guest Blog by Richard Guy of The Copt Heath Gardener.
I guess, like most people, my journey in gardening began when I bought my first house and was
presented with a garden to manage along with it. For me, this was in 1999 and, the garden in
question was 400 square metres of south facing Birmingham suburbia, with around a third of it
covered in the detritus of multiple building projects and 1 metre high nettles.
After renovating the house, my focus turned to dealing with the garden and, in the pre-google age, I
turned to a local garden centre for advice. To my great fortune, I happened to speak to the owner
who talked me through planning a garden – with a promise from me to but my plants from her. I
followed her advice, identified the soil type (a ph neutral sandy loam), established its’ orientation,
drew up the outline of the garden and, with my new mentor’s help, began to populate it with plants.
With every passing month, my knowledge of plants improved and the garden developed into an
extension of our summer living space and, as challenges arose, I became particularly interested in
using the natural relationships that exist in our ecology to resolve these rather than reaching for
chemicals, herbicides and pesticides. As each challenge arose a natural, environmental solution was
there for me – when I introduced water to my garden it attracted frogs which significantly reduced
the number of slugs and snails, planting marigolds between runner beans attracted aphids away
from the crop and brought their natural predators into the garden, introducing nematodes (naturally
existing microscopic parasites) can specifically target pests without affecting any other species.
Recently, I found that this approach is used in organic farming and has a name – permaculture.
Fast forward 25 years and 3 further property moves (the last one to B93), my horticultural
knowledge has developed exponentially and, in 2023 (and with the invaluable support of my wife), I
said “goodbye” to my corporate career, took the leap and became a fulltime professional gardener.
Since last summer, I’ve spoken to dozens of our neighbours across B93 and, it’s clear to me, that
there’s a real desire to create beautiful, pollinator and wildlife friendly gardens, but actually doing it
can feel like a step into the unknown without the support of an experienced gardener.
Increasingly, I’ve found that this is the space I’ve begun to occupy – providing hands on support to
householders, creating plans and sourcing plants that thrive in our heavy clay soil which is under 3
inches of water in winter and baked hard in the summer.
I’ve been approached by Rated People to talk about permaculture, how this translates from
agriculture to horticulture and, why we should all do it.
Video: Produced by Rated People for The Copt Heath Gardener
Please do take a moment to watch the interviews and, if they resonate with you, I’d be
happy to chat with you more.
