Are you’re a sprayer, or a stayer? Do you instantly reach for a trigger pack at the first sign of pests, or do you take a patient, wait and see approach? Is your garden shed full of bottles labelled with caution signs, or does it contain substances you might purchase in the cleaning and cooking aisles of the supermarket? I’m not trying to create an unnecessary division but it think it’s instructive to consider what pest management actually means.

To me, the concept of garden health is similar in practice to the use of antibiotics and probiotics. The word antibiotic means “against life”. When a patient develops a bacterial infection, antibiotics may be administered to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, restoring health.  The argument in favour of probiotics is that they are “pro life”, and when used in adequate amounts promote good health and help prevent illness.

The same general principles are true in the practice of gardening. Spraying an insecticide, herbicide or fungicide, whether organic or not, is literally “anti-biotic” in effect because living organisms are killed or inhibited by the action. For this reason, there are gardeners that suggest spraying is never warranted. My views tend to be more pragmatic. Because I’m growing food, I’d argue that the use of a fungicide or insecticide is sometimes warranted in order to produce a decent yield. In such a situation my first thought is always to use an organic spray that will do the job while causing the least amount of harm.

I should clarify what I mean by organic. The word itself has become a weasel word in our cultural landscape, much like the term “climate change”, or even the term “pro life”. All have lost their meaning and potency because they are vague. They are open to false impressions and misleading claims. This is unfortunate in the case of organics, because the term derives from the word organism, which suggests a living, organised system. When Lord Northbourne invented the term “organic farming” in 1940, he described a holistic, balanced approach to agriculture that avoided the use of chemicals and viewed the farm as a living system.

So when I use the term organic spray I refer to any non-synthetic formulation that is an allowable input under the Australian Organic Standard. Sometimes I make these sprays up at home from simple ingredients, and on other occasions I’ll buy a ready made product that carries official organic certification, as indicated on the label. If you’re unsure as to what is and isn’t allowed under the Organic Standard, I’d suggest downloading the most recent copy from the website www.australianorganic.com.au for your reference.

Products aside, the main point I want make about organic gardening is this: as gardeners, we’ve been taught to reach for a spray at the first sign of trouble. The chemical companies love such automatic behaviour because leads to whopping great profits. But as far as I’m concerned, we owe the big chemical companies nothing. In fact, considering the human and environmental damage that’s been caused by the toxic products of such companies, they probably owe us. It’s time we made positive, life affirming choices.

Genuine organic gardening is pro-biotic in its application. It’s positive and preventative. It takes a long term view and sees the garden as a living system, an organised collective. In practice, this means that the building of well structured, humus rich soil full of thriving micro-organisms will head the organic gardener’s list of priorities. Healthy soil is the key to a healthy garden. It also means that the organic gardener will seek to create an ecosystem that contains a broad diversity of plants and animals. Biodiversity remains the best means of controlling horticultural pests and diseases, because it creates a sense of balance and order.

The next time you notice a pest or disease outbreak in the garden, think twice before you act. Consider the garden as an organism. Think about the ramifications of different actions. If it’s appropriate to spray, use the gentlest spray available for the task at hand and realise that you’re probably spraying because an ecological balance has been thrown out of whack. If spraying isn’t necessary, don’t do it. Do something pro-biotic instead. Make some compost, build a frog pond, add some plants to attract bees. Choose life, in all its complexity and diversity, and you won’t go far wrong.

First published in The Chronicle 14th November 2009. Photo by Justin Russell.

A garden without wildlife is a garden without soul. I’m pretty sure this is a quote by someone famous, and though I can’t track down the author, it’s a mantra that I’ve been really keen on since I started gardening enthusiastically a decade ago. These days, I find it hard to imagine a garden without scurrying lizards and twittering birds. I’m not engaging in hyperbole to suggest that I’d be inclined to give up gardening altogether if I wasn’t able to share my patch of dirt with some friends in the animal kingdom. So long as they’re not pests.

In our previous Toowoomba garden there were feral birds galore. Indian Mynas were the main pest. These birds are highly intelligent, extremely territorial, and have the dubious distinction of being named one of the world’s top 100 invasive species and the Most Hated Pest in Australia. They are known as the flying cane toad, and in surveys are more loathed than foxes and feral cats.

Thank goodness there’s none here at Thistlebrook. In fact, since moving here three and half years ago, the one and only feral bird we’ve spotted on a single occasion was a pheasant. This bio-secure status hasn’t come about through any particular effort on our part – for some reason I’m yet to put my finger on the ferals just aren’t here.

What is here is a growing list of native bird species. There’s a colony of blue wrens that produce a new generation each spring, a family of willy wagtails, native swallows, finches, tawny frogmouths, various parrots and plenty of honeyeaters.  My favourites of the lot are the wrens. But the avian highlight of our time here was watching a soaring wedgetail eagle spot a rabbit in the neighbour’s paddock, then bomb dive from the thermals with all the daring of a kamikaze pilot. It was a thrilling sight that resulted one less bunny to ringbark my young fruit trees. Thanks Mr Wedgie.

Providing habitat for birds is basically the same as providing habitat for people. Like us, they have three main requirements: water, food, and shelter. Provide these in the garden, and it’s a case of “build it and they will come – birds will inevitably take up residence because they find the conditions habitable.

A water source can be as simple as a glazed terracotta saucer, topped up every day or two, or it can be as elaborate as a specially designed wildlife pond. Just make sure it’s permanent. I live opposite a creek, and though it’s mostly dry at the moment, the occasional pool provides year round water.

Food sources are a bit trickier, because different species have different needs. Wrens and wagtails are flycatchers who feed on small insects. That’s welcome, and easy enough to accommodate by avoiding the use of chemical insecticides. Let the birds do the work for you. Honeyeaters and other nectar feeders go for flowering plants like grevilleas and bottlebrushes. Finches prefer grass heads and seeds. The moral of the story is that if you want to attract a diverse range of birds, you’ll need to supply a diverse range of food plants.

Shelter is also easy enough to create, as long as you’re prepared to lighten up. In my view, very formal gardens such as those with a limited plant palette and a very tidy appearance aren’t overly friendly to anything but the garden owner. If you want to attract birds, it’s important to recognise the value in leaving some parts of the garden unkempt, for these are the areas that birds seem most attracted to. Consider planting a small meadow or woodland corner, and don’t clip everything to within an inch of its life. Give nature its head, at least to some extent.

In terms of plants, small birds such as wrens and finches like building their nests in dense, prickly shrubs because these give them protection from predators. The wrens in my garden nest in an old may bush, but I’ve also seen them in a Viburnum tinus and one year there was a nest in a small rose bush. Perhaps the best bird attracting shrubs of all are the grevilleas, especially the pricklier types like ‘Canberra Gem’ and ‘Robyn Gordon’. Parrots generally prefer to nest in hollows, while swallows for example make mud nests under the eaves of sheds. Create a range of shelters and nesting sites, and you’ll get to enjoy a diverse range of birdlife.

First published in The Chronicle 7th November 2009. Photo by Julian Robinson via flickr.com