We can go on autopilot as nature lends a hand

GARDENERS are encouraged to give nature a helping hand, putting out food for birds and leaving untidy corners where bugs and other small creatures can shelter from the elements.

Being untidy by nature, this sort of relaxed gardening comes easily to me and the reward for my lackadaisical approach is that nature, in turn, helps me back.

I was thinking about this as I noticed a small flock of great tits descend on the euphorbias and begin pecking at aphids. If I was more vigilant I would already have been out there squashing these pests but instead I made myself another cup of tea and watched as the birds got on with the job.

Terrill Dobson, pictured above, is a great advocate of this approach. She’s the national organiser of Scotland’s Gardens, the body that encourages garden owners to open up to visitors in aid of charity.

With more than 500 participants this year, Terrill and her team are very busy but when she gets a moment she heads for her own organic garden at Logie, near Dunfermline, to restore a sense of tranquility. It helps that Terrill is a medical herbalist and grows a huge range of beneficial plants, but as well as being able to brew up something calming, Terrill has noticed that pests give her plants a wide berth.

“I think this is because of the medicinal constituents in the herbs, which work to help the plant survive in its environment,” she says.

More than 150 different kinds of herbs flourish in Terrill’s garden, although her early efforts to create a decorative kitchen garden resulted in failure.

“My first attempt was really quite something – all triangles and squares with four

rotations and mixed perennials, herbs and vegetables. It was rather beautiful but completely impractical to maintain.”

She also came a cropper when she first opened her garden to the public.

“I had timed the opening to coincide with the flowering of the thousands of daffodils that line the lane to our farm, but that year there was a burst of early sunshine and by the time the open day came around the daffodils were over.”

Logie, with its large Victorian greenhouse and high walls which are lined with plum and apple trees, will open on July 29 and 30.

Terrill says that getting the garden ready for these open days is always worth the effort.

“It’s great to share the garden with other people and I love visiting other people’s gardens too. I always come home with some fresh ideas for my own plot.”

Some of the 500 gardens taking part this year are open now for snowdrops, but the season really gets going around Easter.

So if you want to gain some inspiration, pick up the Scotland’s Gardens guidebook which is on sale now in bookshops, or visit scotlandsgardens.org