Full Monty: nurturing plants

What does plant health mean to you? As Monty takes on a new international ambassador role, he’s asking himself the very same question...

I have been asked to be an ambassador for the International Year of Plant Health, an initiative organised by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO). I was, of course, flattered and duly accepted but, although International Year of Plant Health sounds good, what does it actually mean? Does it refer to healthy plants or the health that plants can create? As this is under the auspices of the FAO, whose primary concern is sustainably feeding the world, does it refer to the maximum efficacy of food in providing nutrients and calories to people? And, if so, is this supportive of vast agribusinesses and how would this conflict with my own long-standing organic principles?

Whether it is the pursuit of peace or an end to hunger, the United Nations has to accommodate many ways to reach a common end. So, I saw this not as a platform to promote my own set of beliefs, but as an opportunity to work with different groups – some of whom may have very different views to my own.

The vagueness and ambiguity of the title International Year of Plant Health did, however, make me think about what it means to me, and my approach to gardening. I have long observed that the plants that suffer least from attacks by so-called pests or disease of any kind are not the biggest, the most floriferous, the earliest or the rarest, but simply the ones that make the most of their given conditions of position, soil, climate and weather. Most plants have preferences, and if these are satisfied then the plant is much more likely to adapt well. Half the skill in raising good plants is to find out what they like best and give it to them. Plant a rosemary and a hosta side by side and one of them is going to suffer.

For much of the 20th century, however, there was an absurd macho pride in overcoming nature and cajoling – at times forcing – plants to grow exactly where, how and when the gardener dictated. To that end, a whole industry still exists trying to feed plants like Sumo wrestlers, then to destroy the inevitable insect, viral and fungal damage that occurs as a result of their forcefeeding – and the whole thing inevitably, always, ends in ignominy. As every gardener comes to learn sooner or later, Nature is not to be mocked. You can either go with her or lose. There is no other way. So, if nothing else, this year can and should be a celebration of plant health as a measure of resilience rather than an expression of human achievement. By and large, we do not make plants healthy – but we do stop them being healthy. Knowing what not to do is just as wise and intelligent as any form of intervention.

There are other ways of measuring plant health. I was struck by a brief conversation I had when in South Africa a few years ago at a project to encourage and educate people living in townships to grow a range of herbal plants to be processed into medecine in a distant factory. There was resistance, however, because the local people did not believe that the plants would be efficacious unless grown in local soil. The initial reaction by the scientists involved was of disbelief. But when the active ingredients were measured, it was found that they became significantly less effective the further they travelled from where the plants were grown. It indicated that plants grown for food or medicine were more beneficial when consumed as close to the place of growing as possible. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has a department measuring the active ingredients of plant material used in medicines and these can be surprisingly varied. There is as much to be learnt about where and how we grow medicinal plants, as how we process and deliver them, to achieve maximum health benefits.

Yet another strand of plant health is the growing awareness of the role of plants in promoting and maintaining good mental health and well-being. From the house plants on the windowsill of a bedroom in a shared house to a flower-filled meadow on a June morning, direct and daily contact with plants indisputably promotes better mental health. Care for your plants and you care for your mind. And for plants and minds alike, striving for some false sense of perfection is no measure of health. Resilience, adaptability and providing the right conditions for healthy growth serve both garden and gardeners best.

Care for your plants and you care for your mind.