HRH The Prince Of Wales: The Elements Of Organic Gardening

by Nicole

“I had begun to feel that this gigantic “experiment” with the whole of Nature, which increasingly seemed to me to be at risk of testing everything to destruction while at the same time extracting a cumulatively unsustainable harvest by artificial and progressively more toxic means, was both dangerous and short-sighted. I felt in my bones that if you abuse Nature unnecessarily and fail to maintain a balance, then She will probably abuse you in return.” HRH The Prince Of Wales, The Elements Of Organic Gardening

A quarter of a century ago, when Prince Charles first spoke publicly about his belief in organic gardening and farming principles, he was dismissed as a tree-hugging eccentric that walked around talking to his plants. Twenty-five years on, he’s considered an ecological visionary. His personal life may be somewhat controversial, but the garden is one place he gets it right (if only he could relate to people as well as he relates to his plants). In The Elements of Organic Gardening, published in the U.S. today by Kales Press, The Prince of Wales shares the sustainable growing methods he’s used in his own gardens at Highgrove, Birkhall and Clarence House.

“Soil is primeval, and a living organism –– we must treasure it. At Highgrove I have always practiced the art of feeding the soil rather than the plant.”

The book covers the time-honored principles of composting, crop rotation and water conservation that we’ve ignored for too long at our own peril. In a modest, personable style, Charles talks about his use of ducks and birds to naturally control pests such a slugs and snails, and the use of natural insecticides made from garlic extract to control bugs. He shares his ideas on the virtues of seasonal planting to work with nature’s calendar rather then against it (Do we really need strawberries all year round?), and extols the traditional values of husbandry –– the care and cultivation of resources as well as crops –– since you can’t have one without the other.

“All is interconnected and interwoven; but we seem to have lost sight of this essential truth, and have become ever more separated from the inherent rhythms that lie at the heart of Nature. We have been dancing out of time with the music…”

As you travel through the pages, the heir to the English throne gives an intimate tour of each individual area of his extensive Highgrove gardens; The Productive Gardens, where rare heirloom varieties of fruit and veg provide vivid flavors, and The Ornamental Gardens, where planting provides food for the soul. We stroll with Charles on his don’t-call-it-a-lawn, flat, strictly non-monoculture, mossy green lawn-type areas, which are made up of a myriad green plants and what some might term weeds (what is a weed but something different that dares to stick its head above the uniform?). Precisely manicured and mown, with stripes that would make any Englishman proud, these areas perhaps illustrate best that fact that you don’t have to compromise to go organic. Don’t mistake this for a dry gardening tome, whether you’re a royalist or a republican, whether you have an acre or a plant pot to play with, this holistic approach to gardening –– and ultimately life –– makes for an invigorating philosophical read.

“If you consider that our own bodies are entirely organic and that when we finally die they revert to organic matter, or soil, then you begin to realize that what we do to ourselves –– whether with an excess of antibiotic substances in our food or in our treatment –– can be mirrored in what we do to the wider Nature from which we spring.”

| 09/07/07 | Book Club