“Call it thrifty gardening, ethical gardening, climate change gardening… if you wish. I just call it common sense for it is easier to grow it yourself, harvest it yourself and look at it and then shout at your neighbour, ‘Come and look at what I built.’ ”
Plants, both living, and dead are miraculous things. There are some out there that can kill a person (such as the yew), herbs that will firm the skin (like ladies mantle) and trees that cure headaches (willow and feverfew), but we don’t always see that dead foliage has a use beyond shredding, burning, and mulching. The idea of a dead garden is something we associate with the untidy, the unloved or the depths of winter. Yet, there is no such thing as a dead garden when you consider that the deceased and detached can form extremely valuable habitats for the living. From bug to frog, bird to mammal,
