(^172) an environmenTal hisTory of Wildlife in england
(like Oxford ragwort before it) along the newly expanded rail network.^55 It
was soon widely established in coastal districts, and on dry sandy soils in the
countryside, but mainly in urban areas. Although an alien invader, capable
of displacing indigenous plants, its attractiveness to butterflies has ensured
that it is not regarded by naturalists with quite the horror reserved for plants
like the rhododendron.
Elements of the Arts and Crafts style were widely adopted in the late
nineteenth century and – in increasingly distorted forms – in small suburban
gardens right through the first half of the twentieth. Crazy paving, for
example, is a dim echo of the elegant paths of stone designed by Edwin
Lutyens; the privet hedges separating innumerable front gardens from the
public road are derived from the hedged compartments in Jekyll’s designs.
Smaller suburban gardens typically featured central lawns flanked by paths
and borders of hardy perennials, and while many gardeners continued to
practise some bedding-out, hardy perennials formed the principal planting.^56
Pergolas, rockeries, shrubberies and ponds were common features, again
with origins in the designs of Jekyll and her contemporaries.
Some aspects of twentieth-century suburban gardens were inimical to
wildlife. There was little if any continuity between the pastures and meadows
of the former fields, and the lawns of suburbia, for the turf was usually removed
when houses were erected, and when sold for use elsewhere was generally
cleansed of wild flowers.^57 Indeed, then as so often today ‘weeds’ of any kind
in lawns were regarded as a sign of gardening failure, and in general, although
contemporary gardening books extolled the ‘beauties of nature’, the prevailing
aesthetic was one of neat tidiness. Gardeners often waged a strenuous, almost
paranoid war on pests of all kinds. ‘At the first sign of the oncoming of the
devastating host the gardener must be ready to attack and exterminate it. For
if once the invading army be allowed to capture the citadel all will be lost’.^58
This war was fought with an array of chemicals which have since either been
banned, or are normally available in weakened form in proprietary products.
DDT, carbolic acid, formaldehyde, nicotine and copper sulphate were all
used with gay abandon to eradicate weeds and insects. ‘Mice and rats can
also be poisoned, one of the most effective substances for this purpose being
phosphate paste’.^59 On the other hand, publications such as Daglish’s The
Book of Garden Animals of 1928 show that many of the denizens of suburban
England were fascinated by garden wildlife, especially garden birds.^60 Bird
baths and bird tables were standard garden features from at least the late
nineteenth century. Moreover, certain stylistic aspects of suburban gardens
were especially conducive to wildlife. Most of the hardy perennials crammed
into the borders and beds produced substantial quantities of nectar, pollen
and seeds which were eagerly consumed by insects, especially butterflies and
moths. Indeed, many of the species which are today listed as useful plants in
‘wildlife gardens’ were recommended by late–nineteenth- and early twentieth-
century garden writers, such as hollyhock, sunflower, anemone, Shasta daisy,
nicotiana, Michaelmas daisy or Phlox.^61
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(Elle)
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