Whatever your view on Brexit, it frees us from the Common Agricultural Policy and provides a golden opportunity to turn farming on its head, to make the radical changes that are urgently needed before most of our wildlife and our soils have gone.” How about ensuring you get the full jungle effect by making provisions for wildlife and erecting birdboxes around the garden, cited at 2 meters in height? Their songs will sound amazing in the jungle. Bat boxes are another good idea and should be placed facing north. How about cutting a section of the base of a fence out to create a wildlife corridor this may mean you get visitors such as hedgehogs. (3) Add a water feature Borrell’s final clarion call to young Europeans that they must “keep the garden, be good gardeners. But your duty will not be to take care of the garden itself but [of] the jungle outside", is indeed nothing short of another directive for them to be better racists and colonialists. This is hardly a new call. Plus ça change! De Tocqueville, who was so enamoured of the US republic of slavery, which he dubbed a "democracy", wrote that white Americans have much "national vanity": "The Americans, in their intercourse with strangers, appear impatient of the smallest censure and insatiable of praise... They unceasingly harass you to extort praise, and if you resist their entreaties they fall to praising themselves. It would seem as if, doubting their own merit, they wished to have it constantly exhibited before their eyes. Their vanity is not only greedy, but restless and jealous."

This book will teach you a great deal about the creatures who live right outside your door and are waiting for you to get to know them. It is a constant revelation. * Sunday Times *Like a top-notch wildlife documentary, The Garden Jungle draws us in with fascinating details of the natural world and, at the same time, delivers a wake-up call [...] I doubt that many will finish reading this important book without making a few changes to their gardening or way of life." The rest of the world," he went on, "is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden." Some have misinterpreted the metaphor as 'colonial Euro-centrism'," Borrell wrote in a blog post on Tuesday evening. "I am sorry if some have felt offended." I don’t dig up dahlias to store them at the end of the summer. And before you dig your dahlias up, it’s important to know the pros and cons. You…

I now want to have a mini pond, put up bug hotels all over, and plant a few dwarf apple trees to try some of the 700+ varieties available, and plan to grow as much as I can from seeds, and as many different varieties as possible. I could go on and on, citing more from this childish and utterly dreadful metaphor, but I suppose you get the picture. The bottom line: Wonderful prosperous and free Europe is an exception in our otherwise vicious world, and it won’t survive for long unless its “gardeners” go out there to the jungle and help civilise the world.

Goulson] is master of intriguing details of a world beyond our ken [...] The Garden Jungle is an eye-opening book [...] [and Goulson's] enthusiasm is infectious. This is a man you'd just love to visit your garden and show you its invisible wonders, teach you how to nurture them." We spoke with jungle garden expert George Lowther from georgesjunglegarden. We asked him for a couple of tips for creating an exotic jungle style garden, and he provided the following excellent advice: An upbeat book about the wonders of the ecosystem in every garden. * The Times, *Summer reads of 2019* * They may look scary to create and maintain that is not the case. A jungle-style garden may be the perfect solution to those awkward areas in your garden where many traditional plants can’t survive. New gardeners are often surprised at the many different microclimates a garden can contain. You may have just a suitable space where exotic plants can thrive. Many jungle style plants thrive in the shade, and most gardens have difficult shady areas they struggle to utilise. In hotter climates, the Paulownia is grown as a street tree, and massive displays of purple flowers can line the streets, making a magnificent tree in cities from South America to Australia. Let’s have a little taste of that in our Jungle Garden. Best to plant as a single specimen plant; choose a nice sunny corner where you can truly appreciate this tree. Underplant with shade lovers to make the crown stand out.

I have published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, and am author of Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation (2010, Oxford University Press) and A Sting in the Tale (2013, Jonathan Cape), a popular science book about bumblebees. A Buzz in the Meadow (Jonathon Cape) is due to be published in September 2014. And to end his inspirational, motivational big talk with a final wisdom, Borrell told the prospective envoys to raise their heads high and be good gardeners not only of Europe but of the “jungle”, wishing them happy diplomatic safaris. Goulson] is master of intriguing details of a world beyond our ken... The Garden Jungle is an eye-opening book... [and Goulson's] enthusiasm is infectious. This is a man you'd just love to visit your garden and show you its invisible wonders, teach you how to nurture them. * The Times * And, although it looks as if it may be only available second-hand or on Kindle, Architectural Plants by Christine Shaw is worth getting your hands on. If we would all do an effort like this it would make an immense difference for the insects and the myriad of small creatures that live in a wild or semi-wild garden. I have been trying for three years now and have been rewarded by countless visits by bees and butterflies, the most visible of our new wildlife. I am still not there, but at least it is a good start and it makes me happy.Lastly, pay a visit to a good exotic plant nursery. My favourite is Architectural Plants, which describes itself as the’ home of the tropical and jungly in both big and small plants.’ Of het nu om onze achtertuintjes gaat, of om de koffieteelt in Zuid-Amerika, we zijn blijkbaar meesters in het verknoeien van de natuur. We grijpen te snel en te vaak naar onkruidverdelgers en pesticiden, en staan niet stil bij de verstrekkende gevolgen. De schrijver brengt je aan de hand van sprekende voorbeelden aan het verstand hoe de natuur verknoeid wordt.

In the 19th and much of the 20th century, the favourite metaphor that European colonial racists used against the rest of the world was that Europe represented "civilisation", while the rest of the world represented "savagery" and "barbarism". Elk onderwerp/hoofdstuk is even boeiend; van de mieren die ‘wandelende honingbommen’ zijn, over de oorwormen ‘die in groepjes rondhangen als tieners op voorjaarsvakantie’, tot volkstuintjes die de wereld gaan redden. Echt. Zijn idee daarover is zo geweldig, het klinkt als een waterdicht plan en tevens als ‘het enige voordeel van de Brexit’.

Cordylines are tolerant of most soils but if the soil is particularly heavy clay, it’s a good idea to mix plenty of compost in its planting pit maybe also with some horticultural gravel. These plants are drought tolerant, but it is always good practise to irrigate in dry times in the early years. Same goes for a little sprinkle of top dress fertiliser. If you live in an area that has cold winters, then it’s a good idea to apply a mulch in the autumn to help protect from penetrating frosts. So much emphasis was put on bashing pesticides. He went on to talk how badly the RHS is. Yet when I studied my RHS qualification a lot more time was spent learning cultural controls as opposed to spraying. It would have been nice if this was mentioned. Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset has some beautiful displays of Hydrangeas and Rhododendrons, which you could try to replicate on a smaller scale. How to create a low cost jungle garden on a budget