Ethically sourced sandstone & Spring in the garden
With Louisa Bell of City and Country Gardens
Design and construction
Stone ethics
For once I am pleased to hear that prices are going up. Indian sandstone has been used within the construction industry for some years now. Sandstone is a good, durable and attractive paving material. It comes in many colours – some called sandstone, but actually limestone. However, it’s often chosen by contractors not because of its aesthetic appearance, but because it can be bought cheaply. Many small, independent importers jumped on the sandstone bandwagon and imported crates of stone to sell on to garden centres, builders’ merchants and landscape companies. However, sandstone was cheap for only one reason. Women and children are used to quarry the stone in India, earning 60p per day.
Because of pressure from concerned parties, and contractors who insist on sandstone from ethical sources, the price of sandstone will rise this year – in some cases by 38 per cent. How can it be that stone, all the way from India, which is quarried and transported thousands of miles and involving many people in the supply chain, can be cheaper than a locally bought and quarried stone? It’s quite simple when you don’t pay any of that supply chain properly or decently.
Many builders’ merchants, including Travis Perkins, Marshalls and Benton Weatherstone, make absolutely sure that their sandstone is ethically sourced. Their entire Indian supply chain, right back to the quarries themselves, is audited to ensure compliance with the International Labour Organisation. Sandstone comes in a number of paving sizes, but the smaller ‘setts’ are often made by children. Marshalls import larger pieces of stone and make the setts themselves at their processing plant.
A well-run and legislated quarry will not employ women and children and will use proper protective equipment. They will also provide welfare and sick-pay for their workers. Quite often the workers live on site too, so the constant dust at the quarry can cause breathing issues – similar to ‘miner’s lung’. Sandstone will be used for 20 per cent of the UK domestic paving in the next ten years and I believe it is extremely important to be aware of the impact of irresponsible quarrying – both in human and environmental terms.
As a company, we only use suppliers of Indian sandstone whom we know to adhere to the strict code of practice for the manufacture and supply. If you use a contractor to build a patio or steps for you, please check the authenticity of the products they supply to you. The same strict code of practice applies to wood products too. The difference between checking and not caring could mean a world of difference to a child worker.
Plants
Pussy willow and catkins
These are the first signs of Spring in the hedgerows. I love seeing the trees coming back to life after their winter dormancy. On a blowy March day, when the sun starts to shine with more strength and light than the pale wintery imposter we’ve had to put up with, the catkins jump about on the end of branches like a live thing. They’re also known as lamb’s tails. They do look a bit like them when they wriggle about. Catkins appear on the trees before the leaves because they’re the wind-pollinated way for the tree to reproduce. The wind blows the catkins about and they’re covered in pollen. The pollen has a chance to blow onto the stigmas of the female flowers and fertilise them.
If there were leaves on the tree, the pollen would get stuck on the leaves. Nature is being brilliant as always. Pussy Willow is also a pollen-covered way of reproduction. It’s said that a Willow tree once bent down and fished some drowning kittens out of a fast flowing river and ever since, the willow tree has had tiny kittens on the end of its branches each Spring, though this story does make mefeel a bit queasy. I like the straightforward pollen-without-the-leaves bit myself. If you cut the branches, they last for ages (but please don’t cut them in the wild). In some areas they are carried on Palm Sunday. I like to buy a few branches to mix with daffodils in a big jug on the hall table. It makes me feel that Spring is just around the corner.
Things to do
Pea sticks
Carefully keep removing the dead leaves and debris from the flower beds. I say carefully, because bulbs and special things are certainly starting to come through now. Keep the soil forked gently around the emerging bulbs and herbaceous leaves. Treat new shoots and shrubs (not paeonies – they don’t like it) to a bucketful of well rotted manure, or a handful of fish blood and bone (sounds delightful). Keep an eye on wind-blown branches and shrubs and cut back any broken or dead wood. At this time of the year, when the leaves are all off the trees and shrubs, you can really see the infrastructure and work out what needs removing. Be careful not to prune Spring-flowering shrubs because you’ll probably prune off all the flowers that have been growing on the branches since last year. As a rule of thumb, prune Spring-flowering things after they’ve flowered, not before. Keep tying-in your roses. Somehow they still seem to be putting on growth.
If your garden’s not too frosty you can start to prune your roses back too into the framework you want. It’s all about tidiness and order at this time of year. Putting in supports for herbaceous plants now will be much better than wading in there with bamboo canes and bits of string in June. A border that looks like a trussed chicken is no border at all! If you shop around, you can still buy things called Pea Sticks to placeall around your taller herbaceous plants – like lupins, delphiniums and paeonies. Push the sticks gently in a circle around the new leaves and the sticks will support the growth throughout the season. By the time June arrives, you won’t be able to see the sticks at all, just a lovely display of plants. And no trussed-up chicken borders.
