"Green" Gardening Question Time

Keen gardeners from Knaresborough and Harrogate gathered at the Centre on Gracious Street on Wednesday evening to learn from the expertise of four highly respected local horticulturalists.

The panel was chaired by our own Knaresborough Forest Park site lead, Geoff Freeston, who himself has decades of experience in horticulture in leading institutions.

The panel members were:

• Chris Beard, former head of Parks at Harrogate Borough Council and founder of Harrogate in Bloom

• Sarah Owens-Hughes, head gardener at Rudding Park

• Fiona Slight, garden manager at Harlow Carr Gardens

The questions included asking for the panel's recommendations for peat-free compost (the message seemed to be that although peat is wonderful, it’s irreplaceable so we must use alternatives, but the jury is still out on them!), environmentally friendly slug and aphid deterrents, and how to deal with ground elder and bamboo without damaging neighbouring wildlife. A more general discussion on how to make your garden more wildlife-friendly included making a pond (with sloping sides for animals to be able to climb out), cleaning any bird nest boxes or feeding stations to avoid spreading disease, keeping food available for invertebrates all year round, and allowing room for native plants such as nettles, dead wood and so on.

We were also delighted to welcome Councillor Hannah Gostlow, who outlined Knaresborough Town Council's biodiversity policy and how it is influencing their decisions. She explained that framing this policy was a statutory obligation but is also "a real opportunity to protect and enrich the green character of Knaresborough which we know is hugely important to residents". The policy ensures that decisions are made in such a way as to conserve and enhance biodiversity on KTC land and the one building it owns (Stockwell Community Centre), and affects how it manages grant applications, planning and how it communicates with residents. KTC set up a climate change working group four years ago, which has looked at plans for enhancing the biodiversity on the Stockwell Community Centre site and looked at natural methods for reducing flooding on the playing fields, as well as other decarbonisation measures. Cllr Gostlow encouraged local groups to apply for grant funding through the green grants scheme and to nominate green champions in an initiative which will be publicised soon.

We would like to thank all Cllr Gostlow and the panellists for giving their time and expertise to support our event, as well as all the volunteers who worked hard to organise it, the supporters who provided plants for the plant sale, the audience who came to support the event, and the local businesses who generously provided raffle prizes:

• Action Zone

• Brewers Decorating Centre

• Forest Feeds

• Harlow Carr Gardens

• Helen Baxter @ Kelly Teggin

• Himalayan Sculpture Garden

• Moorland Nurseries

"Green" Gardening Question Time raised approximately £800 for Knaresborough Forest Park, which will be a very helpful source of funding as we begin work on the land. The event was very well received by people attending, with calls for it to be repeated in future.

The event was live-streamed on Facebook and the first half of the evening can still be viewed here.