The Author and the Editor
The Author
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| Nic at his allotments in the 1990s |
As a 12-year-old, Nic and his friend had the iconic
experience of bucketing sludge from an expired septic tank, directing it along
corrugated sheets to apple-trees and a bed of courgettes. Covering it with garden debris, they were soon
amazed with the fruitful results: this was Nic’s first compost clamp.
As a teenager, Nic worked on local farms in Derbyshire,
later in Sweden and different parts of UK.
In 1949 he spent more than a year on a sheep-farm in Canterbury, New
Zealand, where he was particularly impressed by the alfalfa crops – a species notable
for its deep-rooting, leguminous and perennial qualities.
Reading Natural Sciences and Agriculture at Cambridge, Nic included
a study of alfalfa.
In early 1960s he farmed in partnership on a dairy-farm in
Herefordshire. When farm economics
dictated bigger holdings, he became Head of Biology at Ross-on-Wye Grammar
School.
Living in Exmouth from the 1970s,
Nic was fortunate to have a tenancy of four allotments, which enabled him to
carry out his extended experimental garden project, focussing especially on
soil-fertility-with-no-outside-inputs, either animal or chemical. A main feature of his rotation-trials was the
deep-rooting alfalfa. (The present tenant has continued to grow alfalfa
stands).
Nic’s documents have not been
published before, but most of the material in them does not date.
An article in the local paper about Nic’s experimental
Garden described his mature compost as “like a slice of Christmas cake.”
The Editor
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| Jan at the allotments in 1994 |
Jan, a retired primary school teacher, is married to Nic. She describes
herself as having been an enthusiastic consumer of Nic’s luxuriant crops, which
fed the extended family throughout the period of the allotment trials.
Nic and Jan held several Open Days during the allotment project,
where Jan made displays illustrating Nic's organic aims.
Jan typed and edited both documents, needing to consider with
Nic in some depth the content of the scripts, before going into print.
She writes, “I have done my best to record the important
messages of Nic’s work, so that others may read for themselves. Care of the Planet is crucially important,
especially now”.
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