December 2023 - Resilient Gardens
December Musings
Hello! I read a fascinating article in last month’s Telegraph (Saturday 11th November) about the need for flood resilient and weatherproof gardens. There is no denying that we’re experiencing weather extremes. In parts of UK, plants now have to cope with temperatures as low as -20C and as high as +40C along with prolonged drought conditions (“2023 is predicted to have been the hottest year on record”), not to mention the deluge of rain from more frequent storm events (“6 out of ten wettest years have occurred since 1998”) RHS Wisely garden manager Sheila Das sums it up nicely “ water is often in the wrong place at the wrong time!”
Note to self: dig a very large pond for water capture and plant a lot of trees for shade.
For the love of gardening: Building a sustainable garden for a changing climate
Tom Masseys Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court
Here's a few tips to help make your garden more resilient to our changing climate:
Invest in water butts – the more the merrier!
Ditch the fake grass. 1 in 10 UK gardens now have ‘garden carpet’ – their microplastics leak into the soil, and they can’t take up rainwater.
De-pave your garden- try to create more permeable surfaces for water to drain away.
Create rain gardens by keeping the undulations rather than flattening them out, create areas for water to pool instead of eroding your soil when there are downpours. Dig out low lying areas to create ponds and expect them to be either full or dry, surround with marginal bog plants which survive rising and falling water levels.
If your garden is prone to heavy flooding, consider raised beds, they’ll stop your prize plants from drowning in mud.
Plant trees, they mitigate flooding through their root network while their canopies slow the rains path onto the ground.
Plant plants! More plants in our gardens will create healthy soil which is, ultimately the best water butt we have.
A useful book written by garden designer Tom Massey for the RHS
Plant Spotlight:
Look for plants that can tolerate extremes of temperature, here’s some to get you started:
The Potting Shed: Things to do December
Absolutely nothing! Put your feet up- relax and enjoy the festive break J
Readers Q&A
Verbena Bonariensis
“Should I cut back my Verbena Bonariensis plants before winter sets in? They’re about 1m tall.
Leaving the foliage in place offers some frost protection and helps you see where the plants are in the border. The seedheads are a valuable food source for birds and the stems provide shelter to overwintering insects. You could venture outside and cut back any over long and broken stems now, but I’d suggest leaving the rest for a good spring trim.
Happy Gardening and wishing you all a very lovely Christmas!
