A changing climate will inevitably bring changes to gardens. Thankfully, we gardeners have long been good at adapting to conditions - whatever the weather throws at us. It is a case of building on our greenfingered skills and learning how we can manage water even more efficiently through the seasons.
We've gathered together key information dealing with everything from plant advice to installing drainage and action plans for waterlogging issues. Below are tips from The Garden magazine on water in the garden.
Watch your water
Increasingly, gardeners have either too much or too little water - it's either droughts and hosepipe bans or flooding or waterlogging. But, as Leigh Hunt explains below, we can learn to adapt the way we garden. Leigh is a Horticultural Advisor based at RHS Garden Wisley.
Water is essential for life. From discovering a dried-up pot plant, to spotting one that has turned yellow from sitting in a saucer of water, gardeners recognise that the consequences of too much water, or too little, are life-threatening for plants.
While it should be possible to control or anticipate the amount of water plants receive, it is not surprising many of us are confused by what to do. We are told to grow drought-tolerant plants one year, and how to deal with waterlogging the next!
Changes in climate are likely to make this situation worse. Although overall predictions are for warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers, the overriding factor is the increasingly erratic nature of the weather.
It may be fairly easy to adjust to the warmer conditions expected over the next 20 years, but it will be more difficult to maintain gardens when water is scarce, or a deluge saturates them for weeks at a time. It is becoming clear that careful management of water through the seasons will become even more important. This includes collection and storage of rainwater for dry spells, gardening in such a way as to make sure every drop counts, and that excess water can drain away.
Thinking laterally
What can be done in periods of excessive rain, particularly in urban areas where there is often nowhere to drain the water except into the garden?
- Try to reduce runoff from hard surfaces such as driveways and patios by using permeable paving that allows water to soak in where it falls.
- Place green roofs on sheds and garages (above) to slow and reduce runoff.
- Gardeners could start creating seasonal pools or ‘swales’ that fill in winter and slowly dry to a bog garden in summer: a lining of gravel or cobbles helps prevent them becoming unattractive, dried, cracked depressions in a drought.
Some of the key water-management issues to consider