Foreword on New Gardening

As the UK's leading gardening organization, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is concerned with ensuring that we provide the appropriate advice to our members and the wider public, so that they gain the greatest pleasure from their gardens while gardening in a manner that is as environmentally sound as possible. With concern over the impact of climate change and the depletion of natural resources very much on the agenda, it can be difficult for gardeners to know how best to tackle such significant issues and where to find clear, practical and well-informed guidance.

The RHS aims to help gardeners to continue to enjoy the life-enhancing benefits of gardens and gardening whilst coping with climate change and the issues around it: care of the environment, enhancing biodiversity and reducing carbon footprints. The knowledge gained from the four RHS gardens, supported by our scientific work and the knowledge of our plant committees and partner gardens, allows us access to an unparalleled range of information to draw on. This can be utilized to provide gardeners with the sort of practical, clear information that can be lacking during times of change. Matthew Wilson's book, New Gardening, supports this initiative.

During his career with the RHS, Matthew has curated two of our four gardens in parts of the country with distinctly different and challenging growing conditions; Hyde Hall in Essex with its low rainfall, heavy soil and exposed conditions, and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire, where rainfall is greater but exposure to cold winds and frosts are major factors for consideration. At both gardens, Matthew has established a culture of gardening with the environment, protecting and enhancing biodiversity, and reducing or phasing out entirely the use of artificial irrigation, chemicals and inorganic fertilizers.

New Gardening reflects and imparts the practical experience he has garnered, but goes beyond the perceived boundaries of gardening. Uniquely, it looks at the bigger picture – how our gardening activities can positively affect the environment and reduce our impact on natural resources. By looking 'over the garden fence', this book encompasses issues that typically fall outside more conventional gardening publications. It looks at where the materials and plants we purchase for our gardens come from and how they are produced, at how to tackle waste and recycle creatively, at the relationship between climate, soil and plant choice, and perhaps the biggest concern for gardeners today – at how to use water responsibly.

Gardeners have always had the knack of responding proactively to the changing seasons, and now that we are facing a greater challenge we should take some comfort from that inherent ability. But what we most need is practical, accessible information that can be employed in our own gardens, large or small. New Gardening provides precisely that sort of information, and more besides, making it an important book for the RHS and, I believe, anyone with an interest in gardening and the environment.