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RHS Journals
The Garden
September 2006
General news
Brownfield development
MPs set sights on ‘garden grabbers’
A campaign to prevent ‘garden grabbing’ by developers is gathering momentum. Opinion is mounting against the Government’s designation of gardens as brownfield sites and the issue will form part of an RHS forum hosted by The Garden in autumn.
A Private Member’s Bill against the controversial practice is currently going through Parliament with the backing of dozens of MPs from all parties. Greg Clark, Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, says he has support from more than 30 Labour MPs for his Protection of Private Gardens (Housing Development) Bill. The Bill, which is expected to be debated in the Commons on 20 October, aims to close a loophole that allows gardens to be designated as brownfield sites.
Greg said, ‘The Bill would allow local authorities the right to decide planning cases on their merits. Only by classifying gardens as brownfield sites and including dwellings built in residential areas can the Government claim that it is meeting its own housing target’ [to build 60 percent of new homes on brownfield land]. ‘Most people assume that brownfield sites means ex-industrial land. They have no idea that many of them are gardens.
A lot of RHS members have contacted me about this,’ he added. ‘I have been completely inundated with emails - I had 300 on the subject in one week.’
Opponents of the Government’s approach say family homes in the suburbs are being pulled down and often replaced with high-density flats. Garden owners find it hard to refuse prices being offered by developers, and once one decides to sell, it is often in the best interests of neighbours to follow suit.
One of the Government’s aims was to encourage the building of more affordable housing, but it is believed that developers are cashing in on the luxury apartment market, as they are only obliged to include affordable housing if the development includes more than 14 flats.
Previously unpublished figures show that 15 percent of all new dwellings are being built on existing residential plots, including gardens. Greg Clark said, ‘The true figure could be much higher. I have done a survey of recent planning approvals and the real level of “back garden development” is above 70 percent in some areas.’
Yvette Cooper, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, contradicts his claim. ‘The majority of new homes built in the last few years have been on non-residential brownfield land,’ she said.
An RHS forum, ‘What Future for Urban Gardens: Eden or Extinction’, hosted by The Garden, will take place in London on 8 November 2006 and will be previewed in the November issue.
Biodiversity
Darwin’s field study repeated
A wildflower survey that repeated one made by Charles Darwin 150 years ago has found that the number of plant species growing at the site has fallen by 15 percent.
Darwin’s study of the meadow next to his family home, Down House in Bromley, provided a unique snapshot of the diversity of Britain’s plant life in 1856.
His observations contributed to the groundbreaking understanding of evolution that he presented in his famous book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Over the past year, conservationists, botanists and local volunteers from the Natural History Museum, English Heritage (which owns and cares for Down House) and the London Borough of Bromley retraced Darwin’s footsteps and found 119 plant species in the 5.5ha site. Darwin recorded 142.
This 15 percent reduction in biodiversity may well be due to changes in farming practice. Efforts are now under way to restore the previous diversity.
Johannes Vogel, Keeper of Botany at the Natural History Museum, said, ‘We have studied what is in essence a rather ordinary piece of grassland, but this ordinariness makes it significant. No-one else was doing the kind of surveying that Darwin carried out, so there is no other data to show the changes to Britain’s flora in the last century.’
New garden
Open woodland
Bressingham Gardens near Diss in Norfolk has opened a new garden, Adrian’s Wood, as a tribute to the impact of North American plants on British gardens.
Its creator, Adrian Bloom, said, ‘We owe a lot to the North American continent for the variety of trees, shrubs and perennials in our parks, landscapes and gardens.
‘Many species have fascinating stories attached to them, such as their uses by Native Americans for food, fuel and medicinal purposes.’
Monarda didyma (scarlet beebalm) was used to treat headaches and heart problems and Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock) gave relief from arthritis and dysentery.
More than 200 North American species and cultivars are planted in Adrian’s Wood, and it is hoped that an educational programme will be launched at Bressingham in 2007.
The new attraction has been developed in part of the gardens first planted in 1963. Adrian said, ‘Five mature redwoods, 25m tall, determined the layout. I’m planting a wide range of colourful and interesting plants for impact and variety, many sourced direct from North America as seed or plants.’
Adrian’s Wood will be featured in the December issue of The Garden.
Rare plants
Army action aids Adonis
Army tanks trundling across Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire have unwittingly benefited one of Britain’s rarest flowers, Adonis annua (pheasant’s eye). The Ministry of Defence (MOD) training ground is a refuge for this rare British native, only recorded in the wild on 18 sites since 1987.
Dominic Ash of the Defence Estates Environmental Support Team, who maintain, protect and enhance natural and historic heritage across all MOD sites, said, ‘It is hard to believe, but military disturbance significantly helps pheasant’s eye reproduce.
‘Recently, tanks had to create a temporary track across the Plain. This disturbance encouraged thousands of seeds to germinate, including pheasant’s eye - we have hundreds more plants than we did last year and the year before. The site is now being maintained to ensure it continues to flourish.’
Once a relatively common agricultural weed, pheasant’s eye produces few seeds and its numbers have dramatically declined with the intensification of agriculture. Ministry ecologists monitor the plant’s health and dispersal, and aim to encourage its germination.
‘Because wild Adonis is so rare in Britain, it is important to manage Salisbury Plain in a way that will help to increase its numbers,’ said Dominic. Most of the area, one of the UK’s best chalk grasslands, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
News in brief
The Queen Mother’s Memorial Garden has opened at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Her Majesty
The Queen, accompanied by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and HRH The Prince of Wales, officially opened the memorial garden in July. Begun in autumn 2005, it was completed on schedule and cost £500,000.
Lawn mosskillers based on dichlorophen, found in products such as Bio Kills Moss on Lawns and Bio Mosskiller Ready-to-Use (which were sold by pbi Home & Garden), and Tumbleweed Moss Ready to Use (sold by Levington) have lost approval for use by home gardeners. Remaining stocks must be used by 30 September.
Up to 2,000,000ha of cork oak forests around the Mediterranean - an area roughly half the size of Switzerland - could be lost within 10 years, according to a World Wide Fund for Nature report. It says the risk of desertification and forest fires will increase due to a decline in the market for cork stoppers.
Record-breaking temperatures at RHS Garden Wisley rose to 36.5°C on 19 July, England’s hottest July day ever, beating the previous record from 1911 when nearby Epsom recorded a high of 36°C.
Sally Charrett, The Garden’s new Trainee Horticultural Journalist, is the 2006 winner of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists Training Award. Sally, who joined the Journal in June under the Society’s annual traineeship scheme, won the award for a news story on the effect of the drought on the horticultural industry in southern England.
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