Future garden care alterations with insights from a prominent British head gardener: 6 significant adjustments to bear in mind.
Embracing Climate Change in the Garden: Adaptation and Innovation
Let's face it, climate change is here, and it's reshaping our gardening practices. Here's how we're adjusting to preserve the serenity of our greenspaces for future generations.
Revamping Planting Strategies
With the arrival of frosts being delayed, we're planting foxgloves in the Rose Garden next to our dahlias, rather than in their vacated spaces. We're also switching to more hardy perennials, reducing those plants that might need subsequent watering. The key is to choose perennials that not only flourish in drought-ridden summers but also endure our wet winters. Certain species of Euphorbia have proven to be reliable performers, especially Euphorbia palustris. Also, Iris sibirica, shrubs like Osmanthus and Mahonia are surviving well in our changing climate.
Timing Is Everything
Spring-sown annuals are struggling in the drier soil of May. So, we’re experimenting with sowing most of these annuals in the autumn, potting them into 9cm pots, and placing them into a sand bed to encourage strong, fibrous rooting before planting them out in February when the soil is moist. On the other hand, our dahlias are staying in the ground longer due to the delayed first frosts, necessitating us to plant them wider apart to accommodate the wallflowers and foxgloves planted around them.
Adapting to New Challenges
We're also altering our methods for managing issues such as new pests and diseases. The box caterpillar, which we spray with a biological control, Bacillus thuringiensis, and a mating disruptor called Box T Pro Press, is one such problem. Over the past couple of years, tulip fire has caused us major headaches, a fungal disease causing distorted growth and eventual death of the tulip. We've removed and replaced all our tulips, planting alternatives like narcissi, fritillaries, and star of Bethlehem flowers (Ornithogalum) around the garden.
Making Shifts in our Approach
Other plants like aquilegias that are prone to powdery mildew, Impatiens affected by downy mildew, Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae which seems to dislike our soil, and oriental poppies that keep dying for no apparent reason are also suffering.
Gardening Organically
In the Vegetable Garden, organic principles rule supreme. We practice the no-dig method and use companion plants and cultural control instead of chemicals. The most time-consuming areas to weed are the gravel paths, where we're trying out removal with acetic acid.
Compost Mastery
Previously, we operated a basic cold compost process with no turning, but the quality of the finished compost was inconsistent and full of viable weed seeds. To improve our composting process, we're experimenting with the principles of bokashi composting, a process that ferments waste organic matter in an anaerobic environment using Effective Microorganisms (EM-1). These microbes generate bio-active substances that help promote healthy plant growth and combat diseases.
Stay tuned for more climate-friendly gardening tips and strategies!
Further Reading:
- Urban Gardening in the Age of Climate Change
- Climate-Resilient Plant Selection and Gardening Practices
- Sustainable Living Walls: Green Infrastructure for Cities
- Embracing Climate-Smart Horticulture Technologies
- Co-creating Climate-Adaptive Gardens: A Community Engagement Approach
- In adapting to the impacts of climate change on our gardens, we're focusing on revamping planting strategies, especially by growing more hardy perennials that flourish in drought-ridden summers and endure wet winters, such as Euphorbia palustris and Iris sibirica.
- To cope with the delayed arrival of frosts, we're adjusting the timing of our plantings, for instance, sowing most spring-sown annuals in the autumn and planting out in February.
- As we face new challenges from pests like the box caterpillar and diseases like tulip fire, we're adopting new methods for management like using biological controls and replacing affected plants with alternatives that are climate-resilient.
- In an effort to make shifts in our gardening approach, we're trying to cultivate certain plants organically in the vegetable garden, employing the no-dig method and using companion plants and cultural control instead of chemicals to limit the use of harmful substances.
- Recognizing the importance of composting in maintaining a healthy garden amid climate change, we're experimenting with more effective composting methods like bokashi composting, which harnesses the power ofEffective Microorganisms (EM-1) to improve both the quality of the compost and the health of our plants.
- For those interested in learning more about urban gardening, climate-resilient plant selection, sustainable living walls, climate-smart horticulture technologies, and co-creating climate-adaptive gardens through community engagement, there are a number of resources available, including books and articles on these topics.
