The Need For Change
Gardening as we know it is changing and will need to change immensely over the next 25 years to remain sustainable. Global warming, global dimming call it whatever you like and blame it on whatever you like, but the fact remains that our climate is changing and will change further and change is something us humans don’t like. Rather than accept the fact that things aren’t like they used to be and adapt we soldier on trying to continue as we have done creating endless work, disappointment and trying to achieve the unachievably.
It is time for us to take stock and look at what the future holds for gardening. With and increase in milder, wetter winters, summer flooding and heat waves many of our traditional garden plants will become impractical to grow. Many of our traditional spring bulbs will not be able to cope with the wet winters and become prone to diseases whilst traditional herbaceous perennials will not be able to cope with the dry. There is already a huge increase in fungal disease throughout the year, increase in pests, plants just not coming back due to excess wet or dry. Therefore we need to adapt and ensure our gardens become sustainable which our changing world.
Water is precious and a necessity for the garden and one water butt tucked away in a corner is like having a 1 pint petrol tank on your car, it just isn’t enough. There are many different options available to us now to store water, by either linking several water butts together, getting bigger butts or using under ground tanks. For my garden I purchased domestic oil tanks each holding 650 gallons and linked them together with a pond pump inside to supply the water easily. These can be sunk into the ground under a patio or lawn, put along the side of a house or covered with trellis and plants and can be fed by run off from the entire house. A tank can also be used for grey water (bath/shower), though some maintenance is required to keep the tank clean, providing you with an endless supply of water for the garden. It would however be pointless to save all this water to throw it away on plants that aren’t happy in our current conditions and this is where we have to bite the bullet and introduce new plants that will cope with the changes.
Ironically, due to the wet this year I have lost many Gladioli where they have just rotted away. Rather than waste time and resources by incorporating grit to improve the drainage of my soil, they will be coming out and going into pots and in there place I will plant something that will be happy in that type of wet soil. It is pointless spending a fortune on trying to change my soil, using endless chemicals to keep diseases away that wouldn’t be there if I’d planted the right thing in the right place. Instead we need to work with what we have and garden accordingly, working with nature rather than against.
Written by Day Lily on 2007/07/21 | Permalink to this article