How to future-proof your own back garden

Annie Gatti 29 January 2022 6:00am GMT Wakehurst, the 500-acre “wild botanic garden” in the High Weald of West Sussex, is the lesser-known sister garden to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A

multi-layered landscape, with dramatic tree-covered ravines, wetlands, grasslands and ornamental gardens, its range of habitats and flora, says director Ed Ikin, is what makes Wakehurst such

a great place to address some of the issues of climate change in gardens. After a 13-year career with the National Trust (where he led the restoration of nearby Nymans Garden), and excited

by the ability of Kew scientists to answer some of the questions he has had for so long about the hidden ecological processes within gardens and landscapes, Ikin joined Wakehurst as head of

landscape, horticulture and research in 2015. This autumn he was appointed director. Wakehurst, he feels, has been under the radar for some time. “We’ve slowly assembled this biodiverse

place, this extraordinary habitat and developed new approaches to the landscape – but we haven’t sought publicity for it.” Now, with the launch this summer of the Landscape Ecology

Programme, which was developed by Ikin and a scientist colleague, Wakehurst is coming centre stage as a place where nature-based solutions to critical challenges such as climate change,

mental health and food security will be scientifically studied. “The work we’re going to do – an appraisal of everything that’s here and the role it plays, and a forward view that says

whether a particular plant or landscape will be under stress in say 10 years’ time – will be of particular interest to gardeners. We already know, for example, that some of our UK trees,

such as beech, are struggling to survive, partly because of climate change, so we need to understand which species will be able to provide our tree cover in the future.” Ikin is currently

recruiting a research team of spatial analysts (who fly drones to map tree health), mycologists and bio mathematicians to build a body of evidence about the link between fungi, landscapes

and carbon sequestration. “If you have a highly functional below-ground fungal community but on the surface you have what appears to be a landscape of lesser value, such as rough grassland,

planting trees on that land might be a net carbon emitter in the long term, because that fungal community may not be able to coexist with a new tree community above it.’ > View this post 

on Instagram >  > A post shared by Wakehurst (@wakehurst_kew) Gardeners can also get inspiration from Wakehurst’s six-acre American Prairie which, apart from being a bold experiment in

conserving a rare habitat, provides a spectacle of gold and purple monarda, coreopsis and rudbeckia when the gardeners stop mowing it in mid-August. Here are some of the principles of

climate change gardening that Ed Ikin has learned from Wakehurst. HOW TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR GARDEN THE WAKEHURST WAY CONSERVE WATER Spend a full growing season challenging some of your

practices and habits. Take watering, for example: ask yourself how many times you have looked at the soil and taken a superficial view that it’s dry – but if you dug down you would see that

the roots are in damp soil. How much tap water have I used? That’s water that’s gone through so many processes and comes with a carbon footprint as well. Switch to using water you can

collect. If you’re making a new patio, consider storing a 1,000-litre rainwater tank underneath to be mains-free. TRY DIRECT SOWING Anything that germinates from a seed sown directly in the

ground is inherently a winner. What you get with direct sowing is plants that are far more attuned to their environmental conditions. So if it doesn’t rain, they won’t grow – they’ll just

wait. Then when it rains, they start to grow. The crucial thing is not to start mollycoddling them. LOOK AT WILD PLANT COMMUNITIES When creating a new planting or border, think about it as a

system, as a group of plants with complementary growth habits that will occupy different spaces. For example, in our new American prairie we have seen how plants such as Penstemon

digitalis, Echinacea pallida and liatris thrive among the clump-forming grasses. They are used to growing together and don’t need any special treatment from the gardeners. I can see how

successful these established natural systems are when I walk in my local woodland, where I can see wood anemones, wild garlic, holly, hazel, birch trees, ash trees, sycamore and, at the top

layer, oaks. An example of a system where everything has found its place. BOOST BELOW-GROUND BIODIVERSITY In the healthiest gardens, fungi, bacteria, protozoa and beneficial nematodes in the

soil all play an active role in the health of the above-ground plant community. Boost below-ground biodiversity by making sure you have continuous plant cover – so much of our fungal

diversity wants to associate with plant roots. The more bare soil there is, the less there is for the fungal community to associate with. Digging and adding inorganic fertilisers also has an

adverse effect on soil biology. ENCOURAGE INVERTEBRATES FOR NATURAL PEST CONTROL You can draw great satisfaction from seeing all sorts of insects buzzing around the garden, but remember

they are also providing a set of services to you. Take wasps, for example, which we are studying at Wakehurst: much as we can find them irritating in late summer, they provide a highly

effective pest control service early in the growing season when they are primarily carnivorous. You can encourage invertebrates through plant choices and by creating a structurally diverse

garden. Think about different shapes of plants and how they will create different habitats, and consider different sources of nectar and how you can provide it for as much of the growing

season as possible. The classic example is the much derided ivy, which is a potent source of nectar right at the end of the growing season. Leave vegetation standing in winter, to provide

hibernation niches. REFINE PLANT CHOICES At Wakehurst we don’t grow roses because we can’t see the point in spending hundreds of hours of labour – spraying, feeding and pruning – just to

keep them looking good. Similarly, we are not planting any more hydrangeas as we have observed that they no longer survive without additional watering, and we feel we should not be using

precious water resources on established plants. Climate change alternatives to hydrangeas might include myrtle or eucryphia cultivars. However, if roses are essential to the beauty of your

plot, ask yourself if you can introduce varieties with a bit more inherent vigour, eg that are less prone to black spot. > View this post on Instagram >  > A post shared by 

Wakehurst (@wakehurst_kew) SWAP HARD SURFACES FOR POROUS Think about the topography of your garden and how it relates to the landscape beyond you. If you’re at the top of a slope on the edge

of a village, do you really want a block pave drive that will create a sheet of water during the violent downpours that are a reality of climate change, sending water surging down the

village. Porous hard landscaping absorbs surging water and percolates it slowly into the surrounding soil. At Wakehurst we use a mix of porous surfaces and culverts and swales to deal with

flood surges. SWITCH TO NO-MOW LAWNS (BUT USE THE RIGHT GRASSES) Leaving your grass uncut (and so reducing your emissions in the garden) can provide a welcome habitat for invertebrates and

other small creatures, but can leave you looking out on an underwhelming patch of shaggy grass. This is likely to be because your turf mix has a high percentage of stoloniferous grasses

(look out for “creeping” in their description or name), which grow sideways, creating an impenetrable mat. Clump-forming grasses, such as Chewing’s fescue, quaking grass and sweet vernal

grass, have an upright habit, which allows other flowering plants enough space to take root. WAKEHURST IN WINTER Be led by your nose along the winding paths of the Winter Garden, beside the

Elizabethan mansion. Designed by garden supervisor Francis Annette, the three-acre garden features fragrant daphnes and witch hazels. Generously planted with more than 30,000 individual

plants, colour is provided by blocks of red-stemmed dogwood with a field layer of evergreen Carex morowii. White-stemmed Himalayan silver birch are interspersed with coppery Tibetan cherry.

_For further information visit __kew.org/wakehurst__. The gardens are open daily, 10am-4pm_