30 May 2024
“Go with it” if you have a waterlogged garden
5 minutes
Ahead of this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, judge and garden designer Jo Thompson says ‘go with it’ if you have a waterlogged garden.
Flooding is a growing issue in the UK with one in four homes at risk1, so gardens that can help reduce flood risk and recover quickly after heavy downfalls are in focus at RHS Chelsea 2024.
Designers Naomi Slade and Ed Barsley’s Sanctuary Garden ‘The Flood Re: The Flood Resilient Garden’ is an example of how dense planting can slow the flow of water – and it also incorporates features to capture and store water for later use. The beautiful, lush garden is full of ideas to address the disruption that flooding brings and won a silver medal.
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Designers Dr Ed Barsley and Naomi Slade |
At the show, Naomi told Howden: “We have a water butt that can drain down ahead of it raining so the garden is pre-wetted and absorbs soil. There’s also an array of water tanks that hold 10 bathtubs of water – they make a beautiful water feature as well as a dipping pond.
“Guttering is stronger and oversized so when it rains very heavily the gutters don't overflow.
The centre of the garden is designed to fill up with water without detriment to the garden and there are stepping stones across. The garden has good soil management and with the planting, there's two things; high layers so rain hits many, many leaves and doesn't hit the ground as fast as it would usually do and on the ground, we've got lots of plants so the rain has much more time to sink into the ground and doesn't overwhelm the living environment.”
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Flood Re Sanctuary Garden |
In RHS Chelsea’s Main Avenue, The Water Aid Garden, by designers Tom Massey and Je Ahn, explores the challenges presented by an ever-changing climate with a focus on sustainable water management. Planting is textured, shifting from dense, wetter lowland areas to sparse upland character, designed to deal with varying amounts of rainfall. Jo, whose approach to garden design is ‘to create harmony within the landscape’, said: “I find that with wet gardens the best solution is to ‘go with it’. “At RHS Rosemoor, in Devon, where I created a Cool Garden, the space was very muddy because all the rain ended up there. I remember standing by this great big puddle thinking ‘we need to do something with this water’. “I needed to harness the abundance of water, by channelling it to a particular part of the site to create a bog garden so hence the rills going into channels and the permeable paving. “Actually, when you've got all that water, why hide it? Why not make that a central part of the design, embrace the conditions you have to work with and turn a potential problem into a focal point. The architecture and surrounding landscape all need to work together. “I try to reduce hard landscaping, working sustainably and always favour local, natural materials and use trees and shrubs as architecture where I can, carefully choosing plants to enhance the biodiversity of each project. |
“The real answer is to know your land and go with it.
“Go with what you've got and celebrate that – so if the garden slopes slightly, it’s more sustainable to work with it instead of pouring a huge amount of time and money moving a whole lot of ground to level it out. At RHS Rosemoor I went with the slope and made use of that so the water actually does flow down.
“On another project in East Sussex, I worked on a garden where everything sat in wet ground. There was an old Victorian drainage system which had fallen into disrepair – it could not be repaired so it was pulled out but I used that as an inspiration to make sure the water filtered into ponds while the new garden planting merged into the native planting. The end result felt very relaxed.
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Jo Thompson demonstrates the method of soft yet dense planting in a Sussex wilding Garde, Credit: Rachel Warne |
“At a restored Elizabethan barn in Kent, I created sculptural rainwater gullies to deal with water so it didn't have to be ugly; you can make essential features attractive – that’s the thing to think about.
“It takes experience, so when commissioning a designer look through their portfolio to see the strength and depth of their work.
“On that point, always consider the designer’s personality, too, because you're going to spend a lot of time with them. Sometimes the ongoing garden work lasts a lifetime. Are you happy to sit and have plenty of cups of tea with them? Be sure you feel they're listening to you and that they're not just going to implant their ideas.”
About Jo ThompsonFrom her London and East Sussex studios, Jo works with clients from London, Sussex, Surrey and Kent to Italy and New York. Projects range from rooftop terraces to family gardens, country estates and heritage landscapes, public parks, restaurant gardens and landscapes, as well as gold medal-winning show gardens. Jo has won multiple awards, including four RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medals. She is an RHS judge, lectures in the UK and internationally and is a visiting tutor at the London College of Garden Design. Jo has written two books including: The Gardener’s Palette which celebrates her love of colour. Her third book comes out next year, 2025, and will explore the allure of romantic gardens. Jo’s weekly Substack newsletter The Gardening Mind shares her insights about designing for all kinds of gardens. |
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Visit jothompson.substack.com or jothompson-garden-design.co.uk
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Here we speak to Julia Leakey, an award-winning product designer for Crocus, one of the UK’s top gardening websites and supplier of plants to numerous RHS Chelsea gold medal-winning gardens. Out of Africa: Meet the designer who puts the style into ‘gardens of dreams’
What is Flood Re?
If you live in an area prone to floods it will inevitably have an impact on your home insurance and you may find it more challenging to get insurance. Our insurers have access to Flood Re, a government-backed scheme established to help those in high-risk flood areas obtain home insurance. But what is Flood Re and how do you know if you’re eligible? Read our article to find out more: Flood Insurance – What is Flood Re?
Insuring your garden
A garden is a sanctuary, yet it is safe to guess that not everyone considers the need for insurance.
Most insurers automatically provide a small amount of cover for plants, trees and shrubs within a home insurance policy, but check the levels of cover provided by your policy versus the overall cost and replacement of your plants.
Specialist items such as statues, sculptures and other garden antiques should be treated as fine art and not simply included under the general contents figure.
In this article we focus on what in your garden should be insured: Reviewing Your Home Insurance cover – Your garden and you can read here how to protect your garden from theft.
To speak to us about the insurance you have in place for your home and garden, please call 020 8256 4901, or email privateclients@howdeninsurance.co.uk
Source
1: https://nationalfloodforum.org.uk/flooding-is-one-of-the-biggest-risks-facing-the-uk/
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