Given the recent torrential rain hard on the heels of a long, unbelievably dry summer, Tom Massey’s RHS Waterwise Garden couldn’t be more timely. The problem of water – either too much or too little – is something all gardeners are facing and ideas on how to deal with it are welcome.
(Review copy given. Not paid to post.)
He starts by outlining why managing water is important from the fear of a ‘day zero’ event when “water literally stops coming out of our taps” to the catastrophy of floods.
There’s a run through of the water cycle and the journey water takes to our taps, an explanation of ‘water stress’, and a look at how the climate is changing.
As a designer – he created the RHS Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton and worked with charity WaterAid on a garden at Chelsea – Tom is well aware of how tweaking the way our gardens are laid out and planted can have a huge impact.
“Waterwise interventions or changes to the way that we garden can, collectively, make a huge difference to the critical water situation we face,” he tells us.
RHS Waterwise Garden then goes on to give examples of ways that this can be achieved. Ideas such as water storage, passive irrigation, directing rain into ephemeral ponds, improving the soil and using grey water are explored before they are shown in practice in the ‘waterwise garden’ he has designed.
Throughout the book there are more in depth explorations of projects from across the world, including a resilient garden in pure sand in Sweden and Troy Scott Smith’s no watering approach at Sissinghurst.
The book ends with suggestions for plants for everything from extreme drought to waterlogged ground, along with ideas for things to replace lawns, which are difficult to maintain in extreme weather.
Gardens can be one of the greediest when it comes to using water and too much hard landscaping can make flooding worse. However, there are things we can do.
“The challenge is to make our gardens and the way we maintain them more waterwise, so that they are part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”
RHS Waterwise Garden by Tom Massey is published by DK with an RRP of £22. #Ad You can buy it here for £17.97. (If you buy via this link, I receive a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.) Alternatively, you may wish to buy from an independent bookseller here. All prices correct at time of publication of this post.
Feature picture: Permeable walkways are one solution to heavy rainfall. © Dorling Kindersley Mike Powell
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