Let’s talk about gravel…..

Gravel gardens have been mooted as the answer to how to garden in a changing climate, especially one where hot summers are a part of our overall expectations, and alongside that we have seen drought tolerant plants from across the globe being added to gravel gardens. Aloes. Agaves. Echiums. Plants that are happy to languish in the heat, that hold water in succulent leaves. Alongside favourites from Mediterranean climes-lavender, olives, agapanthus….

But throughout the winter just gone, a not especially cold winter in the history of these isles, but a colder one, and wetter one than recent years have seen, the stories of lost plants from across the gardening community has been startling. Tales of winter death in plants from huge quantities of herbaceous perennials to shrubs and climbers, let alone the more tropical, desert type plants, are heartbreaking but also surprising the gardeners suffering the losses.

So a question. Are we looking in the right direction for climate resilient planting or do we need to have a rethink?!?

Of course over the years many a great gardener, with Beth Chatto at the fore, have experimented with drought resilient gravel gardens, gardens that are never watered, and have had huge success. The east of the UK is, or at least has been, incredibly dry, and Chatto’s and others work in the line of gravel gardens, using plants that will manage drought and thrive without summer watering, has been and continues to be an important part of our fight to garden whatever the climate throws at us.

However, despite the last decade being the warmest on record globally, the reality of the changing UK climate is not just as simple as hot summers and drought. Cold, wet winters are proving problematic and for plants that thrive in Mediterranean type conditions, let alone desert areas, which tend to be the plants we see in gravel type gardens. Is this is a death knoll for this type of planting? Especially in areas where the underlying soil is clay based, holding onto winter wet around roots that need soil that drains fast and which rot quickly in wet soil.

Science tells us, despite the deniers, that our climate is at a tipping point. Over the last few decades we have seen changes but we are likely at a point now where the changes become more extreme and violent. We have for many years, thought we were going to have a more a Mediterranean climate, focusing on summer, rather than winter, and assuming that “global warming” likely was going to create opportunities for gardeners to grow the plants they recognise from summer holidays in southern Europe. But are we looking to the right area? And shouldn’t we be building soils that will support our gardens to cope better with the vagaries of the climate?

As gardeners we tend to focus on what we want to grow, rather than creating the best possible environment for our plants. And over and again we look at climate breakdown as an opportunity to grow more exotic plants, rather than focus on using our gardens as places to mitigate the crisis. We all know that perennials, shrubs and trees will hold onto carbon in a far more efficient way than annuals which need taking in and taking out, disturbing the soil several times a year. Deep rooted plants, mixed with nitrogen fixers; leaving leaf litter to break down into the soil, mulching with organic matter to ensure the soil biology is healthy and the ecosystem working at full capacity is surely a better future for our collective gardens, and the planet in the long term.

Stop digging and start mulching surely ought to be the battle cry?!?

But equally rather than focusing on plants that will cope with drought, where else in the world can we look for plants that will tolerate a cold, wet winter?!? Rather than the Med perhaps alpine regions? Perhaps the colder areas of South America, which I only suggest as for the second year running both Yacon and Mashua have made it though the winter in the south west of England!!

Who knows about geography but one thing I’m convinced of is that we have to stop digging and start mulching.