Naomi Slade Notes from a small GARDEN
Follow Naomi's progress as she gets to grips with her tiny urban garden on heavy Bristol clay
I’m learning from my Chelsea show garden to apply flood-resilient techniques on my own small plot
There’s nothing like building a garden at RHS Chelsea to focus the mind, and with plans for my Flood Re: Flood Resilient Garden well underway for this year’s show, it’s fair to say I’ve been thinking about water quite a bit of late.
When it comes to water management, gardens are an important resource and measures to capture rainfall and avoid runoff are key. In my own garden, I try to be as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible; the water butt is a useful tool, and even keeping watering cans and buckets full can help, but the heavy downpours this winter have been far more than these can sensibly capture.
In this tiny plot there’s no space for additional water butts; the soil is already being improved and hard-landscaping has been minimised. So I’ve been trying to come up with new ways to limit runoff and do my bit to stop drains becoming overloaded, by making my garden into a better sponge.
Observing what happens when it rains has been illuminating. It seems more water arrives at the top of the garden than rainfall alone would suggest, presumably as a result of adjacent concrete or groundwater. On the local heavy clay, this tends to hang around and drain off slowly down the hill, while the streets around turn into rivers.
To reduce local flooding, and top up reserves of moisture in the soil for the plants later on in the season, I want to slow the flow and give the water in my garden more time to soak away. And at Chelsea Flower Show, one of the key features in the Flood Resilient Garden will be a large pond, which is designed to do just this.
So, to repurpose the
