
Hanging baskets can be planted up as the weather warms, but protect against late frost
Hanging baskets can be planted up as the weather warms, but protect against late frost
If you’re a keen cook and you have the space, you may want to create a special herb garden like this- or if not just find a sunny spot for a few fragrant favourites!
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“The [current] variation we are seeing in temperature or rainfall is double the rate of the average. That suggests that we are going to have more droughts, we are going to have more floods, we are going to have more sea surges and we are going to have more storms…These are the sort of changes that are going to affect us in quite a short timescale”
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The underlying changes have already begun to unfold in the UK (and elsewhere):
A gradual, overall rise in average temperatures
Increased frequency of extreme weather events like rain and flooding, frost and snow, wind or drought
reduced frosts
an earlier spring
higher average temperatures all year round
increased winter rainfall, leading to increased risk of flooding
hotter, drier summers, leading to an increased risk of drought.
It also seems that there’s something of a north – south split in the UK, with the south becoming warmer and drier and the north subject to wetter weather, in the winter especially, though recent storms and flooding in the south west and southern Britain might seem to run ounter to this trend.
This should give us some optimism that the techniques and conditions for responding to climate change are already well developed and gives the garden an advantage over nature.
Looking at the underlying trends, the impact of climate change on our gardens will most likely be determined by factors such as plant hardiness and tolerance of excessive wet, or drought conditions (see the chart for one forecast of reductions in water availability across the globe). This poses a challenge to the gardener’s ability to drain land or supply water as needed.
So, as gardeners we have to cope with both the longer term trends (which arguably will not be very noticeable in the short term) and, perhaps more importantly, increased frequency of unpredictable, extreme weather events of uncertain length and impact. This ‘seasonal uncertainty’ is perhaps our greatest challenge as well as trying to use gardening practices which help to reduce CO2 emissions and are broadly sustainable.
‘Expect the unexpected and be flexible’
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