Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2006 | Page 49

Gardening

Sponsored by Busy Bee and Honnor & Jeffrey

Enter exotica...

By Simon Goodenough - Ventnor Botanical Gardens

Climate is changing
of that there
is no doubt.
Our gardens must
change or perish!
The Isle of Wight is at the
forefront

of

the

impact

of

climate change and our gardens
will reflect this change.

The

equitable climate of the island
has always enabled a wide range
of plants to be grown but with
the

unpredictable

current

weather

nature

of

patterns

we

need to take a fresh look at what
we grow.
Obviously climate change has
huge and potentially damaging
consequences and we should not
shrug it off; all efforts should be
made to reverse current trends.
For the time being we will need to
modify our view of what gardens
should look like, what we grow
and how we maintain them. Taking
all this into consideration along
with our already favoured location,
the island’s gardens are set to be
showstoppers!
Firstly let us consider choice
of plants, we need to look to
areas of the world that have a
Mediterranean climate this includes
Australia, California, areas of South
America, New Zealand and South
Africa as well as the Mediterranean
itself. The plants from these parts
of the world have been grown in
our gardens for many years but
most have been seen as “specials” or
bit part players due to their tender
nature. This has now changed
dramatically and we should be
growing yuccas, agaves, cordylines,

andphormiumswithabandonment.
South African bulbous plants
such as agapanthus, watsonias,
chasmanthes could be featuring
prominently. Date palms and olives
are not beyond the bounds of reason
either and wonderful trees like the
Mount Etna Broom could grace our
landscapes. Stately Eucalyptus and
decorative Arbutus could make for
interesting street trees.
Secondly not only should we
consider the types of plants that
we use but how we use them. Big,
bold, plentiful and permanent,
should be the mantra for modern
21st Century planting particularly
in the public realm. The style of
gardening that has reached the
height of success on the near
continent, that of perennial “prairie”
is gaining its followers here in the
UK and the secret of its success is its
ability to cope with lower rainfall,
hot summers and unpredictable
winters, whilst offering a relatively
long season of display. Traditional
bedding is increasingly under threat
because of climatic vagaries and the
subsequent cost of maintenance
and irrigation; so the prairie style of
planting has much to offer, seeing
that these plants are tolerant of a
lower rainfall.
Finally the British who are
fanatical gardeners will need to
develop a new mindset as to how
they garden, new techniques of
maintenanceandanewvisualisation
of what a garden should look like
are paramount in the success of
the 21st Century garden. In a way
the freedom of the country cottage
garden with its rambling excesses
and its quintessential Englishness
may have to give way to a new
regime but this is no constraint to
creating wonderful gardens with
new exotica!

Island Life - www.islandlifemagazine.net

49