Water, water everywhere!

Garden designers are making a splash at the 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by Marshalls Landscapes Plc, with water featuring strongly in gardens of all shapes and sizes. Whether it’s for drowning out the noise of urban living, irrigating plants or for attracting wildlife, water can be a valuable addition to the garden and designers are set to inspire visitors to make responsible water use the gardener’s choice for 2008.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place on 20-24 May 2008 (20-21 May, RHS members only. 20 May all day tickets now sold out). Tickets must be booked in advance on 0870 842 2234 or

www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows

Guy Barter, Head of the RHS Advisory Service says, “According to accepted research, the most valuable garden features, that have a significant effect on a garden’s biodiversity, are trees and ponds. Whilst trees take many years to grow and fulfil their potential in terms of attracting wildlife, ponds can be established very quickly and will not only provide a habitat and refuge for wildlife, but also provide water, food and even mud for nest building.”

A number of gardens at Chelsea will provide a watery refuge for wildlife, including Daylesford Organic’s ‘Summer Solstice’ which will be bordered by flood ditching to offer a habitat for amphibians and wetland flora species. ‘River and Rowing Museum: Ratty’s Refuge’ is designed to highlight the plight of the water vole, which is the fastest declining species of mammal in the UK. The garden will feature a wildlife pond and a natural bank to create an ideal water vole habitat. ‘The Children’s Society Garden’ will include a small pool surrounded by self seeding plants which attract bees and butterflies, and gravel in the garden will be used to allow rainwater to return to the water table.

Designers at Chelsea are also using water for its cooling and soothing properties. ’The Cadogan Garden’ designed by Robert Myers, will use harvested rainwater to create cooling water canals, which are fed by a water wall and a grid of low fountains, and lead into informal irrigation channels. The moving water will bring reflected light and the gentle sound of water into the urban space to hide the sound of the city.

‘The BUPA Garden’, designed as a garden sanctuary for care home residents, will contain a soothing water feature to help bring a sense of peace to the garden, whilst ‘The Lloyds TSB Garden’ uses water to create movement in the garden. The garden, which represents an area that was once a pond, but due to a change in the water table now sits mainly in the dry, features a curtain of water suspended over a pond to create a modern waterfall.

Guy Barter continues, “Scientists are predicting that climate change will lead to drier, hotter summers, and milder wetter winters, so using water as a natural cooling system is a practical solution.

“During hot summers, if there is little rain and evaporation occurs, water features can be responsibly topped up from water butts, and will also be replenished during the wetter winters that are expected. The evaporation rate from still water is roughly equivalent to that of a lawn, but even moving water features do not usually evaporate at an unacceptable rate, provided they are sheltered from the sun and wind.”

Gardeners can pick up water harvesting and irrigation ideas from Home Group’s ‘Northeast @ Home’ garden which will show how roof rainwater can be collected and transported along an attractive cobble filled rill, leading to a rainwater reservoir. Fast flowing water is pulsed over the edge of the rill to create a water feature that leads back into the reservoir, from which water can be used to irrigate the garden.

The 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show will reveal a wealth of other gardening ideas, with fabulous show gardens, inspirational small gardens and vibrant displays from over 100 of the world’s best nurseries and specialist growers. Those wishing to learn about ‘Gardening in a changing climate’ must see the Continuous Learning exhibits within the Great Pavilion. Added to that, displays of desirable gardening products, floral design, floristry and expert gardening advice, make the RHS Chelsea Flower Show the ultimate event in the gardening calendar.