Nina Lewis was our speaker at our March Meeting on the topic of ‘Gardening In The Future’.
Nina opened her talk with some interesting facts:
25% of urban space is our gardens.
We are getting wetter winters and hotter summers.
As gardeners we are aware of the changing climate we are experiencing we don’t need to be told.
She went on to give us some suggestions of how we adapt to the change.
Many tropical plants will now grow and survive in our gardens so we should experiment.
Encourage biodiversity and wildlife, it’s good for the environment.
Plan for plants that flower throughout the year to provide nectar for wildlife.
Consider a pond, even a small one for the wildlife.
Re-wilding – doesn’t have to be difficult, just don’t be too tidy.
And that it doesn’t all have to be down to us, the Councils should be doing more. We saw photos of roof top gardens; re-wilding formerly industrial areas; and creating healing gardens that help with recovery e.g. at hospitals.
Some further things that we can do to help include:
Re-using e.g. yogurt pots as plant pots, old branches as supports and old duvets as fleece.
Don’t buy peat – use peat free compost or make your own compost.
Use natural fertilisers instead of chemicals e.g. nettle/comfrey tea.
So what is happening commercially, well Hydroponics are being used to grow crops using water and nutrients rather than planting in soil. Robots are replacing humans to sew and pick. Farm machines are becoming automated.
And to end we saw some very interesting pictures from Singapore of buildings covered in greenery that may be our vision for the future (but I’m not sure who is doing the watering and pruning on those high rise blocks!).
