Welcome to this week’s episode, where I’m talking water-wise gardening with Janet Manning. Janet undertook a three year project with the RHS and Cranfield University where she looked at strategies and techniques currently available to gardeners to help them both conserve and manage water in a way that reduces waste and protects the environment. We talk about why there’s a need to be water-wise in wet countries like the UK, what we can do to help and why gardens are an important part of the bigger environmental picture.

Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Harvestmen

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What we cover

Janet’s work with Cranfield University and the RHS

How we gardeners can conserve water in our gardens

How we can contribute towards rainwater management

Drought tolerant plants 

The fabled moist, well-drained soil!

Using swales and hugelkultur beds

Long term meteorological predictions

About Janet Manning

Janet has just completed a three year water management knowledge transfer partnership between Cranfield University and the RHS. As a graduate of Cranfield with an MSc in process engineering, and after a 17 year career as a scientist in the water industry, she followed her passion for the natural environment into horticulture where she worked on a production nursery producing hardy ornamentals. Having worked 'both ends of the hose' she was well placed to take up the role at the RHS as the first garden water scientist. She has contributed to the water neutral targets set within the RHS's new sustainability strategy and has written the first water road map for Wisley as a plan implement the strategy. A gardener since she was big enough to pick up a trowel, the combination of practical gardening experience and scientific knowledge, she has recently left the Environmental Horticulture Team at Wisley but with a legacy that will continue through the sustainability strategy.

Links

www.mains2rains.co.uk

RHS advice for water management 

RHS Neutral Water Targets