PRESS RELEASE

RISC garden to feature on Gardeners’ World

BBC 2’s new series of Gardeners’ World starts on 1 September at 8pm with a special feature on water conservation. It will include a report from the award winning RISC roof garden.

The gardener, Dave Richards, said: “Throughout the summer, Gardeners’ World have been looking at ways of beating the drought. They approached us because the roof garden presents a real problem. The soil is only 30cm of soil, so it is like an enormous hanging basket – and they sometimes need watering twice a day! They wanted to see how we have coped. The crew spent a whole day with us, which has been edited down to a three and a half minute report.

“They were most interested in our drip irrigation system which uses rainwater harvested from surrounding roofs. It is pumped around the garden at night using energy from a wind turbine and solar panel. They also filmed a demonstration of using waste, such as used paper towels and old cardboard boxes, to make a mulch which suppresses weeds and helps to conserve moisture in the soil.”

Another water saving feature in the garden is the use of ground cover. The taller trees and shrubs are under-planted with a dense mat of low plants such thyme, strawberries and lemon balm. These not only provide healthy food and drinks, but also reduce evaporation.

Despite these water-saving measures, the garden has only survived thanks to the hose-pipe. It would need a swimming pool to store enough water to survive two months with hardly any rain. RISC is looking for funding to increase its water storage capacity using several 1500 litre recycled orange juice concentrate containers. For nine months of the year rainwater will be used to flush toilets, and then in the summer it will be diverted to the garden. During droughts the garden may still have to use mains water, but over the whole year the RISC centre will be able to reduce its demand (and bill) by at least half.

Dave said: “The drought has been a real wake-up call. Global climate change is going to change the face of gardening. The first question we will have to ask when we design a garden will be: how can I water it? Hopefully, we can pass on the lessons we have learnt on the roof garden. There is an alternative to the secret use of your hosepipe or converting to drought tolerant Mediterranean plants. We can continue to have beautiful and productive gardens if we change the way we garden. Harvested rainwater and the careful use of greywater from the kitchen and bathroom are the way forward.”

Further information on the RISC roof garden is available online: www.risc.org.uk/garden. The garden is open to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme on 9-10 September, noon-4pm. The entry fee (£3.50/2.50 concessions) is donated to charity.

ENDS

Contact:

Dave Richards

e: dave@risc.org.uk t: 0118 958 6692