My Climate Change Garden

The weather was the topic of conversation at Hampton Court yesterday – especially in the Garden Energy area presented jointly by the RHS and the Met Office and designed by Sarah Eberle, eight times medal-winning garden designer .This enormous display of gardens, alternative energies , grow your own and very detailed  information boards fitted in perfectly with what Global Gardening is all about  ie to highlight awareness of the impact of climate change on our gardens.

There was a huge amount of information presented but sadly it did not seem to be very busy – maybe visitors to the Show had other agendas like buying some of the beautiful plants or garden items from the many stalls dotted around ….or maybe even a water feature!

On that point I was disapointed that there was  little advice and information about water re-cycling . No rainwater harvesting companies or water butt manufacturers – successful UK gardening will need to rely heavily on these in the future.

My favourite area in the Garden Energy Zone was the Met Office Recording studio were you can experience first hand what its like to be a weather presenter – not an easy task as I soon found out. The UK map is displayed on a video screen and its really difficult to work out where you are pointing. I presented the predicted UK forecast for 2050 when summer temperatures in the SE will probably be as high as 38c and rainfall will be less often but in very heavy monsoon downpours .

I chatted to the Met office guys who suggested that being a weather forecaster in the future would certainly be a more challenging career than it is now.Not sure after my first performance that I will be auditioning for that role!