Many moons ahead

Gardening by moon cycles, planting olive groves and fitting sheepswool insulation, the National Trust is gearing up for the 21st century. Mike Collins reports.

There was no margin for error - all the summer borders were to be in between 2am on the Saturday and 2am on the Monday. The carefully planned operation at Nymans Garden in West Sussex [right] was part of an experiment in biodynamic gardening. Following the lunar calendar to predict how plant sap and water table levels are affected by the moon’s gravity should help the National Trust reduce water use, explains head gardener Ed Ikin.

“Climate change will lengthen the mowing season, costing an extra £1 million a year.”

That’s just one of the innovative new gardening methods that are being trialled, as the organisation adapts to the impact of climate change. Familiar features such as lawns face an uncertain future. The simple fact that the mowing season will be longer means that the additional annual cost of cutting the Trust’s 30 square miles of lawn could be around £1 million.

“We need to think to the end of the century: how to adapt and what changes we may have to accept while being true to the original aims for each garden,” explains Mike Calnan, the Trust’s head of parks and gardens. “We’re experimenting with new planting schemes, trying out Mediterranean varieties of vegetable in our kitchen gardens. And at Mottistone Manor on the Isle of Wight we’ve completely departed from tradition by planting an olive grove.”

Over a century into its life, The National Trust is well aware that its role isn’t to preserve things in aspic, but to adapt the assets it looks after. Its unique role of guardianship was set out clearly 100 years ago in the first National Trust Act, asking the organisation to promote “the permanent preservation for the benefit of the nation of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest and as regards lands for the preservation (so far as practicable) of their natural aspect features and animal and plant life”.

The Trust has remained true to its word, continuing to care for over 250,000 hectares of land, including such landmarks as the Giant’s Causeway and the White Cliffs of Dover. Yet climate change, increasing development and changing farming practices all add up to a picture of impermanence. The tricky bit is interpreting what “permanent preservation” means in today’s world…

Nearly 70% of the coastline in England and Wales is at risk of erosion and flooding within the next century. While our coast has always been changing, it is now a question of how to work with this change. At Dunwich in Suffolk, where even maps dating from Henry VIII’s time show a coastline under threat, the Trust is buying up land inshore to maintain habitats and access. At Formby in Lancashire, footpaths have been moved inland to accommodate coastal erosion in the sand dunes. And at Porlock Bay in north Somerset ‘managed retreat’, is allowing the sea to breach the defences and create a new salt marsh.

In National Trust properties, too, climate change has made it necessary to look at different ways of working. Wool insulation has been fitted in many of them, and the Trust has been piloting micro renewable schemes, including biomass at Sheringham Park visitor centre in Norfolk, low-head hydro on a mill at Aberdulais Falls in Wales, and ground source energy at Norfolk’s Brancaster Mill.

“We have to examine the challenges ahead and question the assumptions that we have about the environment, society and economy,” explains the Trust’s head of foresight, Alex Hunt. “This will help lay the foundation for how we think about the uncertainties of the future.”

After all, adaptation and preservation are indistinguishable.

21 June 2007

Mike Collins