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International Eastgrove

This year we are welcoming groups from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Japan.

Come on Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain.....where are you!

Royal Horticultural Society Partnership Garden

We are privileged to have been invited to become a Royal Horticultural Society Partnership Garden.

This means that throughout the season Royal Horticultural Society members are entitled to free admission on Friday and Saturday afternoons from April to July, and we hope that they will bring their friends and family with them.

In 2007 Eastgrove was featured in many publications

As well as references in the Royal Horticultural Society's "Garden" magazine. More recently the following article, written by Carol, appeared in January's edition of "The Garden" entitled Good husbandry is always the place to start.

So, How am I, as a Gardener, reacting to climate change? Slowly. I am not a follower of trends or fashions. For example, I have certain favourite grasses which I have grown for years, not just because they are the 'in' thing. My whole gardening philosophy is to interpret the 'genius of the place' so that when people first step through the gate they feel that cottage and garden are all of a piece'. Our lumpy, dumpy, half-timbered 17th century cottage just does not lend itself to bananas and bamboos.

So global warming is just another element among many others to be considered when making planting decisions. After the first few years of gardening experience, I learned to think carefully before whacking in plants here, there and everywhere.

But absolutely paramount is the condition of the soil. Plants are like people: if you don't feed them they don't perform. So we now have to be even more diligent with soil preparation. The dilemma is: are we going to suffer from intense, drying heat or are be going to be washed away? Here geography comes to the fore. Everyone has to get to know their site and soil conditions intimately.

After nearly 40 years, I know that my soil is free draining and that the garden is excessively dry. Here, my challenge is to enrich the soil without ceasing, because drought is my number one enemy. Those whose gardens are not free draining and are prone to flooding will be wise to improve their drainage, maybe even making special soakaways and gullies to cope with extreme wet.

Most plants are just as adaptable as humans, but we need to be ultra observant, to notice what is no longer thriving - and which plants cannot cope with new conditions. A bonus of working with herbaceous perennials is that in one season you can completely change the planting and still have a great result in the next year.

I shall go on planting pinks, daisy cultivars, delphiniums, violas and so on. I don't want to move away from my favourites, because it is important not to lose all these tried and tested cultivars, and also because so many of my plants have been given to me by friends and family.

So let us be realistic, but not too pessimistic. The watchwords must be serious thinking and planning, observation and good husbandry.