Articles
These articles draw on over eighteen years of horticultural practice in Cornwall and research carried out for an RHS Master of Horticulture dissertation on climate change adaptation in Cornish public gardens. They are written for garden owners, designers, and anyone with a serious interest in how gardens work — and what it will take to keep them thriving as the conditions around them change.
Cornwall and Climate Change
Why Cornwall's Gardens Are Some of the Most Remarkable in Britain - Cornwall's combination of mild winters, high rainfall, and Atlantic exposure creates growing conditions found almost nowhere else in the UK — and a garden culture that reflects it.
Climate Change and Cornish Gardens - The evidence for how Cornwall's climate is already shifting, and what it means in practice for the gardens, plants, and management decisions of today.
How to Choose Plants That Will Thrive in a Cornish Garden in the Coming Decades - A practical framework for making planting decisions that account for warmer summers, wetter winters, and a more unpredictable climate across Cornwall.
Water-Smart Gardening in Cornwall: How to Manage Drought and Downpour - Cornwall receives more rainfall than most of England, yet its gardens face increasing drought pressure — this article examines how to manage both extremes well.
Building a Resilient Cornish Garden: The Case for Ecological Planting - How planting with ecological principles in mind produces gardens that are better equipped to handle the stresses of a changing climate.
Mediterranean and Dry Garden Principles for Cornwall - Why the design and planting logic of Mediterranean gardens translates surprisingly well to Cornwall's increasingly dry summers — and how to apply it.
Tropical and Exotic Planting in Cornwall - Cornwall's mild microclimate has long supported planting that would struggle anywhere else in Britain, but choosing the right plants and positions still matters.
Signature Plants of Cornwall - The plants that define Cornish gardens — and the conditions, history, and horticultural reasoning behind their dominance in this landscape.
Pests, Diseases and Climate Change - A warming climate is reshaping which pests and diseases are most active in Cornish gardens, allowing some to overwinter that previously could not.
How Cornwall's Gardens Can Become Pillars of Community in a Changing Climate - Gardens have a role beyond the ornamental — this article explores how Cornish gardens can contribute to community resilience as the climate shifts.
The Preservation vs Adaptation Dilemma - For Cornwall's historic gardens, climate change creates a genuine tension between preserving what exists and adapting to what is coming.
Sense of Place in a Cornish Garden - What it means to design and manage a garden that is genuinely rooted in the character of the Cornish landscape, rather than imported from elsewhere.
National perspectives
What Climate Change Really Means for British Gardens — and Why Most Gardeners Are Underprepared - A clear-eyed look at the evidence for how Britain's climate is changing and why the standard gardening response has not yet caught up with what the data shows.
Britain's Historic Gardens Are on the Front Line of Climate Change — and Most Are Not Ready - The country's most significant historic gardens face compounding pressures from climate change, and the resources and frameworks to address them are largely absent.
How Public Gardens Can Lead the Response to Climate Change - Public gardens are well-placed to demonstrate what climate-adapted horticulture looks like in practice — but only if they commit to doing so.
What Ecological Resilience Really Means for Garden Management - Ecological resilience is widely cited but rarely defined with any rigour — this article examines what it actually requires of gardeners and managers.
Species Plants vs Cultivars: Why the Climate Crisis Is Changing What We Should Grow - The horticultural industry's preference for cultivars over species plants comes with significant costs for wildlife and resilience that are increasingly hard to ignore.
The Case for Sense of Place in British Garden Design - A broader argument for why gardens rooted in their local landscape and ecology are better suited to the conditions ahead than those designed without reference to place.
Well-Designed Outdoor Spaces and Human Well-Being - The evidence for how considered garden design affects wellbeing — and what it means for how we think about the value of outdoor space.
Garden Design and Philosophy
Artistic Garden Design - How the relationship between art and garden design has shaped some of the most compelling outdoor spaces — and what it offers as a design philosophy.
Why Horticulture Matters - A case for horticulture as a discipline with genuine intellectual depth, and why it deserves more serious recognition than it typically receives.
What is Horticulture? - A clear account of what horticulture actually encompasses — its science, its craft, and its distinction from gardening as a general activity.
Practical guides
Growing Sweet Peas - Everything needed to grow sweet peas well — from sowing and support to extending the season and selecting varieties worth growing.
Maintaining Box - How to keep box healthy and well-structured in an era of box blight and box moth, with guidance on timing, technique, and alternatives where appropriate.