The Gravel Garden: resilience, volatility and breaking the mould

A talk hosted by award winning writer and Head Gardener at the Garden Museum, Matt Collins, to discuss what gardening in a warming and more volatile climate looks like.

With gravel gardens becoming ever more popular and high profile, how can these schemes be kept distinctive and interesting? How far can traditional species of plants be pushed? How do plants cope with water stress and how do we approach more sustainable and climate-resilient planting?

Loosely inspired by the making of a small, un-watered gravel garden outside the main entrance of the Garden Museum, Matt will be joined by a panel of experts including Åsa Gregers-Warg, the Head Gardener at the Beth Chatto Gardens; Dr Tijuana Blanusa, principal horticultural scientist at The RHS and Charlie Harpur, Head Gardener at Knepp, to explore how the future aesthetics and practicalities of planting schemes like these can be approached.

We’ll look at the legacy of experimental garden spaces; from drought-resistant planting in a former car park at Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden, to the former croquet lawn on the Knepp Estate filled with crushed building materials and close to 900 plant species chosen with global warming and sustainability in mind.