Tales from Titchmarsh

As climate crisis fills the news, gardeners should be optimistic about the small ways they can make a big difference, says Alan

Assumptions. We are all guilty

of them. After a summer that was reputedly the driest since 1976 you could be forgiven, if you take note of the daily news bulletins, for thinking that every year from now on will be hotter and drier than the last. It will not. The reason I am so confident? Weather.

Our worries about global warming and climate change are well founded, but there will still be variations year on year in what the sky throws at us and how the sun parches our land. The general trend may be for a rise in temperatures and sea levels, but within that rise there will be peaks and troughs – always have been, always will be. But this realistic approach seems to have been lost in the shrill and sensationalist tenor of the news today.

Perhaps it is something to do with growing older, but I find myself becoming more sanguine with the years: not in any way denying that our contributions to climate change need to be reined in, but in taking a

If every single person grew a flower or two, on doorstep, balcony, garden and estate, imagine the difference we could make

pragmatic view of how that might best be improved by each individual, rather than collectively running around like a chicken with its head cut off and waiting for Armageddon.

As gardeners we have a responsibility to our own patch of earth – however small. That bee, which visits the flowers you so generously contribute to the greening of the earth, is unaware of the bigger picture. But that bee is your direct contact with the landscape, the green planet, the environment – call it what you will. If every single person grew a flower or two, on doorstep, balcony, garden and estate, imagine the difference we could make. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But it is, nevertheless, a practical way of creating change and one which salves the conscience of each and every one of us; knowing that the little bit of difference we make, when joined on to all the other little bits, makes something huge and effective.

But there will still be weather. There will be good years and bad years for potatoes and tomatoes. Your sweet peas might go over early as mine did this year, but they are just as likely, in the next few years, to be well watered almost every day. Weather. Am I trying to see a rosy picture where such does not exist? Not at all. Just trying to redress the balance of endless pessimism and open the eyes of those who see only doom and gloom to the positive ways in which we can help to ameliorate our lot. The world seems so angry of late – often with good reason.

But if we come this way only once, surely we have a duty to make the best of it; to show our children and grandchildren the wonders and joys of nature, as well as instilling in them the need to take care of it. This year the large blue butterfly had its best year in 150 years. Declared extinct in 1979, numbers have multiplied thanks to the work of scientists and conservation bodies who have cooperated to create hospitable sites for their survival. That is a national triumph, but there are smaller ones we can achieve at home.

We need countryside, farm headlands and hedgerows that are home to native species of plants and flowers, trees and shrubs, but don’t be cajoled into turning your tiny garden into a wilderness. Insects, birds and mammals are less interested in the country of origin of the flowers in your garden. If your ‘exotic’ bedding plants and perennials provide shelter and sustenance they will show their gratitude by visiting you. When ‘gardening’ – and by ‘gardening’ I mean cultivating plants from around the world in a way that we find uplifting and that ensures the survival of an ever-enlarging gene pool – becomes a dirty word, and we are all expected to leave our patch of earth to be colonised by only those species which naturally occur in that particular environment, our patches of earth will become poorer, not richer.

Biodiversity on a small scale occurs only as a result of the intervention of us humans. I see no reason why we should apologise for that. Far more important is our willingness to employ an organic approach, which is hospitable to those creatures – and plants – that will find our patch of earth to their liking. We can then work hand in hand with nature in creating a garden that plays its part in brightening our lives and ensuring the survival of wildlife. There will still be the weather to contend with, but then gardeners have always loved a challenge.