"When the boundaries move" by Robin Green

My Garden is one hundred yards from the North Sea. The olive tree in it is laden with fruit. A tree, normally associated with the Mediterranean region, is alive and well in a habitat which once would have been thought ‘foreign’. Is it global warming? The scientific consensus is that it will affect every area of our life, and that includes our gardening habits.

The circular bed on the seaward side of Deal castle is one such example. 2006 presented major challenges in terms of water conservation and new responses were needed from both public bodies and private individuals. The idea of planting the bed with a group of colourful shrubs and plants, giving all year round interest, was one such response.

The planting of Phormiuns, Hebes, sages-all drought tolerant plants-was inspired and provides a model of how civic planting must change and become more cost effective.

What is true for councils must also apply to our own courtyards and gardens. For most of the twentieth century the English garden was dominated by the cottage garden style. It reached its peak in the 1950’s and 60’s with the explosion in bedding plants, which the garden centre industry cultivates to this day. But bedding plants are ill suited to drought conditions, especially in areas heavily dependent on window boxes and hanging baskets. They devour water. We have to change our habits.

Last year I planted my hanging baskets with silver Echeveria and golden Plecranthus, colourful but achieved through foliage rather than brightly coloured flowers. There are lots of succulents and trailing foliage plants to use for a different effect. Pelargoniums continue to work well because they thrive in dry conditions, as do plants like Helichryrsum Petiolaris. The same range of plants will make novel and innovative window boxes.

Like all change, climate change also offers us new opportunities and challenges. In my garden last year the bumper crop were the apricots. They outshone the more traditional Kentish crops like apples and raspberries. And now we are trying to learn the art of turning the bitter black berries from the olive tree into jars of edible olives!

The kiwi fruit was a mass of bloom but only the male one! Let’s hope that this year the female one does a ‘Deal’ and tries to outshine the male!

The cancellation of ‘Deal in bloom’ in 2006 was an indicator of how difficult change is to manage. But with imagination and skilled innovation Deal can, and will bloom; as in so many other aspects of its life, that will depend on the ability of its citizens to adapt to new and changing realities.

Robin Green is proprietor of Greencades Gift shop on Deal's High Street.