With one in four UK homes at risk of flooding, the spectre of flood risk and its capacity to cause not just physical damage but also deep emotional and financial distress is a front-of-mind concern for the insurance and risk management industries. The challenge of flood risk – and the opportunity presented by flood resilience measures - were on full display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 which saw Flood Re unveil the Flood Resilient Garden (pictured).
At the RHS Chelsea Press Day, Dr Ed Barsley who designed the garden alongside Naomi Slade – in development with Flood Re – highlighted the interplay of great design principles with excellent horticulture principles at the heart of the initiative.
“It’s a really interesting and exciting blend that allows us to push boundaries and showcase the wonderful things you can do to adapt your home,” he said. “We want to show that this doesn’t have to be a compromise. You can have a really beautiful and functional garden and home that celebrates the dynamism of water by finding ways to work with it.”
At six by nine metres squares, the garden is a typical residential size and includes a wide range of innovative water management techniques, including ‘dense planting’, water capture and storage, and smart technology. It’s designed to offer homeowners an actionable example of how to enhance not just their own property’s flood resilience but also that of their neighbours, Barsley said, and shows what’s possible when a community starts to embrace mitigation strategies and tactics.
“Gardens can offer a sanctuary for many people so what we’re showing here is that this can be a very peaceful and purposeful space,” he said. “It’s wonderful to have Flood Re sponsoring and supporting this garden. One of the most exciting things about this is that the £10,000 offered by the Build Back Better initiative to make your home more resilient to flood can also be spent on your garden.
“That’s also something we should be thinking about – how we can reduce the flood risk to our property and to our surrounding areas while really managing water as a resource. Because this is a flood-resilient garden but many of the principles at work here are helping to support periods of water scarcity.”
Exhibiting at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a natural fit for the Flood Resilient Garden, Barsley said, because it encourages attendees to think about their own homes, their own gardens and what can be done to protect them. With one in eight adults in the UK having experienced the impact of flooding in their gardens, the imperative to understand the full extent of the flood risk is more pressing than ever.
Looking at some of the resilience measures on display, he noted that the garden exhibits a blend of high and low-tech resilience techniques. The smart water butts – which offer an opportunity to pre-wet the soil before heavy rainfall, aiding filtration – and the smart app which allows households to link into weather systems offer an example of how using technology in the right way for the right things can be a game-changer.
“But then there are also just good horticulture principles and good design principles built throughout this, which have been great to showcase,” he said. “We are here to show [flood resilience] is not a compromise. You don’t have to be embarrassed to have these different measures in your home or garden, because they’re designed to be part of that. It’s the smart thing to be putting the right measures in place to make your home safe.”
There are so many different aspects and approaches to flood resilience, and it’s about each individual finding the right combination that works for them, their home and their garden. For Barsley, having the opportunity to showcase many of these measures has been a fantastic experience, which he hopes will open the eyes of many to the full extent of what’s now possible in terms of flood resilience.
“It’s just a pleasure to be engaging such a wide audience who might not always be thinking about flooding in this particular context,” he said. “They might not come along to certain conferences and events about flood risk but this is their conference, this is their event, which they come to every year.
“So, engaging with those individuals here is about getting your foot in the door and showing them the things that can be done and how these complement each other. And we’ve heard such great comments from people about how this is really relatable, accessible and charming, which is great to hear. So, this feels like a huge success.”
