Preparing for winter floods

Garden designer Tom Massey offers tips to help alleviate damage from heavy rainfall to HANNAH STEPHENSON

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Garden designer Tom Massey offers some top tips to help avoid a flooded garden this winter

T may seem like a world away, given the long, hot summer, but so often we are caught out when the rain comes, leaving gardens drowning in great puddles and prized plants struggling to come up for air.

Global reports of catastrophic weather such as devastating floods and crippling heatwaves can no long be ignored, Chelsea gold medal-winning designer Tom Massey warns in his new book, Waterwise Garden.

But there are things you can do to both preempt the damage the downpours can cause in autumn and winter, and to minimise damage once the rain has come, says Tom, whose WaterAid Garden highlighting sustainable water management in a changing climate won him a gold medal at last year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

"If there is an area of your garden that does regularly flood, choose plants that can draw up a lot of water from the soil, such as salix species (willow), alder (alnus) and betula (birch), which help soak up water and dry out heavy ground.

"Cornus (dogwood) are also a good choice as they bring striking winter colour while perennials like Siberian iris (Iris sibirica), astilbe and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) thrive in damp soils. Together they absorb excess rain, stabilise soil, and add year-round beauty."

These plants will also survive submerged, he notes, and planting from October to the end of March is the ideal time.