From the Archives: Water
3/20/202643 min
Kathy Clugston steers the ship through the deep waters of the GQT archive where a variety of panellists, old and new, discuss solutions to a variety of water related gardening challenges.
They debate the question of rainwater vs tap water for plants, restoring waterlogged clay soil and alternatives to water butts in narrow terrace gardens. There's also advice on flood‑damaged garden recovery and recommendations for trees for flood‑prone & drought‑prone parkland.
Producer: Rahnee Prescod Assistant Producer: William Norton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKathy Clugston· Host0:00
Hello, and welcome to Gardener's Question Time with me, Kathy Clugston. This week, we're dipping our toes into the GQT back catalog for an archive special on water. Many places in the UK had an exceptionally wet start to 2026, resulting in flooding and saturated and waterlogged ground, a real challenge for gardeners and growers alike. However, there are some innovative ways to flood-proof our gardens and allotments and work with our current climate to keep our green spaces healthy, whatever the weather. Today, we'll be submerging ourselves in 79 years of horticultural wisdom doled out by GQT panelists past and present about gardening in soggy conditions. Let's begin back in 2012 with Anne Swithinbank and former panelist Tony Buckland sharing their thoughts on how to revive a garden that has suffered flood damage.
Tony Buckland· Soundbite0:56
So we're about half a mile away from the River Exe in the grounds of Powderham Castle, and I've got a nursery here, thankfully up on the high ground. But the lower areas in the floodplain of the little tributary that runs down to the Exe, when there's a high tide and there's heavy storms on, on Mamhead, on the high ground, the rivers back up. In winter you'd expect it, but this summer it's happened two, three, I think four times.
Anne Swithinbank· Soundbite1:23
And we've had the same trouble in... with the Exe Estuary as well, and, and it's areas like that where you do get flooding, and it's