Why is your team’s research important?
Our world is facing multiple crises, from climate change and the dramatic loss of biodiversity to profound societal and economic upheaval, and gardening can be integral to addressing them.
Gardens and plants are important to our culture, providing a connection with the natural world, promoting our wellbeing, and offering numerous services including air cooling, pollution capture, shade, and shelter. Water is essential for plants and gardens to provide these services.
However, the natural availability of water within our gardens is changing. We are increasingly experiencing the challenges of flood and drought. Additionally, public supply of water by utility companies is becoming restricted, as they also grapple with changing rainfall patterns, an increasing population, and the need to reduce the environmental footprint of water supply and wastewater treatment.
There are two main things we can do: we can grow different plants that can cope with periods of water excess or deficit, or we can find ways to provide the right environment to enhance water availability so that we can continue to grow the current selections of plants. Change will be required, and I believe we need a bit of both approaches.
My role is to facilitate gardening and horticulture, and all the benefits it brings, by clearly showing how much water is needed to grow different plant combinations in different environments, and by providing knowledge and advice on how we can best provide that water.
Projects I’m working on now
All the projects I am responsible for support the RHS Sustainability Strategy; to be water neutral by 2030.
RHS Gardens:
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Optimising our water use by using sensors to inform when and how much to irrigate RHS Gardens
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Characterising the water use requirements of landscape and garden plants (read more on this project)
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Building models based on water balance and plant physiology to optimise water use at landscape scale and deliver environmental services
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Using greywater to demonstrate and promote alternative water sources for horticulture
Domestic gardens:
Supporting the horticultural industry:
Publications
- Cryer, NC and Gush, MB (2025) Landscape water models for irrigation management of green spaces: Integrating landscape crop coefficients, vegetation maps, and water use estimations from soil moisture. Acta Horticulture III International Symposium on Greener Cities: Improving Ecosystem Services in a Climate-Changing World (In Press)
- Cryer, NC, Manning, J, Mealey, P, and Gush, MB (2025) Validation of rainwater harvesting efficiency for irrigation of a heritage landscape. Acta Horticulture III International Symposium on Greener Cities: Improving Ecosystem Services in a Climate-Changing World (In Press).
- Gush, MB, Brady, L, Pye, J, Manning, J and Cryer, NC (2025) Assessment of the effectiveness of a Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) applied to a large public car park, through rainfall / runoff monitoring and water balance estimation. Acta Horticulture III International Symposium on Greener Cities: Improving Ecosystem Services in a Climate-Changing World (In Press).
View all publications prior to joining the RHS here.