Garden opens to promote natural measures that boost flood resilience

A new garden in Oxfordshire is aiming to promote the uptake of flood resilience measures by demonstrating nature-based solutions as a first line of defence for UK properties.

Opening at Howbery Business Park on Monday, the project offers free public access to a blueprint for how outdoor spaces, such as an ordinary terraced house garden, can help reduce flood risks.

It builds on the silver medal-winning Flood Resilience Garden that debuted at Chelsea Flower Show last year.

The now permanent and reimagined garden in Oxfordshire seeks to show how a combination of functionality and aesthetics in gardens can help address the urgent need for widespread flood mitigation.

Extremes of heat and rainfall driven by climate change and years of underinvestment in water infrastructure have left the country exposed to increasingly frequent and intense flooding, with one in four homes at risk.

The garden comes as part of a resilience campaign by Flood Re, a joint initiative between the Government and insurers to make flood insurance cover for households more affordable.

Features include a pond that doubles as a sump to collect water and a smart rainwater tank that allows remote drain-down ahead of predicted rainfall.

The space also spotlights a range of carefully curated wild flower meadow plants, edible and shade resilient greenery and the water loving-species, Baldellia ranunculoides, Caltha palustris, Lychnis flos-cucul, Rodgersia and Juncus ensifolius.

The garden’s designer Ed Barsley, from the Environmental Design Studio, said: “With this garden, we wanted to demonstrate that flood resilient design needn’t be a compromise.

“You can create spaces that are both beautiful and enriching, whatever the weather.

“The original garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show was a magical, if fleeting, moment.

“In reimagining it for a permanent setting, we’ve worked hard to ensure it can endure and thrive for decades to come.”

Flood Re said changes to outside spaces and gardens, as well as internal changes such as the use of specialist plaster, raised electric sockets and tiled floors, can help households to reduce the potential for and impact of flooding and to recover more swiftly.

It also noted the collective benefit that communities would see if there was widespread adoption of flood-resistant features and built-in water storage.

The garden also supports the Build Back Better scheme, launched in 2022 to enable qualifying policyholders to benefit from up to £10,000 towards the installation of flood resilience measures, Flood Re said, adding that it is now offered by over 70% of the UK household property insurance market.

Kelly Ostler-Coyle, director of corporate affairs at Flood Re, said: “We’re thrilled that the flood resilient garden now has a permanent home, open and accessible to the wider public.

“Outdoor spaces like this are vital in providing a natural first line of defence against flooding.

“This garden demonstrates how thoughtful choices in plants and landscape design can offer both aesthetic value and tangible protection — helping to minimise physical damage and emotional strain when floods occur.

Andy Brown, joint chief executive at the consultancy HR Wallingford, which owns the site, said the garden “looks magnificent”.

“I am sure (it) will inspire everyone who visits, as well as providing a tranquil space for those that work here.

“We expect there to be more intense and more frequent rainfall in coming years, as an impact of climate change, but resilient gardens such as this one will help reduce the risk of flooding, lessening the impact on lives, the environment and infrastructure.”