Climate change is forcing organisations to adapt their properties to be more resilient and adapt to more extreme weather conditions.
For the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the independent charity responsible for caring for the Shakespeare family homes in and around Stratford-upon-Avon, this adaptability and resilience has been required on multiple fronts as it works to both conserve the centuries-old properties but also make them accessible for the public to explore. A great example of this is their innovative and sustainable solution to their planting choices in the Golden Garden of Shakespeare’s New Place to better withstand to extreme weather conditions.
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin…”
- Troilus and Cressida, Act 3 Scene 3
2022 saw record temperatures across the UK with highs of 39 degrees centigrade recorded in Stratford-upon-Avon. The Golden Garden, a beautiful space that is hard landscaped using light stone slabs and raised bronze beds, catches the sun for the majority of the day. During the extreme weather event the space could have easily reached well over 40 degrees centigrade. This heat had a catastrophic effect on the existing planting, with many of the plants unable to recover.
This sparked an idea within the Gardens’ team. They began to research what plants could be more resilient to extreme temperature fluctuations and still be aesthetically pleasing, yet still sit alongside the other planting choices in the gardens of Shakespeare’s New Place.
Their search took them to the Mediterranean, if not in person, horticulturally. They introduced plants like bronze fennel and Turkish sage alongside those that would have been familiar to the Shakespeare family and mentioned in his work, including rosemary and an olive tree. The planting choices reflect a need for the plants to deal with hot summer temperatures, heavy rainfall throughout the year and potentially colder winters. This reliance helps with the long-term maintenance of the Golden Garden and the continued enjoyment of the space by audiences that visit.
Resilience and Resplendence
Changing the planting was not without its challenges. The team knew that the Mediterranean plants would not thrive under prolonged periods of wet weather, especially with standing water in the soil in both the beds and the raised planters. This has been mitigated with the use of a slightly sandy growing media, which is more free draining allowing additional moisture to move away from the plants.
For periods of drought, the gardens team have a drip irrigation in the raised beds, as well as across the gardens of New Place. This system, which delivers water into the soil, rather than onto the leaves of the plants as a sprinkler system would, is only used during prolonged dry periods allowing the team to efficiently water the beds with the minimum of wasted water.
Despite sustained dry periods since the new planting was implemented, in 2024 the irrigation system has only been turned on four times, an achievement of sustainability in action.
“For, being green, there is great hope…”
- Henry VI Part 2, Act 3 Scene 1
The planting project in the Golden Garden is part of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s wider Sustainable Shakespeare initiative, which aims to embed sustainable solutions across everything the Trust delivers, to meet their goal of becoming net zero in their own carbon emissions by 2030.
Through their ambitious action plan, the Trust have delivered a wide range of activities and projects. These range from re-wilding portions of land at their properties, to increase biodiversity (including at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage), to encouraging visitors to reduce their carbon footprint through sharing sustainable-travel focused planning tools as part of their pre-visit communications.
This work is celebrated and shared across their website and social media channels, alongside on-property messaging and interpretation. They further highlighted the importance of the Sustainable Shakespeare initiative early this summer with the launch of the first ever SBT ‘Great Big Green Month’ where all programming across was focused on sustainable activities, culminating in the launch event for Stratford-upon-Avon’s own Great Big Green Week, part of the national celebration of sustainability.
For more information on the Sustainable Shakespeare initiative visit www.shakespeare.org.uk/sustainable-shakespeare.