When seasons slip: How to maximise your garden for plants and wildlife

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As frosts arrive across the UK – later than usual this year – we’re exploring how to give nature a helping hand when the seasons fall out of step. In this installment of our wildlife ponds mini-series, Helen Bensted-Smith walks us through her top planting recommendations for different aquatic habitats. Wisley Garden Manager Mark Tuson also reveals how his team turns fallen leaves, cuttings, and woody material into valuable resources that enrich the soil, strengthen plant health, and boost biodiversity. Finally, we head to East Sussex for a tour of the iconic Arts and Crafts gardens at Great Dixter – home of the late garden writer Christopher Lloyd – guided by Head Gardener Fergus Garrett. Host: Gareth Richards Contributors: Fergus Garrett, Helen Bensted-Smith, Mark Tuson Links: Choosing pond plants Invasive non-native plants Aquatic weeds Chop and drop Mullet gardening Write in with your gardening questions to: [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Looking for the perfect gift for the garden lover in your life?
0:04.0	This Christmas, save £15 on an NHS gift membership
0:07.8	and give them unlimited visits to NHS gardens
0:10.8	and over 230 partner gardens all year round.
0:15.2	They'll enjoy reduced rate tickets and priority access to NHS shows
0:18.8	plus so much more.
0:20.9	Save £15.orghs.org.uk.
0:24.7	Our friends soon, terms and conditions apply.
0:31.6	The first true frosts have finally swept across much of the UK,
0:36.1	bringing a sharp end to what's been an unusually mild autumn.
0:39.6	This delayed onset of chilly mornings is just one sign of a much larger shift in our climate.
0:45.0	In 2025, the UK experienced its warmest, sunniest spring on record, followed immediately by its hottest summer.
0:51.6	And as we deviate from familiar seasonal cycles, nature can be left
0:55.5	struggling to stay in sync. Climate change is altering the timing and the successes of plant
1:00.4	life cycles, and many plants now burst into life earlier, bloom faster and then finish sooner,
1:06.0	leaving reduced food availability for pollinators and fruit production in the autumn. This has knock-on effects for organisms beyond.
1:13.6	Birds and small mammals that rely on berries and seeds to make it through winter are finding
1:17.6	resources increasingly scarce. Even animal behaviour is changing.
1:22.6	According to research by the Met Office and the Wildlife Trusts, in Northern Ireland,
1:26.6	warmer and wetter conditions
1:28.0	are influencing barnow nesting habits. These subtle changes might seem inconsequential, but they
1:33.3	can disrupt breeding cycles and reduce prey availability putting local populations at risk.
	...

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