Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Replanting the Golden Garden

For Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle’s annual report 2023-24, we feature over 50 practical examples of cultural organisations taking climate action including 9 other in depth case studies like this one. Check out the full interactive report here.

This case study was written by Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, an educational charity from Stratford-upon-Avon, celebrating Shakespeare’s life & works through collections and educational programmes.

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Sustainable Shakespeare in Action – Replanting the Golden Garden

Climate change is forcing organisations to adapt their properties to be more resilient and withstand 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 and 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 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 most of the day. During this extreme weather event, the space could have easily reached well over 40 degrees centigrade, leading to a catastrophic effect on the existing planting, with many 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, still aesthetically pleasing, and able to complement the existing plant choices in the gardens of Shakespeare’s New Place.

Resilience and Resplendence

Changing the planting was not without challenges. The team knew that 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 by using a slightly sandy growing medium, which is more free-draining, allowing additional moisture to move away from the plants.

For periods of drought, the gardens team uses 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 (as a sprinkler system would), is only used during prolonged dry periods, allowing the team to efficiently water the beds with minimal water waste.

Despite sustained dry periods since the new planting, 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 all aspects of the Trust’s work, supporting their goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Through their ambitious action plan, the Trust has 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 by 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 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.

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Find out more about the Sustainable Shakespeare initiative.

Header image: New Place Garden – Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Credit: Sam Allard; Shakespeare Birthplace Trust