Guest post by Sarah Gerhardt

As gardeners, we have a unique opportunity to shape our outdoor spaces in ways that not only delight the senses but also contribute to a more sustainable, climate-resilient future. By making thoughtful choices about plants, materials, and design, we can lower emissions, conserve resources, and create habitats that benefit wildlife and ourselves.

Seeing Climate Change In The Garden

If you’ve spent any time outdoors in recent years, you may have noticed the changes. The summer of 2025 was the hottest summer ever recorded in the UK, while the winter of 2023-24 brought unusually warm, wet conditions. These aren’t isolated anomalies. They are part of a trend driven by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide trap heat naturally, keeping our planet habitable, but industrial activity over the past two centuries has caused their levels to soar, leading to extreme weather events that affect all aspects of life, including gardening.

For gardeners, the changes are often most visible in subtle shifts in plant life. Mild winters can prompt leaves to emerge earlier in spring and flowers to bloom at unusual times. “False autumn” occurs when signs typically associated with autumn, such as leaf drop and fruit ripening, happen early, often in late summer. This isn’t a true sign of autumn arriving but a reflection of stress in trees and plants caused by prolonged heat and dry spells. In response to drought conditions, trees enter a survival mode, shedding leaves early to conserve energy. While they may not be dying, they are certainly under stress, and
these early leaf drops can disrupt wildlife that depend on plants for food and shelter at specific times of the year.

Warmer, wetter conditions also encourage pests and plant diseases to thrive. Gardeners are reporting more aphid infestations and fungal problems such as downy and powdery mildew, and diseases once rare in the UK are appearing more frequently. Milder winters mean fewer pests die off, leaving larger populations to attack plants in spring. More plants being shipped around the world makes controlling pests and diseases even more challenging.
Recognising these patterns is the first step towards adapting our gardens for the future.

Diverse Gardens = Resilient Ecosystems

A diverse garden is a resilient garden. Mixing trees, shrubs, and perennial groundcovers not only absorbs carbon dioxide but also creates rich habitats for birds, insects, and small mammals. A “layered garden” combines different kinds of plants to provide a succession of interesting combinations and a long flowering season. This approach not only keeps your garden interesting all year round, it also protects the soil, helps water soak in during heavy rains, and provides natural shelter from wind and heat.

Planting a native hedge of hawthorn or field maple along a garden boundary can protect smaller plants, support nesting birds, and reduce the effects of strong winds. The Wildlife Trust has published a guide on How to make a hedge for wildlife, which lists a range of plants well suited for a wildlife hedge.
A shallow pond in a sunny corner adds another layer of resilience. Ponds provide a vital refuge for amphibians, dragonflies, and other insects, creating a mini-ecosystem within your garden. By attracting these creatures, ponds help control pests naturally, while also supporting birds and small mammals that rely on water for drinking and bathing. A pond can act as a natural reservoir, helping your garden cope during dry spells by retaining water that plants and wildlife can draw on.

Adding gentle slopes or ledges ensures creatures can safely enter and exit, and planting native marginal plants around the edges provides shade, shelter, and additional habitat. Over time, your pond can become a lively, self-sustaining feature, enhancing biodiversity and bringing a touch of natural magic to your garden.

Choosing Plants That Thrive in a Changing Climate

The UK’s summers are getting hotter and drier, winters wetter, and heavy downpours are becoming more frequent. Increasingly, the challenge is not just preparing for one or the other, but managing both extremes in the same garden, sometimes even in the same season. The plants you choose today need to be able to cope with swings between drought and waterlogging.

Plants for Dry Conditions

You can often spot drought-tolerant plants by looking at their leaves. Many have silver or grey-green foliage that reflects harsh sunlight, while hairy leaves or stamps help trap moisture around the plant tissues. Examples include lavender (Lavandula sp.), lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), sage (Salvia sp.) including its many ornamental cultivars such as ‘Blue Spire’, and rock roses (Cistus sp.). Many of these are of Mediterranean origin and thrive in nutrient-poor, free-draining soils.

Hardy succulents also cope well with drought. Their fleshy leaves store water, making them ideal for dry, rocky habitats. Some are quite adaptable and will also tolerate occasional wet spells. Members of the stonecrop family (Crassulaceae) are particularly useful, such as the low-growing Sedum album and the common houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum). A favourite in many gardens is Hylotelephium × mottramianum ‘Herbstfreude’ (previously Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’), a reliable autumn-flowering plant that attracts pollinators.

Saxifrages (Saxifraga sp.) are another genus of plant that includes many drought tolerant members. Saxifraga paniculata (Lifelong saxifrage) and Saxifraga x urbium (London pride) are good choices. The latter is known for its ability to grow in difficult urban situations.

At the other end of the spectrum, gardens must also handle heavier rainfall and waterlogged soil. A great strategy is to create a rain garden. This is a shallow, planted dip in the ground designed to capture and absorb rainwater runoff from roofs, patios, or driveways. Instead of water rushing into drains or pooling in unwanted places, the water is slowed down, filtered through soil and roots, and allowed to soak naturally back into the ground.

Rain gardens are filled with plants that can tolerate fluctuating conditions from soaking wet one week, to dry the next. They drain within a day or two, so they don’t create stagnant water and they bring multiple benefits. These include reducing local flooding, filtering out pollutants before they reach rivers and streams, improving soil health, and providing food and shelter for pollinators and other wildlife.

Plants that work well in Scottish rain gardens include grasses and sedges such as Deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair grass) and Carex paniculata (greater tussock sedge); herbaceous perennials like Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag iris), Filipendula ulmaria (meadowsweet), Lysimachia vulgaris (yellow loosestrife), Primula vulgaris (primrose) and Caltha palustris (marsh marigold) as well as some shrubs such as Cornus alba (red-stemmed dogwood) Salix purpurea (purple willow) and Viburnum opulus (guelder rose). These species are adapted to cope with the fluctuating conditions of a rain garden. They tolerate both temporary flooding and drier spells while also supporting insects, birds and amphibians.

Matching Plants to Place

The same space may swing from drought to downpour within a single season. The key is resilience: choosing plants that can tolerate fluctuation, and designing with features that buffer extremes.

Look closely at your garden’s microclimate: Where are the sunny corners, low-lying damp patches or exposed windy edges? Then select plants suited to those conditions. By combining drought-tolerant species with water-absorbing designs like rain gardens, you can create a space that copes with both abundance and scarcity. This “right plant, right place” approach reduces maintenance, conserves water, and helps your garden flourish in an unpredictable climate.

Caring for the Soil and Using Materials Wisely

Healthy soil is the foundation of a resilient garden, and the choices we make about materials matter just as much. Composting kitchen scraps and garden waste not only keeps organic matter out of landfill, where it would release greenhouse gases, but also nourishes the soil, building its fertility and structure. Avoiding heavy tilling, mineral fertilisers, and pesticides allows the soil to store more carbon and supports a thriving ecosystem of worms, insects and microbes. Try a no-dig bed, or create a simple compost heap to increase the health of your soil.

A general rule of thumb is to aim for roughly 80 percent planting and 20 percent hard landscaping. This balance protects soil, encourages biodiversity, and allows rainwater to soak naturally rather than overwhelming drainage systems.
Many peat-free recycled compost blends provide excellent bases for drought-tolerant plants, especially if no extra nutrients have been added. They are fairly nutrient-poor and tend to drain quickly in heavy rainfall which creates ideal conditions for many drought tolerant plants. Mulches and compost blends with added nutrients or homemade compost work well for more “hungry” plants and increase the soil’s ability to retain moisture.

Materials in the garden have a hidden carbon cost, so reusing and recycling whenever possible is crucial. Stones, bricks, and timber can be given a second life, saving resources, cutting
emissions, and often saving money. Local sharing sites are a great source of free or low-cost materials, but be mindful of treated timber and its intended use.

Every Choice Counts

Looking ahead, the UK faces increasing drought risk, heat stress, and heavy rainfall events. Every decision we make in our garden adds up. What we plant, how we care for the soil, and which materials we choose collectively makes a difference to our climate. Climate-conscious gardening is not just about protecting your own patch; it is a way of contributing to a healthier, more sustainable planet. By planting thoughtfully, composting diligently, and designing with resilience in mind, we can create gardens that are both beautiful and future-proof, supporting wildlife, storing carbon, and providing us with spaces to enjoy for generations to come.

About the author: Sarah Gerhardt is a gardener, linguist and punk musician based in Edinburgh. She was head gardener at the Dean Gardens, Edinburgh for 9 years and runs her own gardening business Gerhardt’s Garden Service. Find out more via her Linktree: https://linktr.ee/gerhardtsgardenservice