Are you going to change what you grow due to climate change?

Chatting to a friend today who’s pretty fed up about the state of her garden after the recent hot weather a lot of plants have shrivelled up and died or have been badly damaged by the sun. Others have just “gone over” early and not flowered for long even though she’s been out watering.

I am worried for the bees and insects that rely on these plants and flowers too.

So my question is are you thinking of changing what you grow? Either flowers or plants for food? We are getting hotter summers but I’m very conscious of not using too much water in the garden. I’ve watered pots this last heatwave but not plants growing in the ground. But like my friends garden mine have also finished early and now it looks like the end of summer not early July.

I’m not in a hose pipe ban area, yet, but have been watering with a can so I can regulate how much I use rather than aimlessly standing with the hose going.
I’m going to mulch this autumn, but who knows what will happen in the winter? Wet and warm? Floods? What plant can cope with blistering heat then being drenched?

 

Next summer is likely to be different, just like last summer was, cant see any point in changing everything all at once, maybe a gradual change to find what does best in your garden rather than anything radical.
I only grow plants I like growing anyway so I'm always adapting the way I grow things depending on the weather in any particular year.

Its called gardening.

 

Quite a lot if the soil doesn't get waterlogged, so free draining soil is what you want.
I have a number of different microclimates in my garden (as do most people) so some patches full sun, others part shade, others mainly shade, some soil is very free draining and others more clayey and damp for longer; so I use plants that will like the different conditions.
I only water plants in the ground when they remain wilted overnight.
Like @pete I only grow what I like and interest me.
I notice you don't say where you are in the country, I'm down in Devon which can be damp and Pete is over in Kent which is more desert like.
Cast your mind back to the mid 70's and we had a couple of very hot dry years and very few people completely changed their gardens.
Yes the climate is changing, getting warmer and sea levels rising, but inside that there will still be a lot of year to year variability.
In Kent there are some people that grow mainly plants that grow happily in dry hot conditions, but they still improve the drainage and may use shelters over winters for some plants. In Yorkshire some people grow tree ferns and in years like this they need watering, but some years they don't really need additional water.

 

No.
I don't water anything that's in the ground, their roots go deep enough and they seem to survive.
I grow very few annuals, and from next year I'm not growing any vegetables ... not because of climate change but because it isn't worth it since I've been on my own, and also the work involved with them puts me off due to me getting older and having less energy.
I also grow lots of cacti and succulents and they are made to withstand droughts.

 

About 30 years ago, when I lived in Nottinghamshire, Severn Trent water sent out leaflets about growing drought tolerant plants. As a result (!) we then had years of floods, where I saw the Trent coming right up around the castle in Newark.
The weather is very variable - that's because we're in the UK. Yes, it's a bit warmer now than when I started growing things about 55 years ago, but it's always up and down. Last year I was moaning about the lack of any summer around here...

 

We’re not planning any significant changes. I’m a mean waterer so have never had a habit of watering the garden so my plants are used to fending for themselves. Personally, I think a lot of people water far more than necessary given our usual levels of rainfall.

We have seven water butts collecting a total of around 1700L. This is prioritised for the greenhouse, herb pots and topping up the pond. I am looking at options for additional waterbutts but available space and downpipe positions are awkward.

I usually only water a plant which is in the ground once when first planted and occasionally once or twice whilst still newly planted if it’s obviously struggling (and I notice). We haven’t watered the garden so far this year despite it being so dry. Yes some things are going over earlier, but most things seem to be ok. Anything really struggling has had a bowl of cold washing up water when the next one comes available. The only ones I can think of which have needed this and consider worth intervening for are a Viburnum Mareseii and a climbing hydrangea.

My planting is very dense, as I don’t like being able to see the soil. This definitely helps, the couple of areas at have which do look sad and crispy are a couple of relatively new beds which have some bare soil. Last year the annuals filled out the area. This year they are far smaller and skinnier. A lots of perennials may die back but, in my experience, they will reappear again, either when it rains or next year. I suppose this approach weeds out anything which is unable to cope with variable water levels.

I have two new little veg beds, the one where I improved the soil with a cardboard and home compost mulch is thriving and I have only watered it two or three times, two times was when I planted out the sweetcorn and then interplanted with sunflowers. So I think soil improvement, mulch are also the way to go, which is standard advice anyway. I haven’t grown veg for years, so am deliberately experimenting to see how little watering I can get away with and still get an enjoyable sized crop. I’m not trying to maximise any crops or be self sufficient.

Ornamental pots are watered with washing up water so there is only a finite amount to go round. I have started to think about how to make these more weather adaptable/tolerant and I have repositioned some so they get less sun.

Obviously garden aspect and underlying soil type are big factors. Garden layout also plays a role. My largest planting beds are along our north facing boundary. When we moved in this boundary was bare and we needed screening. I didn’t want solid fences as I would loose the sun coming through so we have used trellis and planting as screening. They are now quite deep, between 3-4m, so some parts get direct sun and I can grow a wide range of plants. The unplanned benefit is that these beds are not as vulnerable in heatwaves as those facing south.

Our biggest challenge this summer is the pond. We have never seen it go so low and are having to fight the temptation to top it up which would now need to be with mains water. However we also realise that the main challenge is just that it looks a mess with the liner showing. The wildlife will be fine in the low water and sludge, it’s perfectly normal for natural ponds to periodically dry up. I am thinking how we can improve the look of the pond when the water levels are low. We were already thinking about revamping the pond this Autumn, ironically to make it deeper, so we could make any changes then

 

I forgot to add, for my new beds I’m also looking at the planting recommended for rain gardens as these include species which are tolerant of very dry and very wet conditions. I think there is also a mindset change needed as being tolerant of extreme conditions doesn’t mean a plant will always look at its best. It may look perfect at one end of the extreme and simply be able to survive at the other.

 

I think lawns are going to be even more of a pain and already I see a trend around here to replace the lawn with hard flooring or gravel when the kids have grown up.

I wonder what would be the best substitution to look good, allow ball games and still be eco friendly?

 

I think it’s that mindset change @Selleri grass soon bounces back once the rains arrive. And it’s very low maintenance at the moment as it’s not growing enough to need mowing!

If I didn’t have lawns, I would probably just have larger beds with paths or maybe a gravel garden. Although I can’t see that gravel gardens are lower maintenance than a lawn? I love self seeders but you would still need to “police” it to ensure the self-seeders are the ones you want and to keep it looking like a gravel garden. Left to its own devices it would soon be a large bed of plants. Our gravel drive is largely weed free but only because it’s got a proper hardcore MOT base, so not very eco/wildlife friendly

 

Short answer is no based basically on the fact that climate change is changing the weather patterns but that doesn't mean that we will always have the hotter summers and warmer wetter winters every year, some years will be more like we used to get where more tender, dryer loving plants, will cope far worse than our normal plants. It is this general upward trend in warming that people seem to forget is the problem, the odd differing year isn't an argument that cc isn't happening.

When we had the drought a couple of years ago a friend removed most of their plants and went for drought tolerant plants, these didn't farewell in the wettest winter we had had for decades and a lot of them died. If they had stuck to what they had then their garden would have been far fuller. I think a sensible approach is to try new plants if the old ones succumb but if they are ok then stick with them. Our mature plants seem to cope with the changing weather well if they are in the ground and it would be far harder to establish new ones now.

 

I did something very similar to your friend @Thevictorian, and several years ago went for a fair few drought tolerant plants only to lose them for the same reasons.

After that I just decided to keep growing things that I knew were suitable for the garden in a "normal" year (whatever that is), shrubby salvias, Heleniums, that sort of thing.

A couple of years ago my OH reduced the size of my largest flower bed that's in full sun by some margin, as I found that watching the plants suffer and struggling to keep them going was just too much.
A combination of a succession of drier summers and me ageing like a fine wine made the decision for me.

Personally I think there's a lot to be said for preparation in the Spring , putting a feed around roses and the like for instance, and also watering well and deeply rather than a little every day.
The vast majority of my plants are hardy perennials and I think I can say that the vast majority seem to survive year after year no matter what nature throws at them. (Some years better than others, but it all seems to balance out).

 

More mulch if I can get my hands on any! Ive been using dried bamboo trimmings, ive been told the dead stems cant reroot. I hope not

Id get rid of the lawns here but its shared so its not up to me. They mowed it very low in may and it immediately turned to straw, only turning green again after this last week of good rain.

Many of our native plants are fairly drought tolerant as they came from further south anyway, or live on terrible sandy or chalky clay. I want to plant more.
Bittersweet is one that seems to hate dry soil, ive only seen it growing near water, which is a shame as its quite lovely. Elder seems to like water too. The ornamental ferns and even lavenders people planted nearby became straw too, bad choices unfortunately! Maybe it was french? lavender, larger types seem to resist it better.

My echinops ritro will seed in a month and ill plant that absolutely everywhere. It was an aphid farm and I want lady birds for my veggies Other than that im trying to plant native plants from the area. Lots of cool ones.

 

An lesser explored garden ive seen people growing accidentally is bricks or tiles as a patio, with the cracks filled in with soil, or some bricks removed and those filled, then rockery plants like sedums and thymes to fill it out. Buddleia loves that too... Its quite pretty and all you do I guess is trim it back once a year. Creeping Jenny has colonised some of them which is nice.


Mexican daisies are also intensely invasive here and love that too, at least they are pretty

 

I don't think we have a choice, sadly. I'm lucky enough to be in the SW which doesn't seem to have been hit with quite the extremes of elsewhere, though that may be because I'm in a pretty rural spot.

My suspicion is that plants with tough leaves/stems and small leaves to reduce moisture loss will probably do the best (roses, mahonia, conifers like giant sequoia which sadly isnt suitable for gardens) though this might depend on variety. Plants with very short life cycles may also do ok (Calendula, cornflower etc) because they can adapt more quickly.

I think trees in future may also be shorter-lived species, a bit like how some fish have become smaller, because those that reach maturity too late will be subject to more environmental pressures (drought/floods and over harvesting, respectively).