Building Climate Change Resilience into the Garden

1- Learn your land and start with what you have

Where are your sunny and shaded areas, and at what time of day? Is your soil hard clay, sandy, or something else? While planning for the future, ask yourself if your area is undergoing higher levels of drought, or is flooding now a challenge? Observing your land and learning about its soil, light levels, and the larger ecosystem it was once a part of can help clue you into what you should grow. 

You can find out what kind of soil you have by performing a soil test either at home or by sending a soil sample to your local extension office. What kind of environment once surrounded your home? Was it a prairie, deciduous woodland, mountainous pine forest, coastal or alluvial plain, or an oak savannah, etc? You can find out what kind of ecosystem your home resides in by referring to a map of North America's ecoregions. Taking the time to learn your land means you won’t be fighting the site. This information will help you understand how your property fits into the greater whole and what plants have historically thrived there without a lot of help. Keep in mind that during development, layers of soil are often removed, replaced, and/or drastically altered, and might have little left in common with the original soil ecology.

For a more detailed view and description of your ecoregions, find your state in our “NATIVE TO” category, and scroll down to the bottom of the page results.

2- Treat water as a precious resource, not as a burden.

Where does water come into your land? Where does it sit, or where does it flow out? One of the principles of good garden design is intentionally managing available water. The goal is to capture stormwater and allow it to percolate deep into the soil layers, thereby preventing flooding and run off. When we build our homes, we scrape away the topsoil, shift subsoil layers, and destroy the natural soil hydrology. Let the land guide you on what to do to reconnect stormwater to the groundwater.

Create a rain garden in low-lying areas where water frequently builds up. In areas where water gushes during storms, dig a series of berms and swales to slow down the flow and give stormwater a chance to soak into the ground. Once these issues are resolved, consider redirecting downspouts from storm drains and into your garden. Or, capture rainwater from your roof with rain barrels and store for dry periods. Improve the topsoil by allowing the biomass to decompose in place with little disturbance. Active, living topsoil is better able to soak and hold moisture.

3- Nature values diversity

Each species adapts to, and exploits, a unique niche. As each niche is filled, available resources are more efficiently used. A wide variety of species can thrive together in one habitat. Plant populations living in the same space, but occupying different niches, will expand and contract as conditions change, ensuring their overall survival. Try to add a range of types of plants as well: flowering herbaceous perennials, grasses and sedges, ferns, climbers, woody plants, etc. Layering these plants will give you more seasonal interest and will build more robust, resilient, and prosperous systems.

4- Redundancy in nature is a feature, not a flaw

Although seemingly contradictory, redundancy and diversity go hand in hand. Genetic diversity within a given species, within a given population, is a survival mechanism. A resilient ecosystem has reproductive numbers of a given species to create a significant amount of viable seed, and multiple species that do similar jobs i.e. erosion control, ground cover, food and shelter for wildlife. Should a major disturbance occur caused by a flood, drought, by insects, or due to fire, something will survive. And, from these survivors the ecosystem will rebound. Repetition is also an important tool for garden design and creates attractive, bold, and flowing patterns for our visual enjoyment.

5- Right plant, right place

This point cannot be stressed enough. We often put the proverbial cart before the horse and set our minds on a plant first, then try to amend the soil to meet its growing requirements. This approach is labor intensive, risky, invariably requires long term additional input, and often results in eventual plant failure. Choosing the right plant for the right place will require less care from the get-go. It will establish faster and more reliably, and will be more resilient in the face of change. This is low-maintenance gardening at its finest.

There are many resources available to help make the selection process easier. Izel Native Plants’ filters allow you to match plants with your growing conditions. State level organizations and native plant societies also provide a range of species lists. Let your fingers do the walking.

6- Remove unnecessary lawn

Maintaining a pristine lawn requires a lot of upkeep: regular mowing and edging, weeding and feeding, and near constant watering during our hot summers. A turfgrass lawn retains many uses: it is unrivaled in its ability to be routinely shorn, comfortably played on, regularly walked through or trampled, and as a place to gather and entertain. However, do you need your entire yard to be lawn and how do you want it to function?

Part of caring for your land is having a sense of purpose when thinking of the function of a space. The default American residential landscape includes non-native grass lawns surrounding foundation plantings of equally non-native shrubs, with little to no thought beyond that. These are essentially ecologically dysfunctional monocultures of exotic species devoid of biodiversity. We don’t mean to do this, it’s just the default.

When you approach your site’s layout with a sense of purpose, you can figure out how much property you need for lawn-dependant activities. Sketch out how you use your lawn: where you gather to eat, walk, play games, or let your pets roam. Then you’ll see how much of it you actually use, and get rid of the rest. Removing unnecessary lawn allows you to improve the ecological value of your landscape.

7- Create larger garden beds and expand existing ones

It is best practice to err on the side of larger garden beds, if possible. Most problems occur in areas with the greatest disturbance, like garden edges. By creating a few large beds instead of lots of small ones, you minimize disturbance zones where weeds grow opportunistically and where the effects of drought are harshest. Paradoxically, larger plantings mean less weeding and less watering in the long run. Additionally, this gives plants more opportunities to weave together and support each other, and improves wildlife habitat.

That being said, when a gardener begins a new endeavor, it is appropriate to start small. Biting off more than you can chew can be disheartening. It’s easy to become overwhelmed. Care for each of your garden spaces until they’re established. Start with a smaller area and slowly add to it as you have the time and resources to accomplish each step. Small, incremental wins add up to big victories. That's the name of the game.

8- Imitate nature and space plants close together

Resist the urge to plant your plants as individual sentries standing guard with feet of mulch isolating them. Instead, weave plants close together to minimize bare soil. Where soil is exposed, nature will cover it, usually with weeds. During installation, mulch gives plant plugs a head start against weeds. Once established, additional mulch applications aren’t necessary. Instead, create green mulch using groundcovers, or use the chop and drop method for a homegrown, natural mulch.

To chop and drop, trim last year’s growth in early spring down to 12”-16”. Tall stems can be cut into small pieces. Be mindful that overwintering insects and pollinators nest in the lower portions. Then, drop the material to decompose in place. The old biomass will create its own mulch and build topsoil, replicating natural processes. Just as water is a precious resource, so are nutrients. Don’t give this valuable biomass away to your trash collector. Leave it on site to replenish the soil’s nutrients and complete the cycle of life.

9- Observe, learn, adapt

There is no static endpoint, all living things change. Plants will self-sow, regenerate, get diseases, grow old, and die. Part of caring for your land is observing changes over time. Note what works and what doesn’t. If plants die, it is not a failure, it’s a learning opportunity. Periods of drought, extreme temperatures, or extraordinary rainfall, will teach you which plants thrive and which ones struggle under those conditions. Learning when to hang on to a plant and when to let go of it is part of becoming a gardener. We can’t know everything when we start.  But, by observing and staying flexible, we can become better stewards of the land under our care.

One bite at a time, we can eat an entire elephant.

While no one knows what the future holds, we can be proactive and make better decisions. Understanding the abiotic elements in a system and selecting an array of plants appropriate for it, will give a garden the highest potential to handle whatever changes come its way.

When Ancient Egyptians built their pyramids, monuments, and temples 5,000 years ago, they could not predict the earthquakes and other destructive events that were to come. They just engineered sound structures that have stood the test of time. We need to adopt a similar long-term vision when planning our landscapes.