How to future proof your garden against floods and droughts

Whether your garden is your sanctuary, your place of exercise or somewhere for the kids to blow off steam, there’s no arguing that the UK weather is affecting how gardens grow across the country – and the difficult news is, things are only going to get hotter, wetter and more extreme.

There’s simply no escaping the fact that our fairly mild and temperate climate is going through seismic changes.

Joint research from The Met Office, the University of Exeter and the University of Leeds recently found extreme weather events in the UK are going to increase further.

The number of extreme hot days could increase fourfold, the number of days of rainfall heavy enough to flood rivers could increase by three days per year and predictions suggest we’re looking at more frequent and severe long-term droughts.

Is it possible to drought and flood proof my garden?

It most definitely is. It’s a good idea to start planting your garden with these events in mind because even if you’re not in an area that could flood, drought can affect us all and planting wisely now will mean things have hopefully taken hold by the time they need to manage with floods or survive when it’s hot and arid.

More ideas can be found here: Plants for flood-prone gardens: the plants that will survive a flood

What should I plant?

The best drought resistant plants are ones with fine hair foliage and stems. Ones like Ceanothus, Sedum and Euphorbia are all brilliant. These are all light leafed plants and as a general rule, the lighter the leaf, the more they’ll reflect rather than absorb the sun which is what you want from drought tolerant plants.

Flood resistant plants are completely different though. FloodRe – who ensure flood insurance is affordable for homes built before 2009 – took part in this years Chelsea Garden Show. Their garden, created by designers Naomi Slade and Dr Ed Barsley has good horticulture, appropriate planting, and sustainable drainage at its core.

Amongst other ideas it uses recycled water tanks to store water that drips down water chains from a sloping roof and a pond to help store water and ensure the garden is flood resilient.

Trees and ferns help flooding

Trees like willow trees thrive on the banks of rivers because they enjoy a lot of water so if you have a patch of ground that struggles to dry out completely, planting a willow tree could give you some beautiful shade if you have the space for one.

Ferns and rushes also like damp, shady and moist ground.

How to do it?

When it comes to how to plant, be guided by the areas of your garden. If your garden isn’t particularly wet or dry and you’re planting as a future proofing exercise, then try a variety of planting to hopefully handle droughts or floods. If you have areas that struggle to dry out or are always dry, plant appropriate flood or drought plants in those areas.

We’ve just had the wettest winter in 130 years, and the Met office have predicted 2024 will be the hottest one on record, there’s simply no escaping the fact that our fairly mild and temperate climate is going through seismic changes in the coming years and decades.

The more each of us can do to prepare for that, the better, so planting your garden now before more extreme weather hits us is a really good idea.

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