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Climate-smart gardening

Build a garden that thrives where you live

Discover your local gardening climate, choose plants suited to your conditions and prepare your garden for a changing future.

Global climate guidance with deeper local recommendations available in the UK, US and Australia.

Example Climate Passport

London

Temperate maritime, mild winters, warm urban summers

Typical winter minimum
-3°C
Typical summer maximum
31°C
Growing season
255 days
Annual rainfall
620 mm

Main risks

Summer soil moisture deficit, heat spikes, intense rainfall.

2050 climate analogue

Aspects of this garden climate may resemble conditions currently experienced around Bordeaux, France.

Demonstration data

These figures come from the demonstration dataset kept for testing and as a fallback when the measured climate service is unavailable. They are representative, not observed, and are never presented as validated live data.

Your garden starts with place

A cobbled garden path running beneath a timber vine pergola, edged with dense pink and white bedding on stone walls
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Where you garden sets the limits: how cold winters get, how long the growing season runs, how much rain arrives and when. On top of that sit your own conditions — soil, light, exposure, slope and how you want to use the space. Garden Forward combines both to produce recommendations that suit your garden specifically, not your country in general.

  1. 1

    Understand your climate

    See your current gardening climate and how it is likely to change.

  2. 2

    Build your garden profile

    Describe your space, soil, light and goals in under three minutes.

  3. 3

    Receive plants, projects and guidance

    Ranked recommendations with reasons, cautions and timing.

What concerns you most?

Choose a concern to start a garden profile focused on it.

Recommended plants

Example cards showing suitability, native status, wildlife value and resilience.

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Lavender

Lavandula angustifolia

Overall suitability
Save a garden profile to score this plant
Status where you are
Climate-suitable non-native
Wildlife value
4/5 — a separate judgement from climate suitability
Climate resilience
Drought 5/5 · wet soil 1/5 · to 40°C heat, -15°C cold
Evidence confidence
high
Size:
0.4–0.8 m tall
Season:
Summer
Light:
Full sun
Maintenance:
low

Thrives in hot, dry, free-draining sites and feeds pollinators over a long season.

Caution: Fails quickly in heavy wet soil or deep shade.

Find locally
Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)
Margalob · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Rosemary

Salvia rosmarinus

Overall suitability
Save a garden profile to score this plant
Status where you are
Climate-suitable non-native
Wildlife value
4/5 — a separate judgement from climate suitability
Climate resilience
Drought 5/5 · wet soil 1/5 · to 42°C heat, -10°C cold
Evidence confidence
high
Size:
0.6–1.5 m tall
Season:
Spring
Light:
Full sun
Maintenance:
low

Evergreen structure with very low water demand and early pollinator value.

Caution: Short-lived on waterlogged clay.

Find locally
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
Elstro · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Hawthorn

Crataegus monogyna

Overall suitability
Save a garden profile to score this plant
Status where you are
Native
Wildlife value
5/5 — a separate judgement from climate suitability
Climate resilience
Drought 4/5 · wet soil 3/5 · to 38°C heat, -25°C cold
Evidence confidence
high
Size:
4–8 m tall
Season:
Spring blossom, autumn fruit
Light:
Sun or shade
Maintenance:
low

Exceptional wildlife tree offering blossom, berries, nesting and shelter.

Caution: Listed as an environmental weed in parts of Australia — not recommended there.

Find locally
Open the plant finder

Resilience projects

A damp oak woodland with moss-covered trunks and moss-draped rocks among leaf litter
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Drought-ready garden

Plants survive dry spells with far less watering and less summer loss.

easy · A weekend, plus planting time · Low to medium cost

Orange and red tulips flowering in a sunny spring border with daffodils behind
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Rain-resilient garden

Rainfall soaks in where it falls instead of running off or standing.

moderate · One to two weekends · Medium cost

A family eating together under festoon lights in a summer back garden
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Wildlife year-round plan

Continuous food, water, shelter and breeding habitat across the seasons.

easy · Ongoing across a season · Low cost

Planting palettes

Pale pink Japanese anemones flowering in front of a timber alpine chalet below a rock face
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Drought-ready sunny border

Silver, violet and gold; loose, gravelly and Mediterranean in feel.

A timber deck with cushioned outdoor sofa, hanging chair and potted flowers beside a lawn
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Wildlife garden with year-round food and shelter

Layered and informal: blossom, berries, seedheads and evergreen cover.

Snow-capped bird feeders hanging from a lamp post beside a frosted spruce under a clear blue winter sky
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Rain-garden planting

Lush and upright, designed for a shallow basin that floods then drains.

Latest guides and news

Editorial content, not personalised garden advice.

Pink and blue hydrangeas flowering beside a brick-paved drive in low golden sunlight
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Location climate guide

How to create a drought-resilient garden in Melbourne

Melbourne's heat spikes do more damage than its averages suggest. Here is what the record shows, and what actually keeps a garden alive.

A white cottage with black window frames framed by variegated monstera and palms in shade
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Plant guide

Native plants for a wet and shaded garden in Georgia

Humid heat and heavier downpours make drainage, not drought, the defining problem for many Atlanta gardens.

A timber deck with cushioned outdoor sofa, hanging chair and potted flowers beside a lawn
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News explainer

What London gardens may need to change by 2040

Hotter extremes and a longer growing season are already reshaping what performs reliably in the capital.

Shopping locally

Once a plant or project is judged suitable for your garden, Garden Forward matches it to local plants, materials and equipment. Commercial relationships never influence which plants are recommended — suitability is decided first, and only then are offers attached.

See how local matching works

Get a weekly garden action plan

Personalised to your saved garden: what to plant, water, protect and prepare for in the week ahead.

You can opt out at any time. We never sell Garden Profile data.

Demonstration data

These figures come from the demonstration dataset kept for testing and as a fallback when the measured climate service is unavailable. They are representative, not observed, and are never presented as validated live data.

Sample gardens available: Peckham back garden, Richmond courtyard, Decatur wet corner.