Climate-smart gardening
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
Temperate maritime, mild winters, warm urban summers
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. Climate, plant and retailer records shown here are realistic samples awaiting horticultural validation and live data connections.
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.
See your current gardening climate and how it is likely to change.
Describe your space, soil, light and goals in under three minutes.
Ranked recommendations with reasons, cautions and timing.
Choose a concern to start a garden profile focused on it.
Scorch, wilting and heat stress during longer hot spells.
Dry soil, watering restrictions and summer plant losses.
Runoff, waterlogged roots and damaged soil structure.
Unreliable dormancy and damage to early growth.
Fewer pollinators, birds and beneficial insects.
Planting windows and flowering times that keep shifting.
Example cards showing suitability, native status, wildlife value and resilience.
Lavandula angustifolia
Thrives in hot, dry, free-draining sites and feeds pollinators over a long season.
Caution: Fails quickly in heavy wet soil or deep shade.
Evidence confidence: high
Salvia rosmarinus
Evergreen structure with very low water demand and early pollinator value.
Caution: Short-lived on waterlogged clay.
Evidence confidence: high
Crataegus monogyna
Exceptional wildlife tree offering blossom, berries, nesting and shelter.
Caution: Listed as an environmental weed in parts of Australia — not recommended there.
Evidence confidence: high
Plants survive dry spells with far less watering and less summer loss.
easy · A weekend, plus planting time · Low to medium cost
Rainfall soaks in where it falls instead of running off or standing.
moderate · One to two weekends · Medium cost
Continuous food, water, shelter and breeding habitat across the seasons.
easy · Ongoing across a season · Low cost
Silver, violet and gold; loose, gravelly and Mediterranean in feel.
Layered and informal: blossom, berries, seedheads and evergreen cover.
Lush and upright, designed for a shallow basin that floods then drains.
Editorial content, not personalised garden advice.
Climate-resilience project
Melbourne's heat spikes do more damage than its averages suggest. Here is what actually keeps a garden alive.
Plant guide
Humid heat and heavy downpours make drainage, not drought, the defining problem for many Atlanta gardens.
News explainer
Mild winters and drier summers are already reshaping what performs reliably in the capital.
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 worksPersonalised 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. Climate, plant and retailer records shown here are realistic samples awaiting horticultural validation and live data connections.
Sample gardens available: Peckham back garden, Richmond courtyard, Decatur wet corner.
Garden Forward