Five Steps to a Climate-Resilient Garden: An Interview with Dr. Laura Lengnick*
How can we keep our gardens thriving in the face of warming temperatures, heavier rains, and more dry spells? As weather patterns change, many gardeners are looking for ways to adapt. We spoke with soil scientist and researcher Dr. Laura Lengnick about practical strategies for building a more resilient landscape.
Dr. Lengnick emphasizes that climate-conscious gardening involves more than recovering after harmful weather events such as floods, droughts, or late freezes. Instead, gardeners can adopt practices that help reduce or avoid damage caused by these changing weather patterns and extremes.
1. Build healthy soil
Healthy soil is what Dr. Lengnick calls a “general” resilience strategy—one that helps address many challenges at once. For example, healthy soils not only improve plant growth and productivity, they also absorb more water during heavy rains and store it more efficiently between rainfalls, reducing moisture or drought stress to your garden.
Gardeners can enhance the health of their soil by minimizing its disturbance (such as by adopting no-till methods), keeping it covered with crops or mulch throughout the year, growing a wide variety of plants, and incorporating diverse sources of organic matter.
2. Reduce energy use
Some common gardening practices—like frequent mowing or the use of synthetic fertilizers and other chemical treatments—can unintentionally contribute to climate change. More climate-friendly gardening practices include reducing pesticide use, limiting power-tool use, and reusing or recycling materials for raised beds, fencing, and weed barriers. Ideas about modifying lawns in the effort to minimize energy demands can be found in this article from the Cornell Botanic Gardens.
3. Know your climate risk
In addition to understanding regional climate risks, it’s important to consider how changing weather patterns might affect the unique aspects of your landscape. For example, is your garden on a slope or in a low-lying area prone to flooding? How sensitive are your plants to weather swings?
As Dr. Lengnick explains, “Understanding your climate risk simplifies the challenge [of responding]—because no one is going to face every single climate risk.” Keeping notes on weather fluctuations and how they affect your garden can help guide future decisions.
4. Protect, adapt, and prepare
- Protect: Use strategies that help shield your garden from increasing weather variability. This might include installing irrigation or drainage systems, adding windbreaks, or installing a greenhouse.
- Adapt: Make changes to your garden that respond to climate change. For example, swap out vulnerable plants with species that better tolerate extreme conditions or redesign beds with climate risks in mind.
- Prepare for the future: Garden with an eye toward what the climate is projected to look like in the years to come. For example, when planting long-lived plants like trees, you can look up species you are considering in the US Forest Service’s Climate Change Tree Atlas, which provides information about the adaptability of trees to expected climate shifts.
5. Share and learn
Finally, Dr. Lengnick encourages gardeners to share their knowledge about climate risk within their communities. Helpful information to incorporate in a garden journal includes observations about how local weather patterns are changing, how gardens are responding to these changes, and the success of strategies used to combat risk.
Involvement in citizen science projects is another way to contribute. The National Phenology Network’s Nature’s Notebook project invites volunteers to record changes in seasonal activity in the effort to document environmental changes. The annual Great Southeast Pollinator Census is another such opportunity.
No garden is immune to changing weather, but every garden can become more resilient. The resources below offer practical ways to get started with each of the strategies Dr. Lengnick recommends. By learning, experimenting, and sharing what works, gardeners can help their landscapes—and their communities—adapt to the challenges ahead.
Article written by Melissa Himelein, Extension Master GardenerSM volunteer with significant input from Dr. Laura Lengnick.
*About Dr. Laura Lengnick
Laura Lengnick is an award-winning soil scientist who has worked for more than 30 years to put sustainability values into action as a researcher, policy-maker, educator and farmer. In 2015, Laura founded Cultivating Resilience, LLC, an Asheville-based consulting firm that works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into operations and strategic planning. A lifelong gardener, Laura currently cultivates a diverse mix of vegetable, fruit, medicinal, culinary and ornamental plants using climate-resilient practices on her two-acre mini-farm in Buncombe County.
Dr. Lengnick’s book, Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate, explores climate risk and resilience through the adaptation stories of some of America’s best farmers and
For more information
Building healthy soil
Soil Health (brief recommendations for improving soil from the NC Extension)
Using Soil Amendments and Conditioners (video on amending clay soils from the Buncombe County EMGV program)
Cool Cover Crops (video on building soil health through cover crops from the Buncombe County EMGV program)
Reducing energy use in gardening
Garden Practices and Products to Minimize Your Carbon Footprint (ideas for climate-conscious gardening from the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia)
What You Can Do About Climate Change (advice for reducing energy use and other climate-friendly gardening strategies from the Cornell Botanical Gardens)
Tools for gauging climate risk
What’s in Store Climate-Wise for North Carolina (summary of climate predictions for our state)
Gardening for the Long Haul: Creating Climate-Resilient Landscapes (brief review of climate trends in our state and region)
2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (enter your address and zip code in the search box at the top of the map to find your local plant hardiness zone)
What Will Climate Feel Like in 60 Years (this tool from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science allows you to see how any city’s climate is predicted to feel 60 years from now)
Sharing knowledge
Garden Journals—A Powerful Tool for Success (how to develop and maintain a garden journal)
Extension Master Gardener Volunteers in Buncombe County (information on becoming a Buncombe County Master Gardener)
Nature’s Notebook (description of volunteer observer program at Nature’s Notebook and how to get involved)