This book covers a range of methods to create a sustainable garden with a low carbon footprint that will continue to thrive as the climate changes in the future. It includes ideas and suggestions on how to design and maintain a low-carbon garden that is still both colourful and productive.

Gardeners across the nation are seeing clear signs of trouble in their home gardens, no matter the size—like many aspects of life on our warming planet, gardening practices need updates. In the Southeast, gardeners are under pressure to deal with increasing weather extremes, shifting hardiness zones, and seasonal unpredictability. Such environmental conditions are increasingly tough on plants as well as insects, pollinators, birds, and mammals. In this lively and heartening guide, Barbara J. Sullivan offers an essential, easy-to-use resource for adapting to the new realities of climate change. This book will empower southerners to grow beautiful gardens while using gardening practices that contribute to solutions for our shared environment. Surveys the science behind climate change and gardening Covers USDA hardiness zones 5a to 9b, which include thirteen southeastern states Gives advice on planning and installing gardens that will not only thrive but also help address critical environmental challenges Covers key topics ranging from designing a climate-friendly garden that will attract songbirds and pollinators to weaning off gas-powered tools to using water wisely Features a wealth of color illustrations, charts, and tables brimming with recommended native plants for the region

In this global gardener’s guide to creating a resilient, climate-wise garden, learn how to adapt your garden to cope with volatile weather extremes and other effects of a rapidly changing climate. It’s no longer gardening as usual. Heat waves, droughts, flooding, violent storms…the long-predicted extremes of weather caused by climate change are now on our doorstep, and gardeners around the world are feeling the effects. Certain pests are staying active until much later in the season, many plants are blooming earlier, soils are eroding and degrading at a rapid pace, unpredictable rainfall is water-logging our gardens, and fiercer storms are uprooting trees and snapping branches. Not to mention the effects of prolonged drought in many parts of the world and the water rationing that comes with it. What’s a gardener to do? We need to learn how to protect the garden against climate extremes, exotic pests, invasive weeds, and more. The Climate Change Garden is the first book to reveal which types of gardens are better suited to deal with such extremes and which techniques, practices, and equipment can be put to good use in our gardens to help temper the issues. There’s no getting away from it; no matter where on the planet you live, the climate and weather patterns are changing fast, and our gardening practices need to catch up. With the aim of building a more durable, robust, and productive garden beneath the shadow of climate change, you’ll learn how to: Adapt your plant selections, planting practices, and garden maintenance techniques for the new future Select vegetable and fruit varieties that are more adaptable to weather extremes and more capable of resisting pests and diseases Find ways to manage excess storm water runoff and minimize the heat island effect Foster wildlife and discover the importance of creating a safe haven for these creatures in a changing world Use season extenders like cold frames, high tunnels, and row covers to protect edible plants from weather events Take measures to reduce your garden’s carbon footprint, including going no-till, building a green roof, and composting Limit the risks from wind, frost, and snow by taking advantage of microclimates, planting wind breaks, and physically protecting plants Plant more of the right trees for your future climate to help cool your home, slow the movement of water, and hold soil in place The Climate Change Garden is about working with the natural world to create a productive, low-maintenance, climate-savvy garden that’s capable of standing strong against the effects of a changing climate.

Discover a new, more dynamic and durable way to grow food in the extremes of our changing climate in The Climate Change–Resilient Vegetable Garden. Whether it’s water-usage restrictions, extended heat waves, disastrous flooding, “super weeds,” or prolonged pest lifecycles, the coming years will be filled with daunting challenges for food growers around the world. What’s a gardener to do? Author Kim Stoddart outlines a clear path toward building resilience in your vegetable plants, your soil, and yourself. With actionable tasks that reduce resource use, stabilize the garden’s ecosystem, and offer regenerative solutions to the most challenging issues faced by gardeners, Kim comes to the rescue with advice to help you weather these storms with ease. Learn to: Foster adaptation by selectively breeding your favorite veggie varieties for local growing conditions Nurture biologically active soils that are better able to support your plants Create bioswales, berms, and rain gardens to improve your garden’s flood tolerance Plant windbreaks, erect cold frames, and make mini hoop tunnels to protect plants from wind, snow, and surprise frosts Enhance biodiversity in your garden to increase pest predation and keep “bad” insects in check Discover intensive planting techniques to improve yields while protecting your soil and reducing water usage Select the most adaptable fruit and vegetable crops to grow and tend them in a climate change–savvy way Recycle rainwater, repurpose household items, and live lightly on the land for a more resourceful gardening life Even long-time vegetable gardeners will face unexpected challenges in the years to come. Take the time to build resilience in yourself and your garden by shifting your thinking today, and you’ll be prepared for the unpredictable future ahead.

Gardeners are the front line of defense in our struggle to tackle the problems of global warming, loss of habitat, water shortages, and shrinking biodiversity. In The New American Landscape, author and editor Thomas Christopher brings together the best thinkers on the topic of gardening sustainably, and asks them to describe the future of the sustainable landscape. The discussion unfolds from there, and what results is a collective vision as eloquent as it is diverse. The New American Landscape offers designers a roadmap to a beautiful garden that improves, not degrades the environment. It’s a provocative manifesto about the important role gardens play in creating a more sustainable future that no professional garden designer can afford to miss. John Greenlee and Neil Diboll on the new American meadow garden Rick Darke on balancing natives and exotics in the garden Doug Tallamy on landscapes that welcome wildlife Eric Toensmeier on the sustainable edible garden David Wolfe on gardening sustainable with a changing climate Elaine Ingham on managing soil health David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth on sustainable pest solutions Ed Snodgrass and Linda McIntyre on green roofs in the sustainable residential landscape Thomas Christopher on waterwise gardens Toby Hemenway on whole system garden design The Sustainable Site Initiative on the managing the home landscape as a sustainable site

Dry summer, wet winter climate? This is your must have plant guide. Selecting plants suited to your climate is the first step toward a thriving, largely self-sustaining garden that connects with and supports the natural world. With gentle and compelling text and stunning photographs of plants in garden settings, Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates by Nora Harlow and Saxon Holt is a guide to native and climate-adapted plants for summer-dry, winter-wet climates of North America's Pacific coast. Knowing what these climates share and how and why they differ, you can choose to make gardens that maintain and expand local and regional biodiversity, take little from the earth that is not returned, and welcome and accommodate the presence of wildlife. With global warming, it is now even more critical that we garden in tune with climate.

“We owe it to our plants to read this book. After all, while we just live with the weather, our plants have to survive it.” —The Washington Post All gardeners are at the whim of Mother Nature, and so are our plants. Whether it’s coping with extreme drought or record-breaking snow fall, gardeners—and gardens—across the country are fighting against the elements. Instead of just reacting to the weather, Michael Allaby suggests that gardeners use knowledge about how the weather works to create the best growing conditions for their plants. Allaby brings big-picture atmospheric concepts to life with a comprehensive introduction to how weather works and explanations climate change, weather systems, and microclimates. The Gardener’s Guide to Weather and Climate proves that instead of gardening at the mercy of the weather, knowledgeable gardeners can make the weather work for them