What follows is NOT a doomsday-weather, climate-change rant. Here instead are some tips on how to garden through extreme weather. And it’s somehow reassuring to understand that there’s nothing radical here. It’s all common sense, tricks used by gardeners for as long as anyone can remember. Take a look and you’ll see it’s not a big deal to help your garden weather the tougher times…

tip one: works a dream but you will look slightly crazy doing it. To protect plants from being scorched by a heatwave do what you’d do for yourself. Sort out some shade. Throw old bed sheets over your vegetable or flower garden beds. This temporary barrier between your plants and the sun & wind will reduce temperatures, UV radiation and water loss through evaporation. Your plants will survive and bounce back faster when things calm down. Repeat as necessary.

tip two: you can use a similar approach to help your garden cope with extreme cold. Savage cold snaps usually happen either side of winter when plants have naturally slowed down. It’s the time they’ve usually had a cut back, which is handy because it’s then easier to heap wads of straw around and over things to insulate the plant and the ground. If you’ve got access to old carpet or newspapers, they can work too. Frost and freezing is reduced along with any serious damage. All should be good come spring.

tip three: we all know which plants are the tough performers. We also know which ones are more delicate. Under a scenario where extreme weather is likely to be more frequent, it’s time to do a bit of culling and grow more reliable plants like those Flower Carpet® roses that soldier on in heat and cold. Where dry stretches are likely, think about replacing struggling boxwood edging with Pacific™ coprosmas. Plants that demand sprays (fungicides or insecticides) should probably be let go too.

tip four: Build some clever hard-landscaping: a screen or fence to deflect desiccating winds; a shady pergola where the sun beats down hardest; a rain-garden to trap and use falling water; a permeable gravel path to capture run off; a water feature to store water; a shed to overwinter sensitive plants.