Truly successful and sustainable gardens depend on one thing – water. Whether you have too much (or not enough), water is at the root of your garden, bringing life to plants, the soil and to biodiversity.

But with our changing climate, extreme weather events and limited resources, how do you make a beautiful, useful and long-term waterwise garden? Discover how to design a garden that will use water efficiently, work out the water flow in your garden, the key plants to grow for a changing climate, and how planting can be used to soak up excess water.

Whether dealing with flash flooding or ongoing summer droughts, creating sustainable drainage solutions or designing an ephemeral pond, now is the time to make your garden waterwise.

As we live with an increasingly changing climate, summer droughts, winter waterlogging, high winds, erratic frosts and frequent pests are challenges that all gardeners face. This forward-thinking book – grounded in the latest RHS research – shows you how to work with the environment and adapt your outdoor space to give it exactly what it needs to flourish… and to give wildlife a helping hand, too.

Award-winning garden designer Tom Massey shares essential tips on how to analyse your garden looking at everything from soil type to sun exposure, before recommending practical projects and plant choices that will be perfect for your plot. Discover how a hedge can reduce noise and trap pollution, how a patio affects waterlogging, how to harvest your rainwater, and much more.

Inside the pages of this horticultural handbook, you can expect to find:

– Many innovative ideas on how readers can make small changes to their plot that will benefit biodiversity and reduce the impacts of climate change in their local area.
– Top tips on how to select the right plants for your pitch, from trees and shrubs to grasses and climbers.
– Fascinating case studies of intelligent, sustainable garden designs from around the world.
– A chapter on sustainable materials and planting mediums.
– Diagrams and infographics to illustrate key concepts, and photographs to show beautiful plantings and designs.

This gardening guide enables readers worldwide to analyse the needs of their plot, looking at wind, sun, soil, water, wildlife, air quality, and carbon, and will only become more relevant as gardeners worldwide experience changes in weather and want to adapt their outdoor space so that it will continue to flourish.

Together we can garden more sustainably, mitigate extreme weather conditions and ensure our outdoor spaces remain resilient, beautiful, inspiring places to enjoy for years to come.