Gardening in a climate crisis: how to be a green thumb when old rules no longer apply

Unpredictable conditions and changing plant behaviour underscore the need to alter our gardening and landscaping choicesSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereThe sun shone on Melbourne’s gardens in May – and kept shining. Warm-weather plants that had begun to die back in expectation of winter got a second wind. Basil started sprouting leaves again and roses shot new buds. The state’s second-warmest May on record also confounded cold-weather plants starting to make their way out of the ground. Was it time to bloom or sink back underground?Meanwhile, in the state’s south-west, dry earth became even drier, and raised the risk of unseasonal fire. At the same time, in coastal parts of New South Wales and Queensland, it didn’t just rain but it poured.Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Jun 21, 2025 - 21:12
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Gardening in a climate crisis: how to be a green thumb when old rules no longer apply

Unpredictable conditions and changing plant behaviour underscore the need to alter our gardening and landscaping choices

The sun shone on Melbourne’s gardens in May – and kept shining. Warm-weather plants that had begun to die back in expectation of winter got a second wind. Basil started sprouting leaves again and roses shot new buds. The state’s second-warmest May on record also confounded cold-weather plants starting to make their way out of the ground. Was it time to bloom or sink back underground?

Meanwhile, in the state’s south-west, dry earth became even drier, and raised the risk of unseasonal fire. At the same time, in coastal parts of New South Wales and Queensland, it didn’t just rain but it poured.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...