In brief:

• Canberra is expecting hotter temperatures, more heatwaves and less predictable rainfall.
• Creating a climate-wise garden helps keep your home cooler and contributes to reducing urban heat.
• This story has tips for creating a climate-wise garden for summer.

Spring is a great time of year to plan your summer garden.

Whether you have a large yard, a small courtyard or balcony, you can create a beautiful garden that:

• thrives in local conditions
• helps keep your space cool in hot weather
• is a habitat for native animals and insects.

By planning your climate-wise garden, you can lower the temperature around your home. This can help you save energy and reduce your cooling bills during the hot months.

Choose plants for Canberra’s climate

Canberra’s climate is changing. This means we will have:

• hotter temperatures
• more heatwaves
• less predictable rainfall.

Roads, footpaths and buildings absorb the sun's heat and makes urban areas hotter than nearby green spaces.

Living infrastructure (like the plants and trees in your garden) can reduce urban heat during hotter weather and heatwaves.

A climate-wise garden has plants that consider sun, shade and water needs, and frost tolerance.

The ACT Government’s Canberra Plant Selector is a free online tool that can help you choose the best plants for your climate-wise garden.

You can search for plants suited to Canberra’s climate based on sun, shade, frost tolerance and water needs. Not sure what exactly you’re looking for? Use the handy quiz feature to get some recommendations tailored to your space.

Find the Canberra Plant Selector tool here.

Create a shady haven

Don’t have space for a tree? Adding greenery to a westerly facing wall can help keep it cool during those hot summer afternoons. You can also consider an overhead trellis or placing some plants on your balcony or veranda. Another option is to install a shade structure, such as a sail.

• Planting a tree in a hot space helps, but what about the ground surface underneath? If it’s compacted dirt, artificial grass, or pavers, some of the cooling effects of the tree are lost. Think about understory plants that might work well in your space. If you can’t plant directly into the ground, consider pots or planters.

Use water wisely

Planting only grass or groundcover won’t help you beat the heat. Grass and other forms of ground cover are coolest when irrigated or combined with shrubs and trees that also provide shade.

• Consider getting a rain tank to capture runoff from your roof. You can use this water to keep your lawn and garden irrigated and cooler in hot conditions.

If you already have trees and shade in your space, installing a small pond or other water feature can help keep things even cooler. Ponds can also provide habitat for frogs and insects, as well as providing a welcome respite for local wildlife.

Help keep our city cooler

Having a climate-wise garden isn’t just about keeping your own home cool. Landowners, builders and the community play an important role in reducing Canberra’s urban heat.

The ACT Government is helping the Territory to adapt to the effects of climate change through living infrastructure like trees and plants.

As Canberra’s urban environment grows and evolves, the ACT Government is committed to ensuring our tree canopy and living infrastructure also expands.

By 2045, across Canberra’s urban footprint, the ACT Government aims to achieve:

• 30 per cent tree canopy cover or other forms of living infrastructure, such as green roofs, shrub beds, wetlands and rain gardens.
• 30 per cent permeable surfaces, such as lawns, gravel and porous paving.

Canberra’s Living Infrastructure Plan outlines how we can nurture and grow our natural assets. The Plan will grow our urban forest, make our city and buildings more climate resilient and empower the community with the tools and resources to become climate ready.

Read more like this:

• Find out how to grow veggies at home in Canberra
• Learn everything you can do with your nature strip
• Read gardening tips from Canberra’s greenest thumb

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