Be a Climate-Conscious Gardener

12/09/2025

The RCMG Climate Responsiveness Project has released a guide describing climate responsiveness actions. They are sharing a series of articles to help volunteers explore some of the practical steps featured in the guide.

Becoming a more climate-conscious gardener might seem like a daunting task at first. There’s new information coming out every year about the realities of climate change and our options for responding to it. Sometimes it can feel like the climate crisis is upending everything we know about maintaining the plants we all love. But adding climate-conscious strategies into your gardening practice doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and can even be a fun challenge. There are some great resources out there to help you stay up to date on the latest buzz without taking up too much of your “digging in the dirt” time each week. And remember that you can count your research time as continuing education hours!

The University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum is, of course, a great place to start. Try searching the Arboretum Blog to find articles on topics like Climate-ready trees when considering adding new trees to your yard or RCMG project locations.

Illinois’ Morton Arboretum is another great resource to check out for articles like Five Ways to Grow Resilient Gardens in a Changing Climate. Have a look at their Climate and Sustainability section.

You can also learn to Manage Yard & Garden Problems Wisely via sources like the University of Wisconsin’s Horticulture Extension.

Northern Gardener by the Minnesota State Horticultural Society is another recommended resource for fresh climate info. Their Tool Shed blog has a Sustainable Gardener section with great pieces like Climate resilient pollinator plants for Minnesota to help you get straight to the “must know” details when looking for new climate-ready plants.

One more resource that the Climate Action team can recommend is the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Sustainable Gardening section. While their climate zone certainly differs from Minnesota’s, there’s still great info to be found on universal topics such as water conservation and soil care.

Finally, for a deeper dive into climate-conscious gardening consider enrolling in the free Climate-Ready Gardening for Master Gardener Volunteers online toolkit through the University of Minnesota. There you’ll find fresh information on topics like soil management practices, cover crops, lawn alternatives, water management strategies and more. And again, remember to count your continuing education hours!

Blending climate-conscious topics into your existing gardening practice can be interesting and fun - the info is out there, and we’ll keep looking for great resources to share with you!

For more ways to protect existing trees, see How You Can Be a Climate Responsive Gardener by the RCMG Climate Responsiveness Project.