Gardening – Summer storms gardening

This summer on the Coast has been a tale of two seasons, dry humid weeks punctuated by powerful storm systems that have tested both gardens and gardeners. Days of heavy rain brought us red and orange-level warnings in late January with significant rainfall and unstable ground, impacting parts of Northland and Auckland. Communities were reminded just how dynamic local weather can be during peak summer. 

Locally, recent heavy rain and gale-force winds have demonstrated the reality many coastal gardeners know all too well. Water can quickly change from being life-giving to landscape threatening. Severe downpours on the Coast have caused surface flooding and the risk of slips on steeper ground. With these conditions in mind, coastal gardeners gearing up for the warm months are focusing on both beauty and resilience. 

Summer gardening brings the usual tasks of deep watering in the cool of morning or evening. Smart watering means soaking less often but more deeply around roots under mulch to conserve moisture, feeding plants with homemade comfrey and seaweed fertilisers, as well as watching for pests, dodging the showers and ongoing care like deadheading and pruning after flowering. 

For homeowners dealing with sloping sections, plant selection becomes a vital part of erosion control and natural defence. Groundcovers and shrubs with strong, fibrous root systems help bind the soil and lower the risk of slips when heavy rain hits. Native trees such as kānuka, mānuka, and karamū, along with slope‑stabilising grasses including toetoe, carex, flax, astelia, and bower spinach, form dense root networks that thrive in coastal conditions and help secure banks.

A mid‑layer of hardy shrubs hebes, corokia, and coprosma adds further stability on exposed ground. Low‑growing spreaders like raoulia also creep widely, creating a living carpet that holds soil in place. Meanwhile, tough groundcovers such as muehlenbeckia help protect precious topsoil and shield the surface from rain splash. Combining groundcovers, grasses, shrubs, and trees creates a layered root system that can hold soil and slow down water across the ground to reduce damage from storm systems.  

Gardeners also turn to tough perennials, grasses, flax (Phormium), and deep-rooted shrubs such as hebes or pittosporums that cope with wind, sun and shifting moisture levels. Building up layers of vegetation from groundcover through mid-story shrubs to canopy trees increases resilience by slowing water run-off and strengthening the soil structure. 

Whether you are tending a cottage garden or transforming a steep bank into a thriving eco system. Some thoughtful planting and your usual summer care routine can yield both a thriving garden and the peace of mind of a more secure landscape when the summer storms inevitably return