RHS Waterwise Garden

How to design and create a water-saving garden

Transform your garden into a water-saving and water-absorbing haven that's fighting fit to thrive in an uncertain future of drought and flood.

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.