As summer approaches, keeping gardens and landscapes healthy through hotter, drier periods becomes an important consideration for Australian gardeners, landscapers and horticultural professionals.

This year, there is another reason to prepare.

The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that El Niño is firmly established and continuing to strengthen, with the event expected to persist into 2027. El Niño is often associated with warmer conditions across much of Australia and can contribute to drier conditions in some regions. However, the Bureau also emphasises that El Niño is only one of several influences on Australia's weather, and a strong El Niño does not automatically mean severe drought everywhere.

So rather than trying to predict exactly what summer will bring to your backyard, there's a much more practical question to ask:

Is your garden ready to cope if water becomes scarce?

That's why November is an important opportunity to establish and prepare your garden before the height of the Australian summer.

Giving plants the right growing environment now allows them to begin establishing their root systems before they're exposed to prolonged heat and increased water demand.

And this challenge of growing plants successfully when water is limited is actually at the heart of the TerraCottem story.

Long before water efficiency became a major consideration for Australian gardens and landscapes, researchers were asking the same fundamental question.

How can we help plants grow successfully when water is scarce?

The story of TerraCottem began in 1983, when Professor Dr Willem Van Cotthem and a team from the Laboratory of Plant Morphology, Systematics and Ecology at Ghent University in Belgium began a research program focused on growing plants in the Sahel region of Africa using less water.

Researchers tested a wide variety of materials and combinations, investigating their effects on plant growth. Through this work, they discovered that combining particular hydroabsorbent, nutritive and root-growth-stimulating components produced a synergistic soil-conditioning effect.

After around a decade of laboratory and field testing, that research became the foundation of the TerraCottem soil-conditioning technology.

More than 30 years later, helping plants establish under challenging growing conditions remains fundamental to what TerraCottem does.

TerraCottem is incorporated into the soil around the plant's root zone at planting. Its soil-conditioning technology combines water storage, nutrition and support for root development to create improved conditions for establishment. The drought-preparation guidance from TerraCottem highlights increased plant-available water, improved nutrient availability and soil properties, and reduced post-planting stress as key benefits.

One of TerraCottem's key components is its water-absorbing polymers.

When water from rainfall or irrigation enters the soil, these hydroabsorbent components take up and store water. That stored moisture can subsequently become available to plants as the surrounding soil dries.

This means TerraCottem isn't about eliminating irrigation.

It's about improving the efficiency of the root zone so plants can make better use of the water they receive.

TerraCottem's drought-resilience material reports up to 50% less irrigation, alongside higher plant survival and reduced replacement costs from its use in landscaping over more than 30 years.

That makes soil preparation especially relevant before periods when rainfall may become less reliable or plants face increased demand from higher temperatures.

Water storage is only part of the TerraCottem story. Healthy plants need healthy roots.

A stronger and more extensively developed root system gives a plant greater opportunity to explore the surrounding soil for the moisture, nutrients and oxygen it needs.

That's why the principle behind preparing for drought with TerraCottem can be summed up simply:

Drought resilience starts in the soil.

Soil that supports strong root development helps plants establish and better cope when water becomes scarce.

Rather than waiting for summer stress and responding to the symptoms above ground, TerraCottem allows you to think proactively about what's happening below ground.

If you're planning a new garden, replacing plants, establishing trees and shrubs or undertaking landscaping works, now is the time to get them into the ground and focus on establishment.

When planting, TerraCottem should be thoroughly mixed with the backfill soil so it is distributed throughout the root zone rather than simply placed at the bottom or surface of the planting hole.

For general garden planting, TerraCottem Universal is the versatile option within the range and can be incorporated into the soil when establishing garden beds, shrubs, trees and landscape plantings.

For tree-focused projects, TerraCottem Arbor has been specifically developed for tree and shrub planting.

For lawns and turf areas, TerraCottem Turf provides a soil-conditioning solution developed specifically for turf establishment and renovation.

The objective is the same across each application: create better growing conditions from the beginning rather than trying to correct problems after plants become established.

No one can tell you exactly how much rain will fall on your garden this summer.

The Bureau of Meteorology itself cautions against assuming that the strength of an El Niño event directly determines its impact on Australian rainfall. Other oceanic and atmospheric influences also play important roles. Bureau of Meteorology

But preparing your landscape doesn't require certainty.

Australia already experiences periods of extreme heat, variable rainfall and water restrictions, and establishing plants with a healthier root zone and improved access to stored soil moisture makes sense regardless of exactly how an individual season unfolds.

The aim isn't to drought-proof a plant. It's to give it better tools to cope when conditions become challenging.

TerraCottem began with scientists asking how plants could successfully grow with less water in one of the world's most challenging environments.

More than four decades after that research began, the principle remains highly relevant to Australian landscapes:

Use the water you have more effectively. Build stronger roots. Establish healthier plants.

With El Niño underway and another Australian summer approaching, November is an ideal time to look at your garden, lawn or landscape and ask whether it's prepared for what's ahead.

Don't wait for plants to become stressed before taking action.

Prepare now. Start with the soil.

Explore the TerraCottem range and discover how soil-conditioning technology can help you establish a more water-efficient, resilient landscape.