El Niño Summer 2026–27: How to Prepare Your New Zealand Garden for Hot, Dry Weather

If there is one garden job worth getting onto this spring, it's preparing your soil for what could be a pretty dry summer.

El Niño has officially been declared in New Zealand for 2026, and Earth Sciences New Zealand is forecasting that it will continue strengthening, with its biggest influence expected over summer 2026–27.

For New Zealand, El Niño often means stronger westerly winds and drier conditions across northern and eastern parts of the country.

For gardeners, that matters.

Wind, warm temperatures and less rainfall can all pull moisture out of your garden faster. Shallow-rooted plants, vegetable gardens, strawberries, tomatoes and plants growing in containers can feel it particularly quickly.

The good news is there is plenty you can do now.

And one of the biggest things we'd be focusing on is keeping water in your soil rather than trying to constantly replace it.

What will El Niño mean for New Zealand gardens in 2026–27?

Every El Niño is different, so we can't say exactly what summer will look like in your backyard.

However, El Niño conditions in New Zealand are commonly associated with:

• Stronger and more frequent westerly winds
• Drier conditions in northern and eastern regions
• Faster moisture loss from exposed soil
• Increased pressure on plants during extended dry periods
• Greater demand for watering

Earth Sciences New Zealand says the current El Niño is strengthening rapidly and could become one of the strongest events on record.

That doesn't mean every part of New Zealand is going to have a drought.

But it does mean preparing your garden for periods of dry, windy weather makes a lot of sense this spring.

How do you prepare a garden for a dry summer?

We often think preparing for dry weather means buying another hose or watering more frequently.

We'd rather start with the soil.

Healthy soil that is protected from direct sun and capable of holding moisture gives your plants a much better foundation heading into summer.

There are three areas we'd focus on:

Improve your soil. Protect your soil. Mulch your soil.

Do that before the hot weather arrives, rather than trying to rescue struggling plants in January.

1. Improve your soil before summer

Spring is the perfect time to start adding organic matter to your garden.

Organic matter can help improve soil structure and its ability to hold both water and nutrients.

Compost, well-rotted organic material and natural soil amendments can all play a role.  Our SeaWool and Biochar Products play a really really important role here. 

This is particularly important if your garden has very sandy soil that drains quickly or heavy soil with poor structure.

Don't wait until your plants are struggling in the middle of summer.

Start building the soil now.

2. Don't leave your soil bare

Bare soil dries surprisingly quickly.

Sun and wind hit the soil surface directly, moisture evaporates and you end up needing to water more frequently just to replace what has been lost.

This is one of the reasons we're such big believers in mulch.

A layer of mulch creates a barrier between your soil and the conditions above it.

It can help slow evaporation, protect the soil surface and suppress weeds at the same time.

And weeds matter more than you might think during a dry summer because they're competing with your plants for the same available water.

3. Use wool mulch to help retain moisture

This is where New Zealand wool becomes pretty clever.

Wool fibres naturally absorb and hold moisture.

When rain falls or you water your garden, the wool can absorb some of that moisture while also covering and protecting the soil underneath.

Rather than having completely exposed soil losing moisture directly to the sun and wind, you've created a protective layer over it.

Our 600gsm NZ Wool Mulch creates a dense layer over garden beds that helps with both moisture retention and weed suppression.

For a potentially dry El Niño summer, those are two jobs we really want our mulch doing.

Why wool mulch is useful during dry weather

There are a few reasons we particularly like wool mulch heading into summer.

Wool helps protect soil from evaporation

Covering bare soil reduces its direct exposure to sun and drying winds.

This helps slow down the rate at which water is lost from the soil surface.

Wool can absorb moisture

Wool is naturally absorbent.

When it rains or you water the garden, the fibres can take up moisture rather than simply acting as a dry cover over the soil.

Wool suppresses weeds

Our wool mulch matting creates a dense physical barrier over the soil.

By reducing the amount of light reaching the soil surface, it becomes much harder for many weeds to establish.

Fewer weeds also means less competition for the water available to the plants you actually want growing.

Wool eventually breaks down

Wool isn't plastic.

It's a natural fibre that will eventually biodegrade and become part of the garden.

As it breaks down, it contributes organic material and naturally occurring nutrients back into the soil.

For us, that makes a lot more sense than using a synthetic weed mat that eventually needs to be pulled out and disposed of.

When should you mulch your garden for summer?

Spring is one of the best times to mulch your garden in New Zealand.

Ideally, get your mulch down before the soil becomes hot and dry.

You want to trap moisture in, not wait until the ground is already dry and then cover it.

Mulching in spring also means you can get ahead of the main flush of spring weeds before they become established.

If your beds are bare right now, this is a very good job to get sorted over the next few weeks.

Should you water before or after laying wool mulch?

If your soil is already dry, give the garden a good deep water before laying your mulch.

Then lay your wool mulch across the soil and water it again to help settle everything into place.

From there, keep an eye on the soil underneath rather than judging whether your garden needs water simply by looking at the surface.

The goal is to encourage moisture deeper into the soil where your plant roots actually need it.

Which plants will need extra attention during a dry summer?

Some parts of the garden are going to need more attention than others.

Keep a particularly close eye on:

• Tomatoes
• Strawberries
• Courgettes and zucchini
• Pumpkins
• Cucumbers
• Leafy greens
• Newly planted seedlings
• Young trees
• Raised garden beds
• Pots and containers

Pots and raised beds can dry out especially quickly during hot and windy weather.

New plants are also more vulnerable because they haven't yet developed the deeper root systems of established plants.

Water deeply rather than little and often

This is another big one.

A quick sprinkle across the surface of the garden isn't necessarily helping your plants develop strong root systems.

When possible, give your garden a slower, deeper water that reaches further into the soil.

Then let your mulch help protect that moisture.

Watering earlier in the morning can also help reduce the amount of water immediately lost to evaporation compared with watering during the hottest part of the day.

Get your garden ready before El Niño summer arrives

We don't know exactly what summer 2026–27 will throw at us.

Some parts of New Zealand will undoubtedly have very different conditions from others.

But we do know that El Niño is strengthening, and there is an increased likelihood of dry and windy conditions in several parts of the country.

So we're using spring to prepare.

Build healthier soil. Get your wool mulch down. Suppress weeds early. Water deeply. And protect the moisture you've already got.

You don't need to completely drought-proof your garden.

You just want to give it the best possible chance before the really hot weather arrives.

And if that means we spend a little less time standing at the end of a hose this summer, we're pretty happy with that too.