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At Brooklyn Bridge Park, horticulturalist Rebecca McMackin had to think fast to repair the damage after Superstorm Sandy churned ashore in New York City in 2012. Floods, saltwater, and waterfront devastation forced her and her small staff to come up with radical ideas for a healthier, more resilient landscape to stand up to our world’s rapidly changing climate.

For centuries gardeners have created landscapes by adapting their sites to the plants they have chosen to cultivate. Now horticulture innovators are questioning the age-old methods. At Brooklyn Bridge Park, landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh designed the the narrow 85-acre site built on piers on the East River shoreline to be resilient to a changing environment, making it possible for McMackin and her crew to come up with a plan to repair the damage and protect it from future floods.

A garden designer who also heads Mantis Plant Works in Brooklyn, McMackin holds advanced degrees in landscape design and environmental biology and is uniquely qualified as both a scientist and a hands-on gardener to develop strategies to combat climate change. The same ideas can work in your garden and mine.

Here are nine ideas from McMackin, who is now the park’s director of horticulture, on how gardeners can make a difference.

Accept your ecosystem.

“The right plant for the right spot” is one of the traditional maxims of successful gardening, but McMackin would amend that to “the right plant for the right ecosystem.” Think of your garden as an environment where living organisms such as plants, birds, insects, and other animals need to coexist happily with other elements such as the soil (have you tested it?) and the weather (what is the annual range in temperature, and how much wind, rain, and snow do you get?).

With weather unpredictable and climate in flux, it is important to choose plants that want to live where you want to plant them. As conditions evolve, the plants will be better able to adapt.

Investigate your soil.