Is climate change starting to be an issue in your garden; how do you/will you deal with it - Choose different species & varieties, give plants more protection & better conditions, relocate beds - ??? I have very few areas where the alternatives are either too much shade or none at all.
We've been having way-above-normal temps and many things have failed to to die back. Now there's a forecast for a below-freezing week with night time hard frosts....
If you're listening up there, O Great One, this is not funny!
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Vanisle_BC
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1356
- Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:02 pm
- Location: Port Alberni, B.C. Canada, Zone 7 (+?)
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pepperhead212
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 2888
- Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
- Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b
For years now, I have been trying to find more heat resistant varieties of tomatoes and eggplants, especially, but also greens. Peppers - at least the hot varieties that I grow the most of - love heat, so that's an advantage! But every season I grow many more varieties of tomatoes, as I'm still searching for some things that can produce in that hotter weather I've been having. I've also been trying some unusual things, like bottle gourds, from tropical areas in India, that grow well in heat. Those long beans, from tropical SE Asia, also grow well; though they are late, and most other types of beans stop flowering in 90+ temps, those seem to love the heat, like the peppers!
4 years of drought took a toll on my garden. I have to water things now that used to live on rain. Winter temperatures are warmer and 2023 was the hottest year on record.
I have started planting my garden much later this year because the temperatures remained warm through November. I could even get peppers to sprout. Peppers like 80 degree weather and only recently has the highs have gotten slightly under that. I have planted more heat tolerant tomatoes for years.
But sometimes between June-August it is not worth planting because it is too hot and the garden takes too much water to maintain. So, usually during those months I harvest out and solarize and just maintain a smaller number of plants. Most tropical plants can handle heat so they are what grows best in summer.
I may have to consider making some modifications to how I plant. I normally use a 50/50 peatlite. This is mainly to accommodate the rainy season. But I have decreased the perlite, so the soil stays wetter longer and for now I am watering about every other day instead of everyday for most things. There are still some things that require daily watering. I may consider planting some things under shade cloth to mitigate the heat.
Between the changing global weather patterns. Crop failures, wars, and government policy changes in other countries. I am trying to find ways to preserve more of the crops I grow. I am freezing corn, beans, peppers from the garden and I can pickle things like cucumbers so they last longer. I am saving seeds from what I can because the cost of seeds have gone up so much and what is available runs out of stock so fast.
I have stocked my freezer and pantry so much that now I have to try to use what I have before I add more. The cost of everything has gone up but I have stocked stuff that I bought at a lower price. However, those savings don't mean a thing if they get too old to use.
The El Nino prediction for us is that the rains will come late. That has already happened and that we will get about 50% of the normal rainfall. That is a major impact. There has been more recycling of runoff water. It is collected and used for Agriculture and large tracks of land like new parks and golf courses. New homes have 2 meters, one for the house and the purple pipes that are on the outside faucets. Our acquifer has gotten smaller since the 60's and we are still over pumping what can be replaced by rain. The fire that burned a few miles away from me, significantly impacts the Pearl CIty acquifer.
That native forest was an important watershed. I know a desalination plant was built but was shut down when money ran out to pay for the project. The BOWS has not imposed water restrictions, but have in the past and they may do it again in summer.
Not only have human activities hastened climate change, other factors also contribute, increased volcanism does too. I recently saw an interesting video that basically said this pattern of ice retreat and desertification is also cyclical. The video was about the Sahara desert, most of which apparently was a shallow sea about 15000 years ago because of all the marine fossils and water erosion that have been found in the desert. The earth tips on its axis and about 7000 years ago the northern hemisphere tipped closer to the sun causing the shallow sea in North Africa to dry up. People living there migrated toward Egypt. There were 4 large fresh water lakes, evidence of a greener Sahara. It will take another 15000 years or so for the earth to tilt back and the desert will bloom again.
I have started planting my garden much later this year because the temperatures remained warm through November. I could even get peppers to sprout. Peppers like 80 degree weather and only recently has the highs have gotten slightly under that. I have planted more heat tolerant tomatoes for years.
But sometimes between June-August it is not worth planting because it is too hot and the garden takes too much water to maintain. So, usually during those months I harvest out and solarize and just maintain a smaller number of plants. Most tropical plants can handle heat so they are what grows best in summer.
I may have to consider making some modifications to how I plant. I normally use a 50/50 peatlite. This is mainly to accommodate the rainy season. But I have decreased the perlite, so the soil stays wetter longer and for now I am watering about every other day instead of everyday for most things. There are still some things that require daily watering. I may consider planting some things under shade cloth to mitigate the heat.
Between the changing global weather patterns. Crop failures, wars, and government policy changes in other countries. I am trying to find ways to preserve more of the crops I grow. I am freezing corn, beans, peppers from the garden and I can pickle things like cucumbers so they last longer. I am saving seeds from what I can because the cost of seeds have gone up so much and what is available runs out of stock so fast.
I have stocked my freezer and pantry so much that now I have to try to use what I have before I add more. The cost of everything has gone up but I have stocked stuff that I bought at a lower price. However, those savings don't mean a thing if they get too old to use.
The El Nino prediction for us is that the rains will come late. That has already happened and that we will get about 50% of the normal rainfall. That is a major impact. There has been more recycling of runoff water. It is collected and used for Agriculture and large tracks of land like new parks and golf courses. New homes have 2 meters, one for the house and the purple pipes that are on the outside faucets. Our acquifer has gotten smaller since the 60's and we are still over pumping what can be replaced by rain. The fire that burned a few miles away from me, significantly impacts the Pearl CIty acquifer.
That native forest was an important watershed. I know a desalination plant was built but was shut down when money ran out to pay for the project. The BOWS has not imposed water restrictions, but have in the past and they may do it again in summer.
Not only have human activities hastened climate change, other factors also contribute, increased volcanism does too. I recently saw an interesting video that basically said this pattern of ice retreat and desertification is also cyclical. The video was about the Sahara desert, most of which apparently was a shallow sea about 15000 years ago because of all the marine fossils and water erosion that have been found in the desert. The earth tips on its axis and about 7000 years ago the northern hemisphere tipped closer to the sun causing the shallow sea in North Africa to dry up. People living there migrated toward Egypt. There were 4 large fresh water lakes, evidence of a greener Sahara. It will take another 15000 years or so for the earth to tilt back and the desert will bloom again.