For many people in the eastern Georgian Bay region, there are constant reminders of the effects of climate change – warming air and water temperatures, increased heat waves, shorter winters, and more frequent extreme weather events. While average temperatures continue to rise over the long term, this plays out across the seasons in variable local weather patterns that change quickly. There are sweeping effects on whole ecosystems, as well as impacts on our day-to-day activities.
For anyone trying to grow a fruit and veggie garden, this rings especially true. Warmer weather sooner in the year can trick us into planting too early. Summer drought and heat waves followed by weeks of rain makes for many unhappy crops. Extended growing seasons can equal more generations of hungry insects. Stressed plants may be more prone to diseases such as powdery mildew. Winters with less snowfall can mean frost deeper into the ground, damaging perennial roots.
Just one of these factors might not be enough to kill a plant. But combined factors, year over year, have cumulative effects on gardens and the patience of gardeners. How can we learn from and manage these realities?
“Planning for an extended growing season has its challenges,” says long time gardener Gloria Marshall. “What I observed in my tomatoes during a warm fall was actually that the plants were totally burnt out. The cold wasn’t knocking them back yet they weren’t producing with the vigor that they had. What I’ve learned is to look for plant varieties that specifically indicate longer fruiting seasons.”
No garden season is exempt from some type of “live and learn” experience. However, it is important to properly identify and adjust to climate related impacts in order to maximize our yields and efforts. Often, practices that help mitigate seasonal extremes are actually best practices for gardens anyway – such as use of rain barrels and mulching with leaves.
Long-time Parry Sound Community Gardener Chris Chambers offered his advice, “A good practice is to save as many leaves as possible when raking in the fall. I simply put them in a large brown paper bag, then transport the bags to the community garden plots. I add a thick layer to the garden plots to prepare the gardens for the winter, along with some newspaper and cardboard. I apply another layer of leaves in the spring after planting. It helps prevent weeds from growing, retains moisture, and naturally breaks down to further enrich the soil. This helps to ensure that we get a healthy and plentiful amount of produce each year. This was a tip that I learned from a fellow gardener many years ago.”
Chris plans to continue gardening in the coming years, noting “Gardening has provided numerous benefits to my family and the community over the years. We have a great sense of pride knowing that the produce generated in our garden plots can help the greater community of Parry Sound. When we donate fresh produce, the local food bank is always thrilled and grateful.”
Gloria now opts to grow more food varieties instead of flowers to better hedge her bets against the seasonal unpredictability and the ever-increasing need for self-reliance. “There are many things we can’t do anything about in our day-to-day lives. Changing food selections and growing more at home, these aren’t always easy but they have huge potential for collective impact.”
What Can You Do?
We asked area gardeners for their top tips for gardening in a changing climate. Here are their suggestions.
- Take Note
If you don’t already have a simple garden journal, this is the year to start one! These don’t need to be complicated, or even used daily. Any notepad or journal will work. Leave it on a counter where you’ll see it and remember to add notes.
At minimum, capture key dates (e.g., seed starting, transplanting, false starts, first/last harvests) and major trends (e.g., rain for three weeks, this cucumber variety is doing nothing, bumper basil crop). If you want to take it a step further, it’s handy to have notes on: annual expenses, reminders for the following year, weather and insect observations, and sketches of what varieties are planted where.
If you’re going to try to document the success of plant varieties, you’ll want to ensure plants are identified with labels that will last all season. Paint or permanent markers on rocks are a cost effective way to keep track.
- Save Your Seeds
Saving seeds is a simple but powerful way to increase the sustainability of your garden and save money. Plant varieties have long been selected for taste, colour, and aesthetics. Considering the hardiness and resilience of varieties is more important than ever.
For example, if you have multiple varieties of tomato in a season and you find 1-2 are more productive and/or less impacted by adverse weather conditions, consider making those varieties a new staple in your garden.
Seed saving techniques vary by crop. Regardless of the technique, you’ll end up with more seeds than you would when you purchase a package. This allows you to better buffer false starts (crop loss early in the spring) and poor harvest (you can plant more seeds or plant a second generation). You can also save seeds for more than one year in case of an unfavourable growing season.
Learn more about seed saving here: https://seeds.ca/
- Tweaks in the Garden
Several direct actions in and around the garden include:
- Choose only plant and seed varieties that clearly indicate hardiness.
- Opt for more than one hardy variety of each type of plant you want to grow.
- If a plant or variety isn’t doing well by mid-summer, stop waiting. Pull it out and replace it with fast maturing seeds such as beans, radishes, leafy greens, or some carrots. Don’t forget to make note of this somewhere!
- Include a fence or stakes around your garden to allow for simple ‘bed sheet’ canopies during extreme heat.
- Use leaves or straw to mulch around plants, this will help the soil retain water while also suppressing weeds.
- Plan for dry spells by investing in a rain barrel. There are lots of ways to repurpose old barrels into rain barrels. Ensure they have well-fitting lids.
- Plan for wet spells by ensuring drainage won’t be a problem. You can elevate the area with a raised bed, even a few inches can help. Or, consistently wet spots can become dedicated plots for plants that can tolerate more water (e.g., asparagus, strawberries, some leafy greens).
For even more practical tips, watch the webinar “Resilient Gardens for a Changing Climate” by renowned gardening expert, Linda Gilkeson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2quGMdSBDZ0&t=2s
- Share What You See
It takes a village – you’re not in this alone! Most people who put the time into a garden are pretty happy to talk about it. Talking with other gardeners is a valuable way to learn about what impacts the season is having versus something that might be specific to your garden. Gardeners closer to Georgian Bay will experience different frost dates than gardeners east of Highway 400, as well as many other small differences. Speak to gardeners close to you and from further away to better understand the positive and negative trends.
Learn more garden tips & tricks, apply for a community garden plot, or download GBB’s FREE Seed to Soil Guide here: https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/gardens/