If you haven’t noticed it yet, the climate is changing. Summer is becoming almost unbearably hot, and winter has become wetter with snow becoming replaced with hail a lot more often. Changing climate and gardening will help you keep your garden growing!
For gardeners, global warming and climate change didn’t seem like it’d hit them that hard, but now we know the severity of what’s to come. With erratic temperature changes happening more often, everyone will have to adapt, which is especially true for gardeners.
Changing Climate and Gardening – Here’s How to Find the Balance
Gardening is a passion that people aren’t willing to let go of, so what can you do as a gardener to adapt to the ongoing onslaught of climate change?
Changing your Repertoire
Since we already know that the temperatures will be warmer, the obvious response would be to change up your usual selection of plants as a response. Winter lows won’t be as cold as before, so shrubs and perennials that winter’s bite would usually kill off should be a viable option now.
Experimenting with warmer climate plants and seeing which ones can best grow on each season might suck for the short-term, but will give you great results for the long-term. This new warm climate might open the door to a lot more options for you to choose from, like osmanthus, photinias, and even red hollies.
Cold climate plants might suffer from this temperature change and will mostly go downhill from now on.
Plant Trees
I cannot stress this enough. We NEED to plant more trees! Not only do they give us oxygen and shade, but they also capture a lot of carbon dioxide that is affecting our climate in the first place.
Planting more trees is a must to not only make your garden/neighborhood a lot more cool (up to 10-15 degrees cooler under the shade of trees) but also to lessen the damage or possibly mitigate climate change as a whole. Make sure to choose trees native to your area and ones that can tolerate the ever-increasing heat.
As many trees as we can get, we need as many trees, and even planting one tree can make a drastic change in our climate.
Opting For Heat-Tolerant Flowers & Vegetables
There are plants for every climate, and opting for the ones that are a lot more heat tolerant than the others might be a compromise that you should take! Choosing perennial and annual flowers based on where you are in the world is a great strategy.
You can also look at the seed packets for information on the varieties of heat tolerance that the plant can take. Check the recent temperature reports in your area and use your judgment to see if the seedlings that you choose can grow in your garden!
We can’t predict when a massive spike in temperature will happen, but when it does, use shade cloth or set up netting above vegetable plants to protect them from wilting.
Time to Reschedule
Because of the temperature changes for each season, it’s probably time to rethink your planting schedules and plan them out more efficiently. Early spring and late fall have extended the free growing season, and you should take advantage of that!
Plating landscape plants in spring and frost enduring vegetables a lot sooner than usual can get you an early start. Sudden frost spills can still happen, so be wary of that.
Ready Your Watering Can
Seasons are becoming warmer, which means that you have to be ready to water your plants a lot more often than usual. Automating your watering makes a lot more sense now than it did a few years ago, and drip lines that work on timers can save you many hassles.
During the summer, you’re probably going to have a set plan in mind to battle against the hotter and drier climate. Droughts are a lot more likely to happen because of climate change and global warming, so you have to be prepared to deal with them!
Your plants will become more and more susceptible to succumbing to flash droughts because of the increased evaporation, and it’s your choice whether you want to push through and adapt or stick with what you’re used to and perish.
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