How have you been dealing with changed weather?

[Joel_BC]

Okay, the weather is still peculiar in my region this year! How about yours?

I'm finding that the changing weather affects both seed selection (which varieties to grow?) and planting time (when to plant it in the garden?). It can also impact decisions to make use of things like greenhouses, tunnels, remay cloth, artificial shade, etc.

I think it would be good to share what's going on in our regions. Those who are dealing with similar issues may learn something from one another.

Is your area cooler now, wetter, drier, windier... ??


Just for possible interest, I previously started these related threads (do you think I may be obsessed?):
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12807
(about maps of conditions that have changed in particular ways)

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=13015
(about regions that may be dealing with cooler, wetter conditions)

 

[sleuth]

This is only the 2nd year of gardening for me so I haven't paid attention for very long, but last year I can tell you we experienced drought conditions through June, July, and the first half of August, and most of what I grew except for zuccinis and squash were fried.

This year, we had a very cold spring, and temperatures during June and July have thus far been fairly mild high 70s-low 80s, with a bunch of rain. This cool start to July is particularly unusual I think.

I prefer the rain over the drought, though.

I haven't adjusted anything though to compensate for the change in weather, except that I water less.

 

[Joel_BC]

Sleuth, what have you heard from your neighbors concerning what the usual temperature and climate conditions are like in your area? I realize that conditions vary from year to year in any locality, but having been in my current location for 20+ years, I've got a good idea of what's "typical" and know the last three years have deviated from that.

 

[Denim Deb]

This year was cooler than normal for spring, then we had a long, wet spell. Now we're getting weather that's more typical for this time of year-hot and humid!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

All my life, this has been a very rainy, quick to flood region. The only relief from the heat was the rain and clouds. In the last....maybe 15 years, it has still flooded, but not very often and its been much less rainy, as well. Well, I think it is safe to say that things are getting back to normal.
I use to have a patch of marsh mallow in the center of my yard....before I even knew it was a medicinal plant. Its been dead for years....farm animals or heat and dry??? IDK, but seems to me that I've been seeing it growing in wet areas lately, and in truth the center of my yard use to be wet all the time....and it is again, but no marsh mallow. About to plant me some more in another spot, where I can harvest from time to time.
I'm handling it well, cuz the rain and clouds are a gentle buffer....for us and some of the plants and animals.

 

[Justme]

Growing lots of tadpoles and mosquitoes. I have managed to keep about half the tomatoes alive but they aren't producing, butter beans are just starting, squash rotted and died, green beans drowned and never came up even after three plantings all with different seed, had to plant corn twice but it keeps getting blow or rather beat down by rain so about to give up on it.getting some cukes. Peppers look nice but arent producing. Had a major small hive beetle attack in my new bee hive- hoping they recover.
Gonna try planting green beans one more time but think I am going to go buy a few tomatoes to can tomorrow since I have only two jars left and right now it doesn't look like I'm gonna get much. Maybe if I buy a bushel it will force mine to giveme a little but by the looks of them today I think several more plants are succumbing to drowning.
I haven't seen the ground dry in months and it is slick as glass to walk on cause of all the sludge most of the time. Humidity is so high you struggle to breath and that is even with the gills I've developed from years of summers here.
I know someone said they'd rather have rain than drought. I have been through drought too. I must say it is easier to work with than too much rain. Most of my time is spent diggin drains. We are on severe water restriction because the septic system cannot handle any more water because it has no where to drain to.
funny thing is I even got two more 500 gallon water tanks this spring to help get us through the dry parts of the summer we had been having.- I cannot water with well water because it contains too much salt. Instead of watering with them use them to collect water to keep it off the ground then dump it into the drainage ditches when they go down enough.
I have been a little sad that both my kids would be gone this fall- one has moved out for good and the other start college in the fall. Now I am beginning to think it might be a good thing that I won't have four mouths to feed. Although my son will hate the fact that he cannot come home and steal some good home canned goods.

 

[Joel_BC]

Well, I had a stroke of very good luck yesterday - and I'm thankful for the blessing. I've always considered potatoes one of the easiest things to grow, as long as blight didn't descend on the neighborhood. I planted five types of potatoes this year, but then we got spring temps below seasonal norms, due in part to a lot of overcast and also due to cold rain falling. The cool soil temperatures resulted in at least 95% of my "Gem Russets" not emerging from the soil - no stems, no leaves. My French Fingerlings have done only slightly better.

So I went to the closest of the nursery/seed-stores where we buy, and I talked the situation over with the proprietor. I told him that I figured I planted two or three weeks early, because coupled with the way the weather turned out, I had two varieties of spuds that were a no-show. I wasn't looking for sympathy, I was looking to buy some spuds I could replant the rows with, varieties that might give us spuds in the shorter period we have left. He sold me three bags of seed spuds for the price of 1/2 a bag!! I did an inspection and the seed spuds all look pretty good.

But I think, in my area, it boils down to a lesson in not planting too early... can't rely on the warmth coming as early in spring as it used to. And also, it's good to note the behavior of particular varieties of veggies, potatoes certainly being no exception.

 

[Joel_BC]

Looks like Abe and Josie at velacreations have come up with a useful idea for climates that have gone more in the hot/dry direction. Water is supplied from underneath. They posted on SS about it this morning...

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=13817

 

[~gd]

Sleuth, what have you heard from your neighbors concerning what the usual temperature and climate conditions are like in your area? I realize that conditions vary from year to year in any locality, but having been in my current location for 20+ years, I've got a good idea of what's "typical" and know the last three years have deviated from that.

Lets not mix up Climate [long term] with weather [short term] I have been keeping records for daily weather for 19 years now {when I was out of town I got them from the local airport] we have set no new records for DAILY weather this year but if you look at monthly stastics we had a warm winter followed by cooler and wet spring which seems to be ongoing into summer. Looked at another way I have had my lawn mowed 7 more times than in 2012 I have 'cool season' grass that is normally dormant when nights get up to 80F ar days break 100F It is still growing like mid spring! Peaches are being harvested for the first time in the 30 years I have been here.[usually they are faked out by a warmish spring so they bloom and then we get a frost = 0 peaches. Strawberries are still blooming usually the heat/lack of rain shuts them down in mid June. I am in the dead center [N -S and E -W] of NC.

 

[Joel_BC]

Sleuth, what have you heard from your neighbors concerning what the usual temperature and climate conditions are like in your area? I realize that conditions vary from year to year in any locality, but having been in my current location for 20+ years, I've got a good idea of what's "typical" and know the last three years have deviated from that.

Lets not mix up Climate [long term] with weather [short term] I have been keeping records for daily weather for 19 years now.

You quite right, ~gd, that a weather condition profile, tracked in any given year, is not the same as a climate trend. I don't dispute this.

In my area, not only have I been noticing a (seeming) larger trend toward cooler, wetter spring seasons, the provincial farming associations are beginning to report it through the media.

Personally, in my little locality, I'm just trying to deal with it as a practical issue... I don't claim to be any sort of technical person or expert on the subject. It's just that my food gardening has been impacted.

Here, we've got "blunted" conditions: winters are less cold, summers have fewer high-temp plateus, and generally are not hitting the same peaks of heat, either.