Keep it Simple: Climate control and the art of gardening
When I returned from Portugal the last week of March the spinach and lettuce in my newish greenhouse and cold frame were patiently waiting for me to harvest and turn into the first garden salad of the year.
Prior to my building a cold frame (two years ago) and a small greenhouse (last summer) the timing of harvesting greens was entirely dependent upon what part of the growing season they were sown in the garden — typically either planted in mid-April and again in mid-August; with harvest happening somewhere around 40-50 days after sowing seeds.
With the advent of the two-season extending constructions, I can now plant spinach and lettuce even earlier, in late March for a May harvest and then in late August for harvests into early November. These season extenders make perfect sense to this longtime gardener. What hasn’t made sense is the autumn greens, once they have stopped producing seem to go dormant in late fall — due to extremes in cold temperatures they appear to enter a state of hibernation and once the temperatures begin to rise in late winter they break their dormancy and perk up and resume growing once again — making for some surprisingly early harvests. I had assumed near-zero and colder, winter temperatures, not uncommon here in the Gaylord area, would have killed off, over the course of winter, all of my fall season greens.
Not the case though. Instead, my fall-planted greens are acting in a biennial sort of way — like those of biennial flowers — plant this year for blooms the following year. Greens such as spinach and lettuce, at least this far north, are not supposed to act like biennials but they are doing just that, overwintering quite well, given the season extending capabilities of my naturally sun-heated cold frame and greenhouse.
Regardless of the reason for the early greens I am taking what I can from this unexpected bounty. Suspended animation greens anyone? I'm all about this phenomenon in my gardening life. I’ll gladly take it.
There is, of course, another wild card in the making for gardeners like myself who enjoy pushing the growing season envelop — climate change or global warming, either moniker will do to describe how changes in climate are now impacting local weather patterns which is understandably sowing a lot of confusion and concern for gardeners and farmers wherever their locale. Whereas I used to set out tomato plants in the garden around the date of my wedding anniversary; June 8, because I could count on a late spring frost about this time, I now find myself planting tomatoes and other warm-weather plants like peppers and eggplants the week prior to Memorial Day weekend. June frosts are now becoming a thing of the past.
The month of May, it seems lately, has been warmer and drier, than those of just a decade or two ago and it seems as if this is becoming the new norm, not some sort of climate anomaly. For us hearty cold-weather gardeners growing this far in the north it’s like a bit of a bonus when we can start planting earlier than in the past, although for the big fruit orchards and vineyards on the west side of the state earlier springlike weather can raise havoc for plants budding out earlier and earlier and, possibly, suffering harm from a late spring frost — potentially spelling disaster for those who counted on the slowly moderating spring temperatures found along Lake Michigan to gently and gradually wake their plants from winter hibernation.
Global warming could very well be the demise for Michigan fruit growers as the climate becomes warmer and the seasons become less and less predictable. It is something those of us who garden for enjoyment or those who farm for a living are going to have to get used to because I don’t see mankind, anytime soon, doing anything about climate change. The day though when we start seeing vineyards and cherry trees around Traverse City replaced by pineapple plantations and orange groves it will be well beyond when we can do anything about the deleterious effects of global warming and, and in turn, save our sorry selves in the process.
— Michael Jones is a columnist and contributor for the Gaylord Herald Times. He can be reached at mfomike2@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Keep it Simple: Climate control and the art of gardening
