Resilience rules

Gardeners are awakening from the short winter break. It’s time to be thinking of the season ahead, making plans and ordering seeds, but there are other things to consider. Whether we choose to disregard it, or even dismiss it as only weather, the climate is changing and gardeners may well be more aware than anyone. The update to the plant hardiness zone map clearly shows the warmer zones are creeping northwards.

And yet it’s hard to predict how our gardens will be affected when change is unpredictable. It could be hotter or colder in summer and it could be drier, and last summer was dry. It could also mean increased precipitation, and winters may be colder or milder. More snow cover will benefit gardens, while a lack of snow will expose plants to damage in a cold snap. This winter is looking like a mild one as far as the impact on the garden.

On average, it was the coldest December in this area in twenty years but it brought well above average snow to blanket the garden before the ground was frozen deeply. We’ve had a January thaw already and fortunately there was sufficient snow cover in place that nothing in my garden was exposed for long. Unfortunately, when the fluctuating temperature brought freezing rain followed by high winds I lost two branches from my maple.

A changing climate impacts weather patterns worldwide, drastically affecting more than our gardens. Even though average ocean temperatures are on the rise and glaciers are receding it might not register until far away crops fail because of an extreme change, and then we’ll notice there are no oranges or avocados at the grocery store. Drastic change will inevitably impact plant production as well and we might wake up to find there are no petunias at the garden centre, while familiar plants may become invasive pests.

Even as the climate changes, it is still weather that we have to respond to in our gardens. Resilience is the word and to make our gardens better able to handle erratic conditions, the ability to adapt will play a big role. Increasing the biodiversity of our gardens by having a wider variety of plants including more native species will be helpful, especially those that can withstand drought.

In extreme conditions — too wet, too hot, or too dry — some plants will recover better than others, and it will be up to the gardener to observe and adapt, especially by avoiding the use of challenging plants and sticking with more robust species.

The days of all day lawn sprinkling are long gone, and we have adapted to that, but due to projected growth in this region there are serious concerns about water supply. This can mean further restrictions on outdoor water use, and when there are prolonged droughts and weeks of intense heat, it may be unlikely that watering of ornamental plants will be permitted, while the trend to vegetable gardening will continue and become more important.

There will be winners and losers but we’ll still continue to garden. Regardless of how conditions change, there will be resilient plants that grow on despite the weather or the gardener.