Extremes

All told, out here on the East coast, this June was reported as the darkest June on record, ever. And for all of that cloud cover we accumulated close to 10 inches of rain! I'm back in my muck boots, instead of summer sandals, and we have puddles we haven't seen since the April melt. Not such a great month for growing things. But the garden is, amazingly, holding up pretty well. Although slow to fruit or flower, we are not suffering from any molds, rots or generally water logged problems. Yet, anyway. We do need some sun now, to turn things around.

And we may get an about face for the rest of the summer. The seasonal outlook is calling for a warmer and drier than usual summer, can we say extremes? Extreme weather (too wet, too cold, too dry, or too hot) is putting mounting pressure on established farmers, I hope the legions of fledgling backyard gardeners are taking these extremes in stride. Rather than throwing in the trowel.

We will probably get our sun, and our heat, but it will likely not be in the measure we would desire. The one thing I can count on in all of the Climate Change models, is unpredictable extreme weather. Those are tough conditions for growing food, of any kind, but we do believe that the smaller, more adaptable and hands-on gardens will pull through, and even flourish, while traditional farming methods, relying on specialized machinery, will not be able to withstand these extremes.


So hang in there... keep growing!