Feature Article June 19, 2002
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Garden Gripes - or how I learned to stop worrying and love the rainby Jack GreenthumbIt has occurred to me that gardeners, as a group, are the most dissatisfied of people. It seems that things are never what they should be.
Take the weather, for instance. Lately all we hear about is flooding; the cool weather making it impossible to grow warm weather crops; over-watered delicate plants succumbing to disease, and so on. This led one of our staff to recall another wet summer 30 years ago. As a city transplant, who before moving to the wilds of Central Frontenac didnt know that vegetables came from seeds, she was grumbling about how poorly her garden was doing. Her wise old neighbour, who had taken the outsiders under her wing, said simply, In a wet year, you may have a poor garden; but in a dry year, youll have NO garden at all. For those of us who grow lettuce, spinach, and other spring greens, this is an ideal year. The lettuce grows and grows without bolting, and the spinach gets more dark- skinned and leafy each day. Its truly a marvel to see.
Thats all well and good, you might say, but by the time the rain is over and its possible to get into the garden, the weeds will have overgrown all the young seedlings, and sometimes its impossible to tell the weeds from the desirable plants. This, I grant, can be a problem. The old adage about how to identify weeds - Just pull everything out and see what comes back. Those will be the weeds - may be cold comfort to you.
Still, wet and cool is preferable to hot and dry. Last summer, the lack of rain caused serious problems. The plants all withered on the vine. By mid-July all the perennials were finished, and the annuals were dead. Food plants were barely alive, the plants hanging on for dear life, the possibility of them setting out fruit fading in the scorching sun. Berries were shriveling up before maturity. Brushfires were common, and many trees died for lack of moisture.
Compared to all that, a little rain - all right a lot of rain - is a minor inconvenience, even if there are ducks swimming about in the middle of your road.
Smart gardeners should be resilient. It is impossible to grow everything every year, the micro- climate of each garden each year makes some things grow better than others. Thats why gardeners are always attaining less than they hope for. The only solution is to plant a lot of different things, make space for the ones that like the conditions of the year, and ignore the ones that dont thrive. Its not the fault of the plants when the conditions are extreme, and its not even the fault of the weather.
After all, its just weather.
