Climate Change & Our Gardens
Adapting our vegetable gardens for climate change is a phenomenon we may all have to get used to. As we gear up for an intense triple-digit heat wave here in Southern California, I feel grateful that my garden is already prepared. For us in Southern California, that means that September is quickly keeping up with July and August as the hottest months of the year. “Fall gardening” doesn’t really mean much here. October is still very much warm and the temps don’t cool down until around Thanksgiving.
If you live in a hot climate that is getting warmer, growing the right vegetables can save you time, money, water, and resources. Here are three ways you can adapt:
Start growing vegetables that best match your climate
Use plants to provide natural mulch and shade for more heat-sensitive plants
Use a timed watering system that can be easily adapted to weather conditions.
Growing Vegetables That Match Your Climate
One of the easiest ways to adapt to a hot climate is to grow vegetables that have already been adapted to extreme heat. My new summer favorite crop to replace our typical green beans has been the introduction of yard-long beans. Where my green beans have sometimes struggled with heat spikes, and then don’t produce, the yard-long beans love the heat, produce 12 to 16” long beans, and can be grown on a trellis or obelisk, therefore taking up a lot less space, with less plants, and more resilience. This saves me time, money, and precious real estate in the garden.
Below are yard long beans in the garden, chopped up in the third photo, and stir-fried in ginger, garlic, and soy sauce and served with pork and noodles.
Use Plants to Provide Natural Shade
Like any avid gardener from a hot climate, I have my hoops and my shade cloth on standby for heat waves like we will have this week. I have noticed however, that as my garden has grown in, I have not had to use shade cloth for over a month, even when our temps got above 95 degrees. Why the sudden change? Several reasons. I planted my hubbard squash in a bed with flowers that needed some afternoon shade, and the leaves of the squash spread everywhere, therefore providing the shade those flowers need and eliminating my need to install a shade cloth in that bed. I use melons and squash to provide natural mulch around my okra, corn, and tomatoes. My yard-long beans provide nice shade for my more sensitive flowers and they give structure to my zinnias at the same time, who love the sun.
My bitter melon on a trellis has provided shade to my strawberry patch, which needs some relief from the very hot afternoon sun. Sweet potatoes make a great cover for my sunflowers and grapevine, which are all grown in the same raised bed. Even a well-positioned tomato plant, growing on my arch, shaded out my kale all summer, keeping it from bolting.
As you are planning out your garden, think about how you can combine plants so that they complement each other as it relates to protecting one another from the elements. This concept is not new and was used by indigenous people here on Turtle Island. Many folks are familiar with the term “three sisters”, which refers to the growing of squash, corn, and beans to physically help each other out, but as I listed above, there are many ways to grow your vegetables in ways that protect each other.
Weather Wise Water Timers
Having your soaker hoses or drip system on a timer will save you time, money, and headaches. As fun as it is to water your garden with a hose, especially when you first get your garden going, it’s a lot more difficult to tell if you are really watering deep enough. For example, my hose on the shower setting takes 20 seconds to fill a one gallon watering can. That means for me to soak through my garden soil, It would take me several minutes or more to amply water each garden bed every morning. I don’t have the time, nor do I want to overwater and waste this precious resource.
I have special soaker hoses set up so that only the garden beds are watered, and I check for drips regularly to ensure no water goes wasted. The timer goes off around 6 am when it is still cool out, and when temps get over 95, I water again around 2 pm. Many timers out there now have smart features that will adapt to weather changes- if you do not work close to home, these may especially work for you.
Timers ensure we get our plants watered daily, without causing undue stress. Using a drip system or soaker hose system, ensures plants get water where they need it: at the base of the plant.
In Conclusion
As we all learn to adapt with less water, more heat, and unpredictable weather, we can find ways to adapt our vegetable gardens to climate change one season at a time.
