The South Garden, which (also counterintuitively) gets mostly morning sun, due to middle-day shading from large trees.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, consistency is “conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness.”
Consistency is something with which we struggle in our garden, even in normal years.
But what is a normal year? We haven’t had one of those for a long time now. We in the outer SF East Bay have experienced wide temperature swings. For example, last Saturday, according to our weather station, the high was 112.8 degrees (F) in our North Garden at 2:45 pm; by Wednesday morning at 6:15 am it was 53.8. it’s normal to get cool here at night due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean, but a 59 degree difference is extreme even by our standards.
And rain? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about the lack of it; here in Walnut Creek, our local city weather station has recorded 5.98 inches this year. For comparison’s sake, let’s look at Springfield, Missouri, a city a friend of mine lives in. He’s been dismayed by the amount of rain they’ve had this year, but in actuality, it’s five inches less than in “normal years” - 2021 has recorded a total of 31.8 inches since January 1. We won’t get rain again until November, if we are lucky. Springfield will have regular rain through the rest of the year.
Living in a Mediterranean climate, we expect less rain. But we do expect about 3-4 times the amount we’ve had this year.
The combination of these heat and precipitation inconsistencies has resulted in a pretty terrible die-off in our food garden.
Dead pepper
Dead tomato
Blossom end rot. It’s on every single one of my tomatoes, regardless of variety. This is because when it’s over 100 degrees, I water them twice a day instead of just once, and tomatoes like consistent water. But otherwise they would have all died, and I just couldn’t let that happen.
Crispy hop bines
Crispy blueberry bushes
This last image is from drought.gov which is updated every Thursday. In the Bay Area, we are now in Exceptional Drought conditions. Our governor has asked for a 15% voluntary water reduction from all residents (I’m not sure what companies have been asked to do). As a family, we had to have a discussion: Which water will we give up? We’re pretty good about our consumption in the house - we have only one toilet, and it’s low-flow; we have one shower, and we’re good about keeping our time in there short; we have a dishwasher and it’s energy-and-water-efficient (which saves a ton of water over hand-washing); and our laundry washer is a tiny front-loader, which uses a lot less water. Our one big water ‘expense’ is the garden.
Unable or unwilling to let the garden die after investing work and expense to establish it, we decided that our first plan of attack would be toilet flushing. If we “let the yellow mellow” and “flush only the brown down,” we can save the 15% that has been asked of us. It’s an easy fix…. for NOW. Soon, we are going to be asked to reduce even more, and then, well, I’m going to have to make some hard decisions.
I have noticed that many things in the garden are doing well, despite the inconsistencies, and it’s no surprise which ones.
Basil, and other Mediterranean herbs
Pumpkins
Winter squashes
Native plants, like Toyon…
… and manzanita
Despite the fact that I believe I’m saving the state water by growing my own food rather than buying it at the store (consider the amount of water farms use, the amount of energy used to get the food to the store, the amount of energy I use to get myself to the store), I am now convicted that I cannot continue to grow in the way I always have. The climate is changing and even if we stop worldwide global emissions today, the effects from it are going to last for hundreds of years. This means I need to figure out how to garden for the future, not the past.
Let’s go back to that definition of consistency, which included “that which is necessary for the sake of logic.” Logically we know that the weather is only going to get more extreme as a result of climate change, so therefore it doesn’t make sense to continue doing the same things and expecting to get the results we used to get. It’s time to rethink how and which things to grow in our gardens. What does that look like? It means a slow transition (because it’s going to take both effort and money to make this change) in our yards and in our diets. We may have to choose perennial veg and fruit over annuals. We’ll have to be religious about mulching or growing plants more closely together to shade the soil. We might have to grow more at certain times of year, like spring and fall. rather than summer and winter. We’ll have to get even better at preserving what we grow for the lean months. We might even have to eat things we don’t particularly like, which might be the biggest shift of all.
Over the next year, I’m going to get serious at looking at my property in a new way, with a focus on what the next five years might look like, and make changes accordingly. I suggest you come along with me for the ride. Let’s do our part to usher in an even more conscious type of gardening, one that looks to improve our future.
