Denver Gardening Examiner

Weather can take its toll on farming -- whether large-scale or in your garden

Weather is an awesome and influential thing. It can be nurturing and comforting, or destructive and frightening.

It can change from one to the other in a millisecond. Gardening (and it’s larger-scale equivalent, farming) must work in concert with the weather in order to ensure a successful harvest. Yet, these days especially, the weather can be one of the most major challenges a gardener (or farmer) faces.

Soaring food prices may often be blamed on ethanol, but in reality the major shortages in foods are because of failing harvests worldwide. All over the globe, America included, wheat, corn, rice, and other staple crops, as well as many other non-staple crops, failed or did very poorly last year.

 The situation has not improved this year: even in Colorado, where the plains dance with beautiful crop of wheat as you read this, these precious plants are being threatened by late frosts, heavy rains at the wrong time and in the wrong amount, and expect to see the heat and dryness of summer exceed the normal to further threaten the crops. Already, signs of disease are appearing; diseases that no herbicide, pesticide, fungicide, or antibiotic can fix (yes, they do apply these to grains– even organic wheat can have such treatments applied).

We have recently seen the ferocity of the weather in Weld County, where tornadoes destroyed both residential neighborhoods and farms. Here in Agate, we were fortunate to have not had a tornado in many years. Yet nearly every day we are confronted with extreme wind as it blows across the plains. Often it blows in gusts in a uniform direction, be it North, South, or West; sometimes, though, it swirls, creating magnificent dust devils that act as mini-tornadoes. These dust devils have, on our property alone in just a few months, completely destroyed two greenhouses, mutilated our home and garage, damaged innumerable equipment, and (most recently) nearly leveled our mules’ loafing shed.

You can see in the photo a smallish shed; to the right is a tall lonely post, and to the right of that post is a nub of a former post. That nub used to be the farthest right edge of the shed. On Memorial Day weekend, a dust devil hit it, ripped the shed into shreds, and sent them flying more than 200 feet away, bending down a fence that the rubble hit as it flew. Luckily, there was nothing else in the way but open fields, and the mules had the sense to not be in the way either.

For all its destructive power, though, the high winds as well as other extreme weather can be dealt with successfully. Some remedies take some time, others can be applied nearly immediately. For our wind, we tie down or hide in buildings everything we can. We plant crops that won’t snap in the wind. We plan drought-tolerant crops so that they are not killed by the water-sapping nature of the wind. The best solution, though the longest to implement, is to plant lots and lots of trees. Many years ago, the plains used to be covered in forests; even not beyond living memory there were many more trees than there are today. Careless and destructive ranchers and farmers cut them down to make more room for their crops and their cattle. Now, though, the cattle languish and the crops break and dry up in the winds.

In your own garden, you may experience other weather problems. Heat, cold, and sun can damage or kill. Watering frequently is one solution, but this is a very unethical solution: wet soil insulates the plants but taps a very rare and valuable resource in our arid Colorado climate. The most effective method of dealing with the local weather is to grow plants that are adapted to it: choke cherries, wild roses, wild plums, lambsquarters, thistles, penstemmons, and cacti are good examples of such plants. Growing such things as strawberries, blueberries, melons, and tomatoes requires a lot of resources in order to keep these non-native, sensitive plants from dying.

Another way to beat the weather in your garden is to let your weeds live. Weeds serve many helpful purposes in the garden: they provide shade against the hot midday sun, when your plants are most likely to suffer; they create an insulating effect against extreme temperatures (both heat and cold); they also will provide your plants a drink by retaining and releasing water into the soil when it is most needed, so you can water less.

Just as we put on a jacket when it’s cold, a hat when it’s sunny, and galoshes when it’s muddy, your garden will benefit if you help it get through difficult weather conditions. Colorado has nice weather most of the time, but it’s extreme weather can be detrimental if not well planned for.


 

Topics: Extreme weather , Weld County , wild roses , cherries