Home Cultivation in the Face of Global Warming

It has been a spring of unusual gardening fervor around here, in my case at least partly due to connecting with several co-workers whose veggie-propagating enthusiasms I was unaware of.

But unusual NW weather is a factor too. We have gambled on the tomato market off and on for years, but may have set a record this year with at least 14 plants out, despite less-than-ideal locale even in this marginal subclimate. But if we are going to be binge-ing on heat, tomatoes are a far better bet than peas and lettuce (though if it is only drought - we at least tied a record just recently for no measurable precip - our ragged watering skills may make the point moot). On average, the tomato plants are doing just fine. I still have waterwalls on most of them, maintaining night-time soil temps at least a bit higher than they would be otherwise, but will probably free up the debutantes soon so they can spread their dirndls. After all, it is now officially summer. They ought to be able to swagger down that runway on their own.

Some early efforts, e.g., radishes, turnips, and beets, were more-or-less a bust. The first two have rarely if ever been planted here, and this year's result will likely cause me to revert to foregoing those crops. Beets have sometimes worked out okay, and there are still a few stragglers hanging on, but that is not a crop that seems to take well to NW summers.

And the peas have been in some respects somewhat of a disappointment too. There are promising bush varieties, but only one of my three plantings of tall sugar snaps even broke the ground surface in number. But beans of numerous varieties are coming along just fine, the Red Runners in particular already blooming with vigor (none of the other standard varieties have shown a single flower yet). We enjoyed chewy young fava beans (in pod) in a stir-fry the other night.

So, some bad news, some good. But for me one of the most interesting stats is that we harvested our first Snow Peas and Cherry Tomatoes in the same week. And, incidentally, also consumed artichokes from the garden in this same week.

That's not to say we have loads of tomatoes on the verge of ripening - no way. There are eight or so set on the one large Early Girl, but none of the sets even golf-ball size yet, and one to four or so tiny sets on many of the others, but those are all solid green at this point and there are several plants that have no sets at all. Even that is pretty remarkably upbeat for this time of year in our yard. Those ego-saving golden cherry plants do have a couple more ready for harvest this weekend.