Gardening with an eye to the sky and grounded feet

Each gardening season seems to offer new growing challeng­es. Our gardens are exposed to more drastic and variable weather with changing weath­er patterns. Floods, droughts, wind, temperature extremes, and unseasonable weather episodes can have immediate and long-term impacts on our plants.

Monitoring and noting these occurrences will help you di­agnose immediate and future plant and garden problems. It also reminds us to adjust plant maintenance when these stress­ors occur and watch for poten­tial insect, disease, and plant decline that may appear in the future.

Create your own weather sta­tion with a rain gauge, snow gauge, and high-low thermom­eter. These gauges monitor the conditions in your backyard as opposed to those reported for nearby locations. Having infor­mation from your yard allows you to make any needed adjust­ments to watering and care to help your plants thrive.

Record significant weather extremes that can negatively impact plant health and lon­gevity. Check with local nature centers, botanical gardens, and extension services for gardening calendars. Many include infor­mation on significant weather events in your area. You can then add your observations for future reference. Refer to this information as needed in the future to help diagnose plant problems that may result from these extremes.

Large trees and other estab­lished plantings are often over­looked when weather extremes occur. Extended dry periods, temperature extremes, and flooding can stress and weaken these plants making them more susceptible to insect pests, dis­eases, and decline in the coming years.

Always select plants suited to the growing conditions and start watching for those that appear to be more tolerant of extremes. Visit local public gar­dens and consult with your Uni­versity Extension specialists and other plant experts when selecting new plants for your gardens.

Adapt your landscape main­tenance and design to reduce the negative impact of flood­ing, drought, and temperature extremes. Protect plant roots from temperature extremes with a layer of organic mulch. Incorporate organic matter into the soil to improve drainage and increase the water-holding abil­ity of fast-draining soils. Cover the soil with plants and mulch to help protect the soil from compaction and erosion during heavy downpours. Healthy soil is the key to growing plants that are better able to tolerate environmental stresses.

Manage water that falls on your property. Check with your local municipality for any re­strictions or support for these efforts. Create rain gardens to capture, clean and direct rain­fall to groundwater to help manage water where it falls. These also support pollinators and provide added beauty to your landscape. Enlist the help of rain barrels, if permitted, to capture rainwater to use on ornamental plantings and con­tainers when needed.

Take this interest one step further and volunteer to be part of a network of volunteer weath­er watchers. The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) is a non-profit community-based network of volunteers that pro­vides daily measurements of rain, hail, and snow that fall in their backyards.

The goal of the Network is to provide more localized weather information to scien­tists, researchers, resource managers, decision makers, and more. The data is used for natural resource, educational and research applications.

Weather watching is a great project for the family or class­room. It helps boost gardening success while increasing our awareness and knowledge of what’s happening around us.

Melinda Myers’ website is www. MelindaMyers.com.