Soils and water

Made a last planting of "red ace" beets last night on soil so dry it refused to absorb water when I irrigated it afterwards.  Finally after several sessions, it began to take in the water.  I guess that particular corner of the garden is somewhat sandy and many applications of compost have enabled it to hold water pretty well.  The extended dryness this summer sucked virtually all the moisture out of the top several inches of soil.  When this happens, the soil repels water until some portion of the organic matter becomes saturated.  That is one reason it is so hard to get a bale of dried peat moss to accept water initially.  Once the peat becomes soggy it holds huge amounts of water which enables it to support plant growth far longer than soils without that capacity.  After planting yesterday, I noticed the full moon, which should help with germination, at least according to the Farmer's Almanac.  I will post when I notice the first seedlings emerge, hopefully within the week.

Another, just like the others

Hot and dry.  Just the way we would ordinarily like it, but without irrigation, it is pretty hellish out there for plants.  Showers have been hit and miss in the North Country, and they have mostly missed Casa Monzeglio, so it has been a struggle to keep the garden growing.  Standing out there with a hose this morning watering lettuce transplants and trying to germinate spinach I was musing on the vagaries of weather and humans' reaction to it.  99% of the population consider a rainy day a cause for grousing, unless their lawn is brown.  In the cities, rain is even less welcome.  We have become a society divorced from nature and that estrangement will become more painful and obvious as the effects of climate change become unavoidable.  Unless and until we start making the connections among the freakish weather we are now experiencing and our own actions which are causing these phenomena, we will continue to elect politicians who are bought and paid for by the extraction industries which are causing the problems we face today.

Like toast

According to Bill McKibben, we are already ready for the butter and marmalade, at least as far as the climate is concerned.  If the big fossil fuel companies get their way and extract and burn all available reserves of gas, oil and coal, the planetary temperature could rise a whopping 11 degrees F.  In the article he wrote in Rolling Stone, McKibben did not describe the resulting climate change except to say it would be right in the tradition of apocalyptic science fiction.  I've read tons of that stuff and I hope for the sake of whatever future generations we have that it doesn't turn out that way.  Most of the sci-fi authors who write the end of the world scenarios imagine some outside agency is the cause of armageddon.  But as Walt Kelly's character Pogo famously (at least to my generation) says, "We have met the enemy and he is Us".  The slow creep of global warming is accelerating as we sit in the pot like the proverbial frog.  We will probably end up as fricasee before we realize the water has started to boil.

Under the weather gun

Tornadoes on Long Island?  The summer is definitely getting weird.  One of the few good things about living on L.I. was the reasonably clement weather.  I used to annoy people by saying that barring a hurricane, the weather on the island was, on average, the best on the east coast.  Usually not to hot or cold and of course anyplace where you can possibly play golf all year can't be all bad.  But as climate change, aka global warming takes hold, it looks like you might as well live in Kansas.  Brutal heat waves, possible tornadoes, torrential rain and severe drought.  Ugh.  Not to mention shoreline erosion.   I guess life on the NCR is not so bad after all.

Hail and Farewell

Another day, another grower done in by hail.  In this case a pepper an cuke grower who was bragging on his crop the other day.  Now he offers to send pictures of his hail damaged peppers in hopes we can find a market willing to take them.  And his cukes are a total loss.   His loss is another grower's gain as customers migrate  in their search for good product.  These types of weather events take place all the time, but it seems they are becoming more frequent and the damage more devastating, at least from my perspective.  Where growers would reminice about memories of terrible storms, now they occur on a yearly basis.  This may be a natural cycle of weather events, but we are reaching farther and farther back to try and find similar scenarios.  If we are getting into uncharted territory, we better have some backup plans for the future of agriculture, because the alternative is a hungry and rebellious population.

New Whine, same bottle

So, now we have had our rain, up to an inch last night.  Now comes the chorus of "It was too hard"  or "we need more", etc. As I have said before, farmers and gardeners are notoriously hard to please.  Personally, I was tickled to walk out this morning and see nearly an inch of rain standing in one of my buckets.  I could almost hear the plants growing in the garden, especially the weeds.  More rain predicted for later in the week, so by next Monday some of us may be on the other side of happy about moisture levels.  But for the moment, it is all good.

new phone blues

As a technologically challenged baby boomer, I dread the advancements most people crave.  In the abstract, new features sound good, but confronted by a new phone, I want to curl into the fetal position and suck my thumb.  These new touch screen gizmos may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but to me it is just another time sucker which I have to learn so I can keep up with the kool kidz.  The idea of camera, internet and e-mail access is seductive, but all it really means is I will be swiping the touch screen with dirty hands in the garden while trying to answer questions that are beyond me.  The 24/7 ethos promoted by these devices means you never really compartmentalize work and life beyond work.  My old mentor Jerry Shulman always said you work to live, not live to work.   I guess the next step is to implant the damn thing into your skull so you never miss a call.  What a world...

Acclimatization

I don't know if I spelled it correctly, but I know what it means.  Although 2012 is shaping up as the hottest and one of the driest on record,  and nothing like what the boomer generation grew up with, most people will simply turn up the AC and complain.  That is the major reason nothing is being done about climate change.  When I started dealing with growers in the North Country in the mid 80s,  hot weather was more than one day in a row of 80 degree plus temperatures.  Frost was a very real possibility anytime after labor day.  The end of the vegtable season was the 1st of October.  Since moving to the NCR  (North Country Riviera), I have seen the season extend by almost 2 weeks.  First frost can still come early, but is usually followed by above normal temps.  If this trend continues, this area will have a Long Island circa 1960 climate within the remainder of my lifetime.  While this is a boon for local growers, I shudder to think of the global consequences.  But to most of us, this new normal will quickly become the benchmark and memories of short growing seasons and long winters will be lost, along with the will to do anything to mitigate what will be a catastrophe to many fellow travelers on spaceship earth.

Hotter than...

Pick your metaphor, but the citizens of Indiana are living through what will undoubtedly be the hottest month there since records have been kept.  The climate change deniers will say it is part of the cycle of weather, but of course most of them will be dead when the hellish truth is witnessed by their children and grandchildren.  You can only hope there is a hell for people who would sell out future generations in the service of the extraction industries and the short term profits they crave.  Sadly, the majority of science challenged Americans are ignoring the data which point to the coming climate apocolypse with a "business as usual" attitude.  It is a lot easier to pooh-pooh predictions of future disasters than make the hard choices which will preserve the climate for future generations.  Ironically, those choices will probably lead to more and better economic growth, but not for the Koch brothers, et. al.  So it goes in our broken political system.

Drought and markets

So far only one brief shower today, but more predicted for later.  Farmer's in the North Country, at leaast for commodity crops are not pushing the panic button just yet, but if we don't get some significant rain soon yields will start to suffer.  Even the irrigated veg crops in the area are being stressed by the hot weather.  No matter how much water you pour on the brassicas, they don't like weeks of 90 degree weather.  Growth in the cabbage crops here has slowed to a crawl.  Some herbs like cilantro and dill are bolting at early stages of growth, so are not big enough to harvest for optimum yield.  A majority of states in the lower 48 are suffering drought conditions.  The weather authorities say it is the worst situation in 50 years.  Unfortunately, I can remember moving irrigation pipes several times a day when I was 10, but at that age I was more interested in playing baseball than worrying about how much rain was not falling.  It is a little different now.

All about the rain

Or lack of it.  Got a welcome couple of tenths on Sunday and more can reasonably be expected tomorrow.  I did not even mind the 3 hours of weeding that was essentially cancelled by the showers.  The purslane and pigweed are probably rerooting themselves as I write this.  I will gladly make the trade, as it was starting to look pretty bleak in the gardens, especially among the water hogs like the squash and corn.  If we can pick up a half inch in thundershowers tomorrow the crops will get back on track.  I'm sure the corn and soybean growers and the larger veg guys are feeling the same right now.  While we are nowhere near the drought conditions current on the great plains and the cornbelt, the difference between 100% yield and 80% is the difference between a good season and just keeping your head above water.  With 94% of the country experiencing some drought conditions, it has already been a long hot summer for growers.

There ain't no cure

For the Summertime Blues.  There is always a 2-3 week period during the summer when I wish I could irrigate the gardens with a good sprinkler system.  It is hard to watch the hard work of seeding, transplanting, weeding, etc. be lost to the relentless dry, hot weather we have had here for the past couple of weeks.  There is still good moisture under the top 2 inches of soil, but if the dry weather continues, we will reach a tipping point and the plants in the garden will go into moisture stress which will be tough to recover from.  The first corn needs water to fill out the ears, the cukes and melons are water hogs and even the carrots are pushing deep in search of water.  With only chances of isolated thunderstorms in the 10 day forecast, it looks like the hand wringing will continue.  The same angst is repeated on a larger scale at the farms in the North Country.  Irrigation is a relatively new phenomenon in this area, since historically, the muck soils and the heavier mineral soils store moisture well and rains have been more or less reliable.  It is a big leap  to invest thousands of dollars for a system you may only need for one or two weeks during a season. Of course, that is not the case as climate change plays old harry with the weather patterns.  Weeks of dry weather are followed by torrential rains.  Many growers can irrigate, but others still depend on the increasingly fickle whims of Mother Nature.

I got nothin

I'm tired of complaining about the weather, gardening and veg markets in general.  It must be summer burnout, especially with hot dry weather predicted for the next several days.  Unfortunately, our national political discourse has also maxed out my empathy for a large part of the population.  That a tax evading, flip flopping sociopathic multi-millionaire who would undoubtedly appoint like minded justices to the supreme court boggles the mind and makes me seriously question the American experiment.  Things are going off the rails and my generation has to take a lot of the blame.  What toxic ideas did we imbibe while watching Roy Rogers and Howdy Doody.  Or maybe it was the communist flouridated water plot that did it to a generation.  I can see this whole rant getting out of control, so I think I will just have another cup of coffee and screw my head back on.  I hope everyone's day turns out better than mine probably will.

Crops and Markets

It looks like a vicious or perhaps a virtuous cycle if you are a grower.  In the face of slightly increased demand, all areas are raising prices on almost every vegetable commodity.  Extreme heat on the east coast, storms and heat in the North Country and dry conditions everywhere in the west have combined along with increased trucking costs to hike the price of almost all veg crops.  My own garden is a minor reflection of the trend.  Constant watering of seeded beds and transplants is keeping things going, but without some major rainfall in the near future, many varieties will not mature or the yield will be disappointing.  In the commercial lettuce fields tipburn is becoming ubiquitous, and growers are trying to irrigate, but low humidity and windy conditions can sometimes make this seem like an exercise in futility.  So prepart to pay more for your veggies this summer and fall, and if the weather pattern doesn't change this winter, welcome to a future of more and more uncertainty.

Hot Towns and cities

It's official.   The first six months of this year are the hottest on record.  At the rate we are setting new highs, I think it's a lock that overall this will go down as the hottest year ever, at least until next year.  The deniers will undoubtedly shriek that this is another anomaly in the cyclical story of weather.  Also the crazy storms and resulting economic damages are normal for this time of year.  It's a shame that the idiots who are preventing a discussion of how to try to reverse the flow of CO2 into the atmosphere will most likely be dead when the results of their obstruction are evident to even the meanest intelligence. 

Puppy Days

The dog days are not supposed to start until August, but the crazy heat wave gripping most of the country seems to have brought the canine times to us early, so I hereby christen these the "puppy days" of July.  The heat seems to have killed demand for most vegetables for cooking, but even the salad veg is suffering.  The major salad manufacturers are bleeding orders and the outlook right now is grim.  I would like to know what sales of beer are like right now.  Meanwhile, the garden looks good except for some early blight in some varieties which look like someone played a blowtorch too close to the leaves.  Otherwise, I am already scanning the weather reports for chances of rain, but things don't look good over the next 10 days.  One good thing about staying ahead of weeds is the ability to make a "dust mulch" by shallow cultivation.  By disrupting the soil profile, you can stop the moisture in the soil from being sucked out by the dry air.  It is a stopgap measure, but will buy a few more days of growth until the plant roots have exhausted the moisture.

Office Bound

As in stuck at the office on a cloudy Sat. morning.  Up at 5 a.m. to get the farmer's market offerings on the truck and delivered.  Potatoes, basil,  and cukes are new this week, joining the dill, cilantro, kale (Italian Lacinato), parsley, squash and lettuces.  Dropped everything at 6:30 and made it to the office by 8.  Not much goes on Saturdays in the produce biz. Most customers order by the numbers and would think it heretical to change orders on Saturday.  But trucks have to be tracked and everything slated for Sunday and Monday delivery must be accounted for.  The sky is overcast, but small chance of rain.  It looks like a dry week ahead, so more watering to keep seedlings going and an occasional rain dance are the orders du jour.

Weather Fixation

No sooner does the last drop fall from a summer thunderstorm than I start scanning the sky and weather reports for the next one.  We have been consistently dry this summer and although the veg crops look good right now, one week of 90 plus temps and no rain will change that scene in a hurry.  Most years we take the rain for granted or even wish for more sun.  No so this year.  The first corn started forming ears and the second planting is tasseling.  I have seven plantings all told with the last just poking out yesterday.  The cukes are ready for the weekend and with a good drink, the summer squash will start making me regret the extra plants I started.  The lettuce looks like seed catalog pictures and the beets and carrots are bursting out of the ground.  But in the background, the ever present threat of dry weather makes me realize how transient the whole enterprise is without a reliable water supply.

Summer Storms

We had a pretty good rain last night.  It was heavy, but manageable and the ground drank it up gladly.  This should put most of the crops in the garden back on track.   The potatoes especially had been suffering due to the dryness and intense heat.  Cooler temps are predicted through next week, and with an inch and a half of rain, most everything will thrive.  Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the office in Canada this morning to reports of tornadoes, hail and winds unlike anything one person had seen in his 12 years in the area.  We are gathering reports from the fields, but it looks like the crop insurers will be busy writing checks over the next few weeks.  Climate change has come to the North Country and I don't think I like it very much.

Last Calls

For me, gardening is a little like an alcoholics craving, and the season is similar to the corner bar's nightly cycle.  Spring is like happy hour, with all the seeds available and plantings going in every day.  Early summer is late evening in the garden, with full blast planting, weeding and harvest.  We have now reached the last call stage for many plantings.  I planted the last corn, squash, beans and crucifer seeds last week and as the season progresses, more and more last call plantings will be made.  Unlike the neighborhood bar, or maybe just like it, this gardener will push the last call as far into the future as possible, until Mother Nature throws me out sometime in November.

It's all a matter of degree

Or more than one or two anyway.  We sweltered through a weekend in the upper 80s and low 90s with relatively low humidity and felt abandoned by the weather gods, but compared to most of the rest of the country, we were a blessed cool spot.  Temps as high as 115 in Kansas are turning the midwest corn crop into a crispy mess, and the weekend storms in the mid- Atlantic region are a scary reminder that we are only minutes away from discomfort and worse.  This summer seems to be a confirmation of the climate scientists' predictions of what a warmer world will look like and I doubt too many people are liking it.  The deniers will stick to the "cyclical" mantra to describe the oven we are plunging the world into, but I suppose the same 30% who believe Bush was a great president will believe most anything.  Unfortunately, the Koch brothers, et al.  will drag us all down with them.  In the meantime, the garden could use a shower...