{"id":6645,"date":"2013-10-04T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=6645"},"modified":"2013-10-24T09:42:46","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T13:42:46","slug":"is-the-local-growing-season-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/10\/04\/is-the-local-growing-season-changing\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the local growing season changing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chart<\/a>

Chart of frost dates in various NY locations. Photo: Lucy Martin<\/p><\/div>\n

Like many All In readers, I like to garden and I’m fond of books.<\/p>\n

One of the more useful books I collected shortly after moving to this region was something called “Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening.” This was the 1948 edition, by Norman Taylor (1883-1967)<\/a>. Checking on line I discovered it’s still being produced<\/a>, with a different editor, naturally.<\/p>\n

It’s a great book, just stuffed with useful information, including small maps and charts showing the average frost-free growing season by state or province.<\/p>\n

After 14 years of puttering around in this growing climate, here’s what I’ve noticed: it seems like every year’s been different. Cold and rainy. Hot and dry. Late spring, early spring. Once or twice it felt like we got just the right amount of sun and rain. But who can guess what to expect? Old timers, you tell me: is so much variability normal around here?<\/p>\n

It also feels like the growing season has been getting longer. September is often a full growing month. Oh, there may be a light frost that can be dodged with sheets and blankets. But I’ve come to expect no killing frost until early Oct. Sometimes mid-October. One time it didn’t come until late October!<\/p>\n

Here’s an article from USA Today about crops “moving” north<\/a>, thanks to warmer\/longer growing seasons. And something closer to home about growing-season shifts near Rochester<\/a>, NY. The USDA updated their benchmark plant hardiness zone map<\/a> in 2012. This New York Times article<\/a> cites at least one researcher who thinks it is already outdated.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>

Map of typical growing seasons for Vermont, circa 1948 from Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening. Photo: Lucy Martin<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s hard to complain about gaining September as a bonus round of growing and eating. But “they say” winters are getting shorter and\/or warmer, with less snow than was previously considered normal. It turns out I quite like winter. The possibility of losing that season’s many pleasures is worrisome.<\/p>\n

\"Old,<\/a>

Old, but useful. The 1948 edition. Photo: Lucy Martin<\/p><\/div>\n

Do you have a favorite reference for gardening Qs?<\/p>\n

By now I have about 5 linear feet of books about gardening in this part of the world. For modern tips and inspiration I admire some of the books by Elliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch<\/a>. I still turn to my trusty Taylor’s, of course! In these modern times there’s also tons of stuff on line, including Cornell University Cooperative Extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There’s no profound point here. It’s just been another lovely, gorgeous week of warm fall weather. It made me want to ask long-time area residents about any changes in the growing season they may have noticed, good or bad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oct 24 postscript: A light frost returned to my back-yard garden Oct 23, followed by a hard frost the next day. We had annuals in steady bloom and could harvest green pole beans right up until those dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many All In readers, I like to garden and I’m fond of books.
\nOne of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1420,36,87,13089,13090,13088,5670,28],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6645"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6720,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions\/6720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}