Jack,
Very interesting thanks for sharing. Here is an article I thought might interest you, it was published after a very informative lecture.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scientists Describe Changes Wrought by Global Warming

Runktrun, Thanks a good article. I would think that gardeners would be some of the very first to notice a "warming trend". Over the past couple years I have begun to notice that my growing season is a bit longer than years ago. And more mild. My average summer high temps seem to be about the same but it is much more muggy, more summer humidity than years ago and my first and last frost dates have changed a bit with my season being a bit longer.

May 1868 in Concord? A town I am quite familiar with. That year was near the very end of The Mauder Minimum, roughly a 500 year (late 1200's to late 1800's) period when temps were significantly colder than today, both in North America and Europe. An interesting article.

I was interested in finding out from NE Gardeners if they have noticed changes in the past 10-20 years with their plants and gardens. Cheerio, Jk

Hi Jack,

I thought you would have gotten more of a response to your question. I would wager that everyone has seen some changes that they attribute to global warming. Not sure if I can give you the specific response you asked for, but I'll give it a shot.

The weather patterns here are very different than when I was a child. I remember growing up, that the seasons were very much defined. Spring was March April and May, with spring like weather most of the time. Summers were perfect summer weather except for maybe a week or two of a predictable heat wave. Except for one summer out of 10, that I remember going to camp for a month and it was rainy and cool and cloudy the whole month I was there. I am sure I could be remembering through rose colored glasses though..lol. Our family has photos of my older siblings playing in about 4 feet of snow, on one of the local college campuses where they had a winter carnival and a contest to build snow sculptures and one of them was about 15 feet tall. I can't remember winters that we didn't go sledding. We always had snow. I also remember plenty of hurricanes growing up.

I think now the thing that seems most noticeable to me, is the unpredictability of the weather. There doesn't seem to be much you can count on. Last year, I was taking photos of green perennials growing in January. That was crazy. Those same perennials bit the dust when a freeze finally came and didn't come back this year.

I haven't really found the longer warmer fall to be of benefit for growing in the garden. I don't normally plant a fall vegetable garden, but if I did, I suppose it would be an improvement. I do find that I have longer to prepare the garden for the spring. Last year I was able to sow cover crop really late and it worked out great.

Spring on the other hand, is entirely too variable. I winter sow and this past spring, I didn't know if I was coming or going, as far as planting out seedlings.

Tomatoes this year have not put on the growth they have in other years, because we have had a cooler and cloudier summer coupled with that crazy spring. Last year, it was hot, hot, hot but rain at regular intervals all through the growing season. THAT was unusual and very pleasant. This year we had a drought and a water ban. One thing I have had more of pretty consistently are the foliar diseases on my tomato, cuke and squash plants. When I first started gardening 25 years ago, I didn't have those problems. Now we have a lot more humidity and I think that promotes these foliar problems. I am sure there are other reasons too though.

I don't purchase plants that are borderline hardy here, so I don't really know if I am able to grow something from a warmer zone or not. Most of my plants are hardy to at least zone 5 and I am zone 6 now according to the new map. I do have a Butterfly Bush, that I think is only hardy to zone 6, and that has come back consistently for the past 10 years. It also didn't have to be cut back to the ground in the spring the last two years and it is about 7.5ft tall and wide, which is a bit different than before.

Hope that is what you were looking for.
:-)

I have to agree with PM2. The unpredictability and the variability of the weather is what strikes me now. You just never know what the seasons will hold - there are even fluctuations day to day. Three days ago we were groaning under 97 degrees and high humidity. The next day it rained, and the day after that people were wearing jackets and sweaters and commenting that it felt like October! All within three days! Let me tell you, I was contemplating turning on the heat when I took my shower - I didn't care if it was August!

I too remember much more "typical" weather while growing up, and more snow in winter and less extreme summers.

A local farmer was just telling me yesterday that he plants his garlic later than usual (now November instead of Ocotber) because of problems with it being too warm in October and getting too-early growth.

So yes, I see changes to some extent. Thanks for the article. Funny thing - my mother e-mailed it to me about 10 minutes before I read your post, lol!

:)
Dee

We've recently been re-classified from zone 6 to 7; I don't know if it's because of a change in climate or new measurements making the grid more accurate.

What the reclassification means to me is that I can no longer pretend that superior horticultural expertise or fabulous luck is responsible for my ability to grow winter jasmine, vitex, carolina jessamine and other "marginally hardy" plants. Now I have to remind myself, "It's the climate, stupid."

>Prepare to set aside larger chunks of leisure time for weeding.

You can say that again!

I also agree with PM2 and Dee that what we're dealing with, for the most part, is climate change, not just global warming; I might welcome the warming for my own gardening purposes if it didn't mean rising sea level and loss of habitat for some species.

DD's PhD work is on temperature sex determination in snapping turtles. She has records of temperatures in nesting sites for over 30 years. Indeed there are changes. The initial question was whether the temperatures would signal a change in the areas where turtles resided, or whether they would become extinct because of overly high temperatures. So far it seems to be the case that it is during only critical times in the nesting period that temperatures affect the sex of the hatchlings. And so with the unpredictable weather patterns we experience at this northern limit for the snappers, the outcome is not clear.

To answer your question...certainly I am experiencing changes in temperature and very freaky weather patterns. The really irritating one is the rains that somehow manage to avoid our 10 acres consistently, while friends 5 miles away drown....

Comparing the weather to my youth (six decades ago in Buffalo NY) it is very different indeed. But I'm afraid I don't trust memory and feelings, but rather a more scientific approach. But I'll tell you, the weeding this summer has been HORRIBLE and I cannot get on top of it!

Weeding was a real headache for us this year, too. We always use mulch but this year the weeds were coming up right through the mulch, so we decided enough was enough and bought some weed fabric and are using that in large areas of mulch and around edges, under stepping stones and installing under the edge of rock walls. So far it has cut down the areas of weeding significantly. I don't really add it to perennial beds because I usually have everything growing close enough not to have a lot of weeding there.

I hate the fabric! I've pulled out miles of it that previous owners used. Weeds grow into it and make removal a truly awful task. The first year is OK and then it gets progressively worse in my opinion.

Gardenbug is right, the fabric is difficult to work with, only works for awhile, and then the weeds start to grow through it. They get stuck in the fabric! Makes digging and planting in the bed difficult too. Better to use thick layers of newspaper or cardboard. This keeps the weeds down for about a year, and by that time, it has broken down and its easy to rake up the area and then put new layers of cardboard down and rake back and refresh the mulch.

Re: the global warming. Here in New England, I think we have it pretty good - the winters seem to have gotten a litle milder, and we haven't yet experienced the heat waves the rest of the country seems to be getting. Also we don't seem to get the extreme weather they get in other regions of North America - like hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and floods. Perhaps we are somehow buffered from these extremes?

That said, I believe that relatively rapid global warming due to man-made activities IS happening - but that no one can precisely predict what the effects will be in the future. We're certainly not erring on the side of caution as a country though.

Is that the current versions of the weed fabric? I had problems with fabric about 10 years ago,and it was a pain to take out when I installed it in an area with plants and near a tree. I thought they had improved it since then. Now, I am putting it down in an area that will only have mulch on the top and be walked on. I wasn't planning on putting it in my perennials beds. Maybe a strip of it right at the front edge of a shade bed.

We did use cardboard in this area last year and this year the weeds were unbelieveable. If you have to do it every year, for an area that is just going to be walked on, in and around raised vegetable beds...I think that is too much work. I hope we can get more than a year out of it. They claim 15 years, and I know it is not going to last even half of that, but I will be happy with 3 years. I will have to report back next season how it is doing.

terrene, I agree, we have to remind ourselves how much better we have it than the rest of the country.

I'll be interested in your update. I'm dealing with those paths you describe between the vegetable beds...

Oddly enough, our weather is not as perfect as you describe.

"the winters seem to have gotten a little milder, and we haven't yet experienced the heat waves the rest of the country seems to be getting. Also we don't seem to get the extreme weather they get in other regions of North America - like hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and floods. Perhaps we are somehow buffered from these extremes?"

Last winter here was milder...at first, but the fluctuations were there as usual after January and many things couldn't tolerate it. We have had awful drought and heat waves during the last 8 years or so. Two years ago we had a terrible tornado swipe a path of destruction about 2 miles from our home...way too close. Friends are just now beginning to rebuild their home which was totally lost.

Hi Prairiemoon, that was about 10 years ago I tried the landscape fabric, so maybe it is better now. If it really works for 15 years, that would be impressive.

Gardenbug - no way did I mean to imply that New England weather was perfect, actually sometimes I think it's pretty crappy! And we do have extremes to an extent, they just seem to be less so than other parts of the US. But this is just a casual observation, I would be curious to know what the scientific data says about changes in weather in different parts of North America.

I hope so terrene. It would be great for that particular use. I am finding though that if I drag the hose through there, the mulch is always uncovering the weed fabric. I need to put a thicker amount down next spring and create a better watering system. It was really easy to put down. Just long strips of fabric, anchored easily with the landscape anchors. We did very little cutting.

I have two palms (Trachycarpus) Hardy fan palms from Asia, that survived the last few winters in the ground- with only plastic covering- that are thriving here in eastern CT.

If the average winter temperature here is 3 degrees warmer then 3 years ago- and the minima winter low is now on average above zero- yes I am seeing global warming here. It is enabling these palms to grow here.

Also the amount and strength of poison Ivy is increasing dramatically (this weed thrives in Co2)

A great site for New England gardeners regarding climate change is at http://www.climatechoices.org/ne/impacts_ne/climates.html

"Upcoming Event:
September 14: The New York Botanical Garden will present its second Gardening in a Changing Climate symposium. The symposium will explore garden design that reflects a sites local climate, is sensitive to its conditions, and takes into account ongoing maintenance and care. As a highlight of the program, horticultural consultants, garden designers, and well-known authors Scott Ogden and Lauren Spring Ogden will present a talk on Designing Naturalistic Gardens for a Changing Climate."

Claire