COPING with CLIMATE CHANGE

HOW IT AFFECTS GARDENS, AND HOW WE CAN RESPOND

- ROBERT PAVLIS

By now, nearly everyone has heard of climate change and its consequences. Global warming is often equated with climate change, but climate change goes beyond increased average temperatures and includes the increased frequency of abnormal precipitation and wind patterns. The term "weather" is often used interchangeably with climate, but weather refers to the short-term state of the atmosphere and climate is a region's long-term average weather conditions.

Climate change is already affecting everyone in subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways and gardeners are no exception. Plants rely on the environment for signals relating to the timing of growth, flowering, reproduction and dormancy. Higher average temperatures can confuse plants-spring-blooming shrubs bloom earlier and wilt sooner in the season, spring bulbs could finish blooming and die back sooner than expected and summer-blooming plants might start blooming too early.

Of course, climate change results in abnormal weather, not just warmer temperatures. This means that spring weather can be abnormally cold, dry or rainy or shift between cold and warm and wet and dry. These sudden shifts stress plants out when they've just begun growing and are at their most fragile. Plants can become so stressed they wilt, slow their growth or die back. Shrubs and trees may break bud dormancy too early, increasing the risk of damage from spring frost. There are a few upsides to warmer and cooler weather, though: spring plants bloom for longer in cool weather and summer and autumn plants can continue growing and blooming much later in the season.