The growing season that just keeps on giving
This year’s growing season has gone on and on. Outdoor tomatoes just went on giving! At times I had too many to eat in salads and they got turned into sauce and soup for the winter.
Others on my site were harvesting sweetcorn and courgettes much later than usual while gardeners in Inverness reported picking strawberries until the end of October. Other plotters are still sowing beetroot seeds in the warm, damp soil.
They may not develop edible roots but the leaves will give colour and an earthy taste to winter salads.
My autumn raspberries were an example of a species’ ability to thrive in adverse conditions.
By August, the first flower buds had shrivelled up in the heat and I thought I’d said goodbye to one of my favourite crops.
To my surprise, when rain came they bounced back, produced new buds and now, in mid November I’m still picking them. The crop isn’t as prolific as usual but even a handful are welcome.
The big question is to what extent the past dry hot summer was just a blip or part of the trend expected with climate change.
Phenology is the scientific study of seasonal changes in plants and animals from year to year.
People have been recording the changing seasons for hundreds of years. The father of modern phenology is Robert Marsham, an English naturalist.
From 1736 to 1797 he kept detailed records of weather and temperature changes as well as flowering dates of individual species. He recorded other significant events such as the arrival date of the first cuckoo each year.
Just now, the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh are monitoring the times of flower, leaf and fruit development in a range of key plants each year.
Apples, an important food crop which grows in their Edible Garden, are included in the studies.
There are far-reaching consequences if climate change alters the interdependence of species. For example many of our favourite allotment crops such as runner beans and strawberries rely on insects for pollination.
Birds such as blue tits, reared on a diet of caterpillars, play their part in keeping our crops pest-free too. Their breeding season is tailored to coincide with the availability of this food.
The general public can help track the effects of weather and climate change on wildlife by contributing to the “Nature’s Calendar” initiative by the Woodland Trust and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. https:// naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org. uk
The question is to what extent the past dry hot summer was just a blip