Gardeners: modify your practices to accommodate climate change

If you have a vegetable garden, it's important to factor in climate change in addition to the traditional concerns about planting times, water schedules, and what you will plant.

So says University of Maryland professor of biology and entomology Sara Via in How to plant a climate-smart garden — Step one: Expect spring to come earlier, on average.

Said Via:

In the northeast of Maryland, we’re having an earlier spring and a later fall, so we have a longer growing season. . .

Warmer nights, we know, can prevent some plants from flowering, like peppers and lima beans. And hot days can prevent successful pollination in tomatoes and sweet corn, and so you get tomatoes that are sort of concave because they don’t have seeds. And sweet corn, you don’t get enough kernels on the ear.

Head on over to the Yale Climate Connections article to listen to the interview and look at additional information.