Is it rain? No, unfortunately it is not. It’s the smoke haze from the Canadian wildfires. I thought I would write on a topic that might just rile some people up but listen, I have a feeling it’s something we need to be aware of and also prepare for. I’m only going to be relating this to the Garden & Growing season, but rest assure this situation is in my prayers and I understand this has huge implications beyond my garden and beyond my grasp. Let me start….
Two years ago here in Northern Michigan there was about a month of haze from Canadian wildfires. Why was my Garden not growing like I expected it to? It took me awhile to put it together. The smoke and haze even though minimal was taking a toll of my garden. A lot of the seeds seemed to take longer to germinate (or not at all and I had to replant), or some of the plants just weren’t growing and I wasn’t seeing the produce like I usually would. After about a month though it did clear up and things started to bounce back, and the garden went on as usual. Thank Goodness!!
But here we are again, and it seems to be worse. It’s national, it’s dark, it’s gloomy. It’s even much darker than I remember here in Northern Michigan and we are certainly no where near what the East Coast is experiencing or even Lower Michigan.
Why am I bringing this up? Should you just not plant this year, or give up? Absolutely NOT, you NEED to be planting whatever you can! I’m bringing this up because if this is national this is going to effect a lot more than just your back yard garden, it might effect things on a larger scale if this does not get under control very soon. Which I’m afraid and to my understanding it will not be going away any time soon. Yes the wind might shift and we can hope for that. But it’ll effect another area with the same problems.
So what can you do? Forge ahead and plant, grow, harvest and preserve!! Even if things take longer, or we don’t reap what we typically do. We must keep moving forward and if you have the space I suggest planting more than what you had planned. What can it hurt? You can preserve most things by freezing, blanching, free drying, dehydrating and canning.
You can do this and I encourage you to keep planting and learning!
