In the battle against climate change, gardeners may be the conscript soldiers in the trenches.
While scientists sound doomsday klaxons about carbon emissions and governments fret about how to reduce them, gardeners deal daily with the collateral casualties of hotter, dryer summers, wetter winters and bigger storms.
Diana Stewart, the president of the Dogwood Garden Club, said she’s increasingly seeing the global conflict come home to roost in her own backyard where summer heatwaves are stunting her annuals and November monsoons drown her perennials.
As a result, she said, many gardeners are looking to enliven their outdoor spaces with plants like grasses and succulents that are more resistant to drought and better able to tolerate extreme weather.
“We’re really feeling it,” Stewart said of the micro-impacts of climate change.
Some gardeners are throwing in the trowel, she added. They’re forsaking lush lawns and colourful garden beds for expanses of micro clover, paths made of fine gravel, water features like fountains and bird baths that recycle. Native plants and shrubbery are also de rigueur as they’ve evolved through millennia to roll with the local vagaries of weather.
The increasing threat of wildfires has even prompted Firesmart BC to produce an online resource to help gardeners find the right plants that lower the risk of such a conflagration jumping to structures, as well as increase sustainability, conserve water and attract pollinators.
The idea, said Stewart, is to keep gardeners engaged so keeping their plants thriving doesn’t become a chore.
“It’s supposed to be enjoyment,” she said. “It’s therapeutic.”
With that goal in mind, the Dogwood Garden Club will have plenty of hearty plants like shrubs, trees and grasses available at its annual sale that is being held Saturday, May 7, at Hillcrest Middle School (2161 Regan Ave., Coquitlam).
The event starts at 9 a.m. and runs until 2 p.m., although it’s always best to get there early for the best selection, and shoppers should bring their own bags or boxes as well as cash, because credit cards won’t be accepted.
All the plants for sale have been grown, tended and donated by the club’s members, and the money helps pay for demonstration workshops, guest speakers, field trips, horticulture scholarships for post-secondary students, and the ongoing care and maintenance of the patio garden at Dogwood Pavilion.
Stewart said it’s important gardeners not be discouraged by the challenges of a changing climate as their efforts can help mitigate some of its impacts, even in the smallest, most localized ways.
