To be interested in the changing season is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." George Santayana

The weather this spring sure has us guessing about when to plant what. The big question we get here at the nursery is always, do you think it’s ok to plant tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers now? Everyone seems a little freaked out about the fact that the weather does not correspond to the calendar this spring, but has it ever, really? There was time, not too far in the distant past, when people relied more on observing natural phenomena than the man-made calendar to gage their gardening activities. And in the really distant past, before calendars as we know them existed, it was the shaman or medicine people who kept track of these events and timed the planting, gathering and harvesting of crops. It was a matter of life and death, so proper timing was carefully observed.

With weather as erratic as it is now, it might be a good idea to get back to this method of planning. This is actually a natural science called Phenology and it has been around for a long time.  Carl Linnaeus, the famous botanist practiced phenology as did the noted environmentalist Aldo Leopold. The word comes from the Greek phaino meaning to show or appear and can be simply understood as the study of cyclically recurring natural events, like the first daffodils or the first birds or spawning fish. The life cycles of plants and animals respond to seasonal and climatic changes, or put another way, they respond to changes in the length of day light, precipitation and temperature, and therefore are better indicators than a date on a calendar.

Observing these life cycle stages can help us in the garden.  Noting when insects emerge allows us to time eradications strategies. It also aids our decision making for planting out dates; we can time when to plant certain things to attract beneficial insects, or design our orchards for best pollination and determine ripening sequence. Watching what blooms when helps us design bee gardens so the bees have something to forage all year round, and we can plan our perennial flower beds so that something is blooming almost year round. A good example of how phenology works in the garden is the practice of applying 3 dormant oil sprays to fruit trees. Dormant spraying helps with insect pests, fungal problems and other diseases, and timing the sprays to the dormant life cycle of the trees can increase your success. Typically speaking, the first spray is applied at Thanksgiving, just after most of the leaves have dropped signaling the beginning of the dormant cycle. The second spray usually is timed around New years, when the trees are in full dormancy. The last spray is timed for Valentine’s day, or when the buds begin to swell signaling the end of the dormancy cycle.

The timing of natural events and the corresponding garden activity is different in every region. You may have heard the saying ‘plant corn when the oak leaves are as big as a squirrel’s ear’ or ‘plant peas when the forsythia blooms’. There are lots of these sayings out there, but be careful, I think these are based on observations that were made in the northeast and aren’t applicable here. In the first case, it’s too early to plant corn when the oaks are as big a squirrel’s ears and in the second, we can plant peas much earlier than the first forsythia blooms. So how do we know what to do when? It’s really simple, start looking around and making notes. Observe when the first frost is, the last one too, when do the first daffodils of lilacs bloom and watch what else is going on when those events are happening. After a few years you will have some really good data to use when timing your planting.

One thing we keep track of here in the nursery is when the first bugs appear, what is growing at the time and the temperature is. You see, insects are cold blooded, so their life cycle is directly correlated with temperature, and since insects and the plants they chow on have evolved together we can get an idea of when we need to take measures to keep them under control.

This is great thing to do with kids too, and there are several web sites with lots more information in how you can get started. Maybe it’s time we start listening to the natural world again for the answers we seek, there is so much wisdom there and all we have to do is slow down a bit, listen and look…and take a few notes!

Here are those web sites:

Learner.org/north site of the Journey North project, tracking the migrating monarch butterflies and lots more.

Backyardnature.net/phenology, this site is geared to elementary aged kids.