Overcoming the Short Growing Season in Lake Superior Region

Gardening is seeing a huge upswing since the COVID outbreak. People have discovered that gardening gives them a sense of accomplishment and control in a world where restrictions have been the norm for over a year. Additionally, increases in food costs have made people more aware of the savings to be had in self producing a certain amount of food items.

But there is a tradeoff for people living in colder climates, and that is the shorter growing seasons that are a product of our geographic location. A shorter growing season means having to find solutions to how and what can be grown.

The gardening club in Schreiber was very pleased to hold a zoom session with well know meteorologist, author and journalist Graham Saunders. The latest version of his book “Gardening with Short Growing Seasons” has just been released and residents of Schreiber were given the opportunity to hear him give a presentation of the highlights in his book and also engage in a question and answer period afterward.

Donna Mikeluk welcomed Graham to the meeting after listing his credits and accomplishments. The informative session started with a slideshow presentation with Graham stating that often the food produced in a personal garden can be of superior quality to that which can be purchased at super markets. In reality the initial cost of setting up the garden can mean that the cost of what is produced is not always lower than that which can be bought but benefits should start to be realized after the first year.

Food security is very much on the minds of many these days and gardening can help to reduce the burden on larger producers and shortages at stores. The physical aspect of being active in gardening does have additional health benefits. He then went on t mention that what are seen as deterrents can often be turned into benefits. For instance, the north generally receives more hours of sunlight during the late spring and summer months and. More moderate climate helps in reducing water consumption.

It was interesting to see that we have been experiencing warmer weather conditions in our zone over the last few years with north western Ontario moving one step up to a 3 zone area recently. This allows for more flexibility in selecting what can be grown as it increases the growing cycle. Greenhouses were another item that can be beneficial to growing in the area. 

Before opening the floor to the captive audience Graham mentioned how Community Gardens had overtaken the backyard garden in some instances as people became more accustomed to buying food in store rather than growing their own but this year there has been a trend back to backyard gardening partially driven by food insecurity fears and as a relief to the boredom that some people are feeling during these isolating times.