Climate Watch: What Antonio’s Garden Is Teaching Us

Perhaps adapting to climate change isn't always about conquering nature. Sometimes it's about remembering how to cooperate with it.

We have been thinking a lot about that this summer because of Antonio’s garden.

Here we are in the middle of August, and this one garden has already helped feed two households and given us over 200 pounds of vegetables to process and preserve.

And we aren't finished yet.

That has made us look at the garden a little differently.

It isn't simply a place where vegetables grow. It is a small living system — soil, roots, insects, rain, sun, compost, weeds, vegetables, and people all interacting with one another.

As our weather becomes hotter and less predictable, perhaps those of us who grow even some of our own food can learn a few things from the idea of climate-resilient farming.

We don't need hundreds of acres to use the principles.

We can use them in our own backyards.

1. Keep the soil covered

Bare soil dries quickly under a hot August sun.

Plants themselves provide shade, but so can mulch, leaves, grass clippings, straw, or other organic material placed around them.

A covered soil surface loses less moisture and is protected from the pounding of heavy rain.

Even weeds can teach us something here. Nature seems remarkably reluctant to leave good soil bare for very long.

Perhaps instead of asking only, How do I keep weeds out? we can also ask, What can I put there instead?

2. Disturb the soil less

Many of us grew up believing that a good garden had to be thoroughly dug and turned every year.

But beneath the surface is an entire living community.

Worms make tunnels. Roots leave channels. Fungi and microorganisms help break down organic material and cycle nutrients.

We don't have to stop digging altogether. We can simply become a little less enthusiastic about rearranging the entire neighbourhood every spring.

Sometimes the soil knows what it is doing.

3. Grow lots of different things

This is one of the things we love about a home vegetable garden.

Antonio's garden isn't an acre of one crop. There are cucumbers, beans, greens, watermelons, potatoes, herbs, and all sorts of other plants growing alongside one another.

And this summer, they certainly haven't all responded to the weather in exactly the same way.

That is one advantage of diversity.

If one vegetable struggles, another may thrive.

Growing different crops also means different root depths, different nutrient needs, different flowering times, and different habitats for insects.

The old Indigenous tradition of growing the Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash — is a beautiful example.

The corn provides support for the beans. The beans help provide nitrogen. The squash spreads across the soil, shading it and helping conserve moisture.

The plants aren't simply occupying the same garden.

They are helping one another.

4. Think about roots

What we see above the soil is only half the plant.

Some plants send roots much deeper than others. Those roots can find moisture farther down and help open pathways through the soil.

In the home garden, that may mean including deeper-rooted plants and herbs alongside shallow-rooted vegetables instead of thinking that every square foot has to be devoted to tomatoes or lettuce.

Even plants we don't eat can earn their keep if their roots are improving the soil underneath.

5. Feed the soil

This may be the most familiar one of all.

Compost.

Vegetable peelings, garden waste, leaves, and other organic material can eventually go right back to the place our food came from.

And over time, you can actually see the difference.

Good garden soil becomes darker and softer. It holds moisture better. Worms move through it. Plants root more easily.

It is one of nature's loveliest systems:

Yesterday's plants help feed tomorrow's plants.

With more than 200 pounds of vegetables already coming out of Antonio's garden this summer, there is something rather satisfying about knowing that some of what we don't eat can eventually find its way back into the cycle.

6. Don't forget the edges

In our yards, we can plant trees, shrubs, perennial herbs, flowers, and natural borders around the vegetable garden.

They provide shade and wind protection. Flowers attract pollinators. Shrubs give birds and beneficial insects somewhere to live.

We sometimes think of everything outside the vegetable beds as decoration.

But much of it may actually be helping the garden.

7. Catch the water when it comes

This one is becoming harder to ignore.

We may have a tremendous downpour one week and then find ourselves carrying watering cans around two weeks later.

Rain barrels are perhaps the simplest home version of climate-resilient water management.

Mulch helps too, because keeping water in the soil is every bit as important as getting water onto it.

And watering deeply rather than giving plants a tiny sprinkle encourages roots to search farther down into the earth.

The goal isn't simply more water.

It is making better use of the water we receive.

8. Notice what actually grows well

This may become one of the most important gardening skills of all.

Instead of assuming that we must grow the same vegetables in exactly the same way every year, we can start noticing.

Which varieties handled the heat?

Which ones managed a dry spell?

Which crops were still producing when others stopped?

Which ones were overwhelmed by insects or humidity?

And which ones surprised us?

For home gardeners, resilient choices might include sturdy crops such as beans, peas, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, onions, and garlic, along with herbs and greens that can be planted at different points during the season.

We can also experiment with different varieties of the vegetables we already love—perhaps an earlier tomato, a more heat-tolerant lettuce, or a squash that performs well during a dry summer.

The garden itself becomes our teacher.

And perhaps that is what Antonio's garden has reminded us of most this year.

He didn't set out to create some grand experiment in climate-resilient food production.

He planted a garden.

And by the middle of August, it had fed two households, filled our kitchen again and again, and given us more than 200 pounds of vegetables to put away for later.

We have frozen them, cooked them, pickled them, shared them, and occasionally wondered what on earth we were going to do with another cucumber.

But underneath all of that abundance is something worth noticing.

Growing even a portion of our own food connects us directly with the weather, the soil, and the seasons in a way that buying a cucumber at the grocery store never quite can.

We notice when the rain doesn't come.

We notice when the heat lasts too long.

We notice which plants adapt. And gradually we adapt too.

Perhaps climate resilience can begin that simply: with a patch of soil, a handful of seeds, and a willingness to pay attention to what the garden is telling us.