How to help your PNW garden weather abnormal climate highs and ... - The Seattle Times

How to help your PNW garden weather abnormal climate highs and lows | The Seattle Times

OUR BEAUTIFUL PACIFIC NORTHWEST is a gardening paradise with weather that’s generally characterized as mild. Greatly influenced by the largest body of water on the planet, our Goldilocks climate, neither too hot nor too cold, is just right. Except when it’s not.

These days, familiar growing conditions are proving elusive. Aberrant temperatures with searing heat and extended drought, or heavy wind and rain, crippling snowstorms and treacherous ice might just be our new normal. In the local parlance, these last few years have served up several “weather events” that defy normal. Let’s review:

The winter of 2021 was cold, wet and snowy, a characteristic La Niña weather pattern that carried over into a protracted chilly spring that had gardeners thinking summer would never arrive. And then it did.

Beginning in late June 2021 and lasting through the first week of July, a stubborn high-pressure system parked over the Pacific Northwest, blocking cool marine air and cloud cover. Temperatures throughout the region soared to record-breaking highs, including a string of triple-digits days that cost lives and torched the landscape. After that initial baking, the summer was even dryer than usual, which set the stage for a devastating wildfire season that cast a smoky orange pall over Seattle skies. And then it rained.

We sluiced into 2022 with another La Niña winter pattern bringing more snow and rain that lasted well into spring, yet again dampening gardeners’ spirits. When summer finally did show up, it tested the landscape with a record-setting — I sound like a broken record — string of days that hit 90 degrees or warmer, and a mere .5 inch of rain, far below the 3 inches we’re used to in summer.

Warm weather and dry conditions continued well into November, then flipped abruptly when the region entered a rare third consecutive La Niña weather pattern. December cold, snow and an epic ice storm dealt gardens (and holiday travel) a severe blow. Chaos closed out the year when heavy rain and high tides produced urban flooding in Seattle’s South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods. While it was a wild ride to get there, precipitation for 2022 was normal.

After a relatively dry winter, gardeners in 2023 faced another chilly spring, briefly interrupted by a warmer-than-average May, including a bizarre heat wave that punished spring gardens with temperatures approaching 90 degrees. The brief and unusual heat brought on rapid snowmelt, which, coupled with less than normal rainfall this year, puts drought in the picture.

After a typically cool June, forecasters with the Office of the Washington State Climatologist are predicting above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation for the rest of our summer. We’ll see.

There’s not much we can do to counter conditions of this summer, except be especially attentive to smart watering practices. Water, whether with an irrigation system or by hand, during cooler parts of the day to avoid moisture loss due to evaporation. Rather than regular brief sprinkles, water less often but thoroughly to encourage roots to grow deeply to where soil moisture is consistent. A layer of mulch will help preserve moisture and maintain even soil temperatures when temperatures spike.

Some years are more challenging than others, but sometimes the harshest seasons are the best teachers. Observation comes naturally to weather-watching gardeners, and lessons learned during these years will help us navigate a future that is likely to hold more of the same.