Gardening expert explains this year's remarkable growing season
If you've been wondering why everyone seems to have extra tomatoes, beans or zucchini this summer, there's a simple explanation.
According to gardening expert Mark Cullen, southwestern Ontario has been enjoying just about ideal growing conditions.
Cullen says most gardens thrive on about two to four centimetres of rain each week, and that's been the pattern for much of this growing season. The steady rainfall has kept vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees growing without the stress of prolonged dry spells.
But Cullen says there's an important difference between a stretch of dry weather, and an actual drought.
He says going a couple of weeks without rain simply means gardens start getting thirsty. It isn't until those dry conditions stretch on for about a month that he'd consider it a true drought.
That helps explain why this year's gardens have looked so healthy compared to last summer.
Last year, many gardeners spent weeks hauling hoses and watering cans just to keep plants alive as hot, dry conditions pushed parts of Ontario toward drought. This year, nature has done much of the watering instead, producing healthier plants and bigger harvests.
Few people are better qualified to make that comparison than Mark Cullen.
For more than four decades, Cullen has been one of Canada's best-known gardening experts. He's the author of 24 books, a longtime newspaper columnist, podcast host and public speaker. In 2016, he was appointed to the Order of Canada for helping Canadians connect with gardening and environmental stewardship.
So, if your neighbours keep offering you tomatoes, beans or zucchini - or you're the one trying to give them away - it may simply be because this summer has delivered nearly ideal conditions for growing.
Sometimes, good weather really is the best fertilizer.
