A slowing Gulf Stream could impact your garden

First some background

https://phys.org/news/2019-08-gulf-stream-seas-hotter-florida.html

and some background on the Beaufort Gyre, (Arctic circulation)
Arctic Ice Melt Is Changing Ocean Currents – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

For the TL/DR crowd -
If the Beaufort Gyre were to release the excess fresh water (now held in the Gyre) nto the Atlantic Ocean, it could potentially slow down its circulation. And that would have hemisphere-wide implications for the climate, especially in Western Europe," said Tom Armitage, lead author of the study and polar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Note the use of the word - implications. This isn't a hair on fire gloom piece, but rather a short piece for your consideration. Outside of Hurricanes, most planetary process work slowly. But work they will.

Should the Gyre dump massive amount of cold Arctic water into the North Atlantic, you can count of major changes in your weather patterns. If you live in Florida, or on the coast of GoM, you should talk with someone local about the impacts of a Gulf Stream disruption/slowdown.

If you live further inland, you should consider, as part of your long term planning (because some of you do long term planning), .looking at seeds for cold weather plants that that might not normally be raised in your area. Knowing the time from plant to harvest is critical.

If you don't have a hoop house or cold bed frames areas for your garden, now might be a good time to consider their siting and what materials you might need for construction.

Finally, while I consider the fellow running Ice Age Farmer site a bit over the top - the site does have an extensive library of cold weather gardening. (Ice Age Farmer Wiki go to the Start Growing section) .
As an aside - The Ice Age Farmer site has been attacked more than once and is under threat from the YT host ownership team. If any of the materials seems to be useful to you, download the data now while it is still available.

Knowing what 'cold weather plants' will grow in your area (sunlight issues) may be just the information needed to keep your garden green..

Hopefully, everyone will have a good year and plentiful harvest - for the next few years. Being ready for what will likely come never hurts, you can take steps now to at least try to avoid shortages or non-availability of seeds....

Happy gardening.

 

The above information is why I built what and where I did, although I doubt I shall ever see the end results of this current event.

Warm land will be at a premium.

 

No matter what happens in the coming years, I HIGHLY recommend anyone build a hoop house to grow in if you live anywhere north of way deep South US. Little experiment for us several years ago has turned out to be the most food producing thing we've ever done. Wife LOVES it, you can go in there on a cool or even cold winter day and be working in a bright, heated garden.

I knew nothing about them other than what I'd read about, so I built a 20' wide x 36' long one. The hoops I made out of laminated strips of 3/4" x 3" white oak, dead green off my sawmill. Set those on top a 'knee' wall 3 ' high on top block walls. The wood hoops were part of the experiment, personally, I'd buy commercial metal hoops were I to do it again.



We did waist high raised beds with cinder block walls. BEST way to garden ever ! No bending, I figure that move alone will extend our ability to garden well into our 80's. The beds are 32" deep in a U around the outside walls, and a 60" wide bed in the center withy 4' walkway all around the center bed. Were I doing it again, I'd go 30' wide and 50-75' long. The extra width would allow for two center beds + one more walkway. Two-three people would have a hard time eating the amount of food you could grow in one that size.....I think you could eliminate outside growing almost all together.

 

I plan on first building a half sided unit 22'x12'x8' slope sided growing room.
The North side will be against an existing shop, power is easy to use from the shop.

I have the vent fan, fiberglass roll x 3 and wood.

It's a start.

 

I'm converting a free 6x10 dog kennel frame into a little greenhouse. Does that count?

Entirely by accident, most of our established beds are positioned between the chicken house and a fence in a way that would be easy to hoop and cover. Thought about doing it a few times so I could have a nice spot for growing some cool weather stuff during the winter.

@TnAndy I showed your pics to the Mr and he went straight to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a whiskey. Probably find him in the fetal position later tonight, having nightmares about another of my projects haha

 

Very nice setup, TnAndy. How do you deal with the lack of pollinators (bees, hummingbirds, etc.)...or has that not been an issue for you?

 

Only thing we've had an issue with is yellow crookneck squash.....it apparently really needs a pollinator. Wife used the center bed last year to grow sweet corn, and I set up a couple box fans up high so it would blow the corn pollen around to cross them, and that seemed to work fine. Mostly we grow cooler weather stuff.....lettuces, peas, broccoli, potatoes (to get new, small potatoes....still grow the bulk outside), onions, carrots in early spring/late fall. Summer are tomatoes, green beans, corn (1st time last year), and so on. We use it about 3 1/2 seasons....taking January/February mostly off.

 

Q tips and a steady hand work on squash.

 

I don't like the THAT good......

 

Then try an artist brush.

 

No pics but I once built a hydroponics grow unit.
I still have two of the grow beds, home made of galvanized sheet metal form and lined with DIY fiberglass mats to become fiberglass tubs.
Nice thing is it still has the drain pipes, needs a fair amount of work but it's a start.

Maybe pics of the grow tubs/grow beds tomorrow and the fiberglass roles purchased from Sears years ago. Moved with us as new and stored safely in the attic of the shop.

 

Good place to start!

 

Once again @TnAndy turns out a great project that is top-notch, like the fuel shed of which I am oh-so-envious.

 

60 sq ft is a large grow area using Square Foot gardening or for growing microgreens.

Start small
Learn
Grow more
Profit (from more good food at home)

that chicken house will produce the fertilizer for your garden and/or light up a compost pile to produce heat for that hoop house....win-win

 

Here locally today, 38 workers in a local strawberry operation/packing house tested positive for "the virus" today, and they shut the place down in the middle of picking season. We picked another 6 gallons out of our rows this morning.

 

Were these workers 'local'?

 

Article (now updated to 39 positive) doesn't say, but my guess is most are migrant labor.
UPDATE: 39 Scott Farms employees test positive for COVID-19

 

This year I'm using the Square Foot gardening method for a change, with a few modifications. The garden is 6' wide and 80' long with rows on each side for potatoes and okra, so about 600 sq. ft.. Last year I had traditional rows and about 6000 sq. ft. and it was simply too much. It was a wet spring and early summer and the weeds got a jump on me, I finally called it quits in July. I was debating even having a garden this year.

 

Summers here run from wet and short to wet & very wet.

we put up a 10 x10 greenhouse more for rain than anything else. I hope to plant some cold wx stuff inSept to see how it fairs.

 

Good sized hoop house cures wet cold spring....just saying........