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Climate Change Garden Archive 2015

Update (10/30/15)

This past week, we finished harvesting all of the peppers from the 'Pl 441 572' pepper plants and there were more peppers harvested from inside the High Tunnel than outside the High Tunnel. 

Frost in the Garden (10/23/15)

The Garden experienced a bit of frost on Monday, particularly the planting beds outside the High Tunnel. While the temperatures have gone down, the lettuce crop, both inside and outside the High Tunnel, has continued to grow. However, more lettuce has grown inside the High Tunnel than outside the High Tunnel. 

Update (10/2/15)

This past week the Climate Change Garden experienced quite a few colder days. A storm also came through the Garden on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the lettuce crops inside the high tunnel have grown a lot more than their outside neighbors.

Update (9/25/15)

The Climate Change Garden is continuing to grow, most noticeably the food crops inside the high tunnel. Many of the 'PI 441 572' peppers have started to turn red. Meanwhile, the late summer blooming plants inside the high tunnel are still considerably bigger than their outside neighbors, especially the Blue-Stemmed Goldenrods. 

Update (9/11/15)

This week the heat wave inside the high tunnel finished. Meanwhile, the Blue Wood Asters and Blue-Stemmed Goldenrods outside the high tunnel have flowered much more than their inside neighbors. The Swamp Milkweeds, both inside and outside the high tunnel, are also showing great signs of stress.

More Fall Crops and a Heatwave!

This was a busy week for the Climate Change Garden! We replaced the beans with two fall crops of lettuce and chard, and double planted the lettuce bed with more lettuce. Some of the lettuce we planted previously has also started to grow. The ‘P1 441 572’ pepper plants have grown so large in the high tunnel that we needed to apply a support structure for them! The Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod outside the High Tunnel has also started to bloom. We also are having another heat wave inside the High Tunnel to see how the newly planted lettuce and chard will react. 

A New Fall Crop!

 

The cereals in the Climate Change Garden have been replaced by a fall crop: lettuce! The new fall crop has already started to grow, both inside and outside the High Tunnel. We are interested in seeing how the conditions in the high tunnel may affect the leaf emergence of the lettuce, as well as to see if the lettuce will bolt early. Bolting is when the plant produces a flower stalk and goes to seed. This can be costly for farmers growing lettuce because lettuce is grown for its leaves, but when lettuce bolts early, the leaves may become bitter and inedible. Meanwhile, the 'Pl 441 572' pepper plants have continued to outgrow their neighboring pepper plants inside the high tunnel. The Mountain Mint plants are still receiving many pollinating visitors, while the Swamp Milkweed plants have continued to produce seeds.

Monarch Butterflies!

Monarch butterflies have started to hatch inside the High Tunnel! We have spotted three Monarch butterflies flying around.

Monarch ButterflyMonarch ButterflyMonarch Butterfly

The Harvest and the Monarchs

In the past three weeks, the Climate Change Garden has had two big events. First, most of the food crops were harvested last week and we saw differences between the food crops inside and outside the High Tunnel. With the beans, we saw that the plants inside the high tunnel produced more beans than their outside neighbors. We also saw that the peppers have grown a lot larger inside the high tunnel. 

The second event happened three weeks ago, and it was the arrival of Monarch Caterpillars! We counted from ten to fifteen caterpillars crawling around the Swamp Milkweed inside the High Tunnel. In the past week, we have counted five chrysalis hidden in the Mountain Mint, inside the High Tunnel. We look forward to seeing some Monarch Butterflies flying around the Garden in the following weeks. 

Monarch Chrysalis Found!

We found some Monarch Chrysalis hidden away in the Mountain Mint inside the High Tunnel!

Monarch Chrysalis

Monarch Chrysalis