Gardening Charlotte

Summer gardening must haves

The hot, dog days of summer are here in Missouri. At around 2 p.m. earlier today I found myself “wimping out” of spending time in my garden, unheard of if you could see all of the work that still needs to get done. I mean let’s face it, is a garden ever really finished?

I sheepishly put away my pruners, dusted off my hat and snuck into the house hoping none of my neighbors would see me. Then I thought this is ridiculous, it’s hot, I’m retired and I’m done for the day. A friend’s posting of her thermometer in the porch shade sealed the deal – 104.5 F, and it’s only mid July.

According to the Climate Change Institute in Columbia, the trend will be for us to have longer springs, hotter summers, longer falls and milder, shorter winters with less to no snow. So far we definitely had a milder winter and longer spring. Not looking forward to a hotter Missouri August, the ones in previous decades were nothing to celebrate, the Missouri Botanical Garden calls it the “dearth,” when most of Missouri’s plants go into survival mode, or die off all together. It’s not good news for bees, with colonies at their highest populations for the year left without a source of food.

As our climate rapidly changes, we are also seeing more ticks, bigger poison ivy plants and the obvious increased exposure to more dangerous sun rays. There are places around the world now where people are advised to not be outside at all during parts of the day, or if they have to be to wear extra protective clothing because the atmosphere no longer protects us from cancer-inducing sun exposure.

I do regularly check the forecast to make sure I know what days to only work outside early in the mornings but even cloudy days now require extra precautions.

To remind myself to protect myself before I head into the weedier parts of my garden, I set up this basket of “must haves” I keep by my den door. The basket has the following, all my suggested must haves to survive the hotter summer temperatures:

30 Sunblock or higher

Bug off spray

Extra pair of socks to fend off the aggressive poison ivy vines

Clear Caladryl for those spots that get exposure

Gardening gloves

Sharp pruners

Neck towel

Small bottle of water; keep it small so you can easily carry it

Two plastic bags for seed collection and in case my gardening gloves tear

Muslin kitchen towel to wrap around my head

Wide brim garden hat

I wear sunglasses but if you don’t regularly wear glasses, add a pair to your basket.

No need to spend a lot of money on the basket, I picked this one up at one of our local thrift stores for $1. No, wait, it cost me $2, this was the second basket I bought because my cats appropriated the first one as a napping spot.

Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is a beekeeper, gardener and sometimes cook. Published by El Dorado Springs Sun once in print and online with author’s permission. Copyright 2017, all rights reserved. This column may not be reprinted, republished or otherwise distributed without author’s permission. Contact Charlotte at gardeningcharlotte at gmail dot com.

SUMMER GARDENING KIT – My basket of summer gardening must haves kept by my den door so I don’t forget to be prepared before I go outside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins).