La Nina and El Nino – keep calm and garden on!

There’s no doubt that the last few gardening seasons have been challenging. Gardeners all over the country have been throwing their arms up in either despair or wonder as we experienced the varied effects over spring and summer of La Nina, a weather event where stronger equatorial trade winds resulted in increased rainfall across much of Australia. Parts of our gardens thrived with the bountiful rain and lack of scorching days, whilst we also endured the disappointment of crops failing to ripen or afflicted with disease.

As gardeners, we are acutely aware of how weather, rainfall and temperatures impact our gardens, we feel those wins and losses every day. New gardeners take heart - if you’re pumpkins didn’t ripen, your root vegies split or your tomatoes came on late in the season, you are not alone – the same thing happened in our gardens too. Even the most seasoned of green thumbs cannot thoroughly predict and prepare for the swings in our weather patterns and then garden accordingly, but here we will attempt to unpack the challenges we suffered with La Nina, and explain some of what to expect as we head towards a swing to El Nino.

What impact did La Nina have?

Increased rainfall and cloudiness in the Western Pacific associated with La Nina meant above average winter-spring rainfall for Australia, particularly across the east and northern regions. Characteristic of a La Nina weather pattern, wet conditions and severe flooding were experienced in both regional and metro areas across Southern QLD, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania from winter until late spring.

This weather pattern manifested as increased rainfall, lower day temperatures but higher average night temperatures. Within our home gardens we subsequently experienced waterlogging and drainage problems, delayed growing seasons, leaching of nutrients and an increased incidence of fungal diseases. In the worst affected regions, gardens were either destroyed or ripped out due to contaminated flood waters, resulting in months of soil remediation works. On the plus side, our perennial gardens were holding their beauty far later in the season and our spring displays were also enjoyed well into summer. Our water tanks are also full to bursting!

Common signs and symptoms were:

• Increased cloud cover = warmer, balmy nights
  This resulted in increased humidity which provides favourable conditions for fungal infection, such as powdery mildew infecting summer crops.

• Excessive rain = leaches important minerals from the soil such as calcium
  This resulted in blossom end rot for zucchini and tomato plants

• Heavy clouds brought more rain, and storms occurred more frequently
  This resulted in plants being damaged through wild weather and hail.

Observations from our gardens

At Diggers, we discovered outbreaks in weeds, pest and diseases, as well as a delay in our vegetable growth, which directly affected pollination and reduced yields. We witnessed vegies splitting and deep furrows on our root crops which then became vulnerable to secondary mould. And we were unable to grow the pumpkins we grow every year for our iconic pumpkin stack in time for The Melbourne Flower Show, a testament to the seasonal changes brought on by a changing climate.

What we learnt

To persevere through these challenges, we draw on our resilience as gardeners. We are reminded of the critical importance of ‘the basics’, and about documenting our journey through photography and record keeping.

We’ve taken careful records in our gardens and trailed a variety of remedies to battle unforeseen pest and disease issues. We encourage you to do the same, and then share your successes and failures with us via email or our social media channels, so that we can all learn and grow together to create an informed community of gardeners who support each other on this tricky, but totally enjoyable journey known as gardening.

After three years of dominating weather patterns around the globe, La Nina has now ended. Weather is reportedly getting back to normal and, most likely, reverting to El Nino. The future season is likely to be far drier than we have seen for many years. As soggy as our gardens may have been, now is the time to plan ahead for drought-like conditions.

Look to include one drip (drought tolerant) plants and install an irrigation system. Planning for a scorching summer season will not be time wasted during these cooler months. Uncertainty still exists, not only with weather but also with current economic security. Taking control of what we grow and eat is as important as ever and supporting each other along the way is at the heart of why we are Australia’s largest gardening club.

Let’s put this season behind us and look forward to giving next spring the attention it deserves.

Take home tips

• Establish new trees shrubs and plants now while the soil is still warm. This will give them more then 6 months to establish before the heat of summer arrives.

• Raise vegie garden beds to improve drainage.

• Install an irrigation system in your vegie patch and group plants with high water requirements together to improve watering efficiency.

• Sow autumn and winter crops now to provide a bountiful harvest over the upcoming months.