This story is produced by Montana Free Press/Mountain Journal in collaboration with Grist as part of the Report for America Local News Initiative. Stalks of corn tower over Greg Price. Their tassels wave in the breeze as Price weaves through rows on a warm September afternoon in Missoula. He points to goldfinches and red-winged blackbirds flitting through the air, smiling when the birds swoop down to the massive face of the randomly dispersed sunflowers among the corn. They’ll snag a few seeds before flapping back into the cottonwood trees bordering River Road Farm where Price has been director for nearly 25 years. “We grow these sunflowers just for the birds,” he says. “It’s good food.” The farm’s chickens like it too, easier heard than seen as they scratch and squawk among rows of corn, lettuce and other veggies.  Price has managed this neighborhood farm near downtown Missoula since 2002. It’s one of 22 farms and community gardens across the Missoula valley run by local nonprofit Garden City Harvest. Price’s farmer’s tan proves just how many hours he spends outside, and he laughs as a pale stretch of shoulder pokes out from under his T-shirt as he rakes his hands over carrot tops.   River Road Farm Director Greg Price brushes carrot tops to check for sap-sucking insects known as leaf hoppers. He heads toward one patch of corn in particular. In this smaller square of the garden, all the corn plants stand at about half the size of the others.  “In July, the first round of corn was about 4 feet high,” he says. “It got flattened from east wind; that’s the first time that had ever happened.” Normally, Price explains, corn pops back up after being blown down, but the wind hit these stalks again shortly after the first storm. “Ten days later as it stood back up, it got flattened in the other direction,” he says. “It was happening while it was being pollinated so as you can imagine that block of corn didn’t do so well.” To garden is to live in a perpetual Goldilocks-esque loop. Plants need enough water, but not too much. Some need regular pruning, but cut in the wrong spot, or at the wrong place, and it all goes bad. Temperatures must be warm, but not too hot, and cold, but not so cold that a frost comes in lest you find yourself squatting in the dirt cradling a tomato seedling that had the very life choked out of it. Climate change is making the practice even more complicated. This corn whiplash is one of many changes Price is noticing in the garden. And he’s not alone, says Abiya Saeed, Montana State University’s extension horticulture specialist in Bozeman.   “We’re further north, where gardeners already have tough conditions to grow things in,” she says.   The tough job gets tougher, according to Saeed, with a changing climate. “Over the past century, our average temperature has increased by 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit,” she says. “That doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you think about that in terms of plants and insect life cycles, it’s a huge deal.” Montana’s historically frigid winters have given gardeners a hand, Saeed explains. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Climate Hubs report that a longer growing season may permit multiple generations of insect pests per year, and can increase pest pressure overall. In Livingston, Farm to School Park County’s Executive Director Rachael Jones says Montana’s increasingly warmer winters are especially tough.  “We rely on winter cold snaps to deal with pests,” she says. “Now we are getting different pests and more unpredictability in the shoulder season that can make or break a crop.” Jones says her nonprofit has focused on only growing crops they can rely on to grow well. She’s referring to the “not so exciting” foods, she jokes, like carrots, garlic and onions.  Like Missoula, Livingston is no stranger to wind either, but Jones says wind events compound with new challenges like pests and droughts.  Garden City Harvest Outreach and Impact Director Genevieve Jessop Marsh and Price discuss weeds as Marsh holds a “shaggy soldier” seedling she pulled from the carrot patch. Credit: Ellis Juhlin As an extension specialist, Saeed spends much of her time answering questions from the public, while helping gardeners troubleshoot when things don’t go as planned. When people brought in plants that were struggling this year, she says environmental issues were often to blame. “That isn’t uncommon because this environment is tough for growing things but to me we saw more issues associated with extreme environmental fluctuations,” Saeed says. “With climate change, that’s something we’re likely to continue to see more of.”  Like the wind storm that toppled Price’s corn, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense due to human’s planet-warming emissions. Back in Missoula, Garden City Harvest surveyed members of their community gardens to see how climate change is impacting them and the produce they grow.  Extreme weather came up often in the survey responses, like from Valeria Pateman, who has gardened in Missoula for 30 years. But this year, many of her early season vegetables failed after a late frost swept through. “I had to restart many of the plants since the weather got suddenly frigid and froze multiple starts,” she says.  Sarah Holden is Missoula County’s horticulture agent, and like Saeed she spends much of her time fielding questions from gardeners. “This environment is tough for growing things but to me we saw more issues associated with extreme environmental fluctuations. With climate change, that’s something we’re likely to continue to see more of.”Abiya Saeed, extension horticulture specialist, Montana State University “Western Montana gardeners are noticing changes,” says Holden, adding that gardeners are seeing more variability in the growing season than they have in the past. “They’re coming in asking questions, they’re frustrated. The growing season is longer than it used to be, which is great for things like tomatoes, squash and peppers but it’s not just like ‘oh we have more warm days.’”  Hotter summers, warmer winters and more days with smoky skies were all mentioned frequently in Garden City Harvest’s survey. Bruce Russell Sr., who has tended his community garden plot since 2011, has been able to plant seeds earlier each year, but that the longer growing seasons had drawbacks. “I’ve seen more days with temperatures above 100 degrees, and a proliferation of weeds in the aisles [between plots],” Russell says. But in a changing climate, many gardeners say working in the soil brings them peace, and a sense of deeper connection to the natural world.  Back at River Road, Price walks between the rows of veggies he grows for community-supported agriculture members’ weekly produce boxes. When asked what keeps him coming back despite the challenges, he shrugs. “The farm is the center piece of my life, not because it’s work, but because it’s food,” he says. “It’s real, it’s fundamental, that’s how I center my whole world. It’s easy to be in that environment; to work hard, to appreciate good things and hard things.” Price says he’s prepared for the volatility of a warming world because he prioritizes polyculture, or growing many different plants together, rather than a single planting of one crop like corn.   “It’s an important part of the resilience of any place,” he says. “Sure, I’ve had more struggles in the last 20 years than the previous 10, with different crops, but I never have a whole failure because I’m not just growing a singular crop.” Price knows that challenges will come, but trusts the resilience of the system he’s created.  “Every year something will go wrong,” he says. “But mostly, things will be fine.” The post How Montana’s changing climate is reshaping gardening appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less