At a talk at the Garibaldi Library in late March, I was asked about a certain chapter in my new book "Four Seasons in the Pacific Northwest Coastal Garden. I recognized it right away as being the chapter on Phenology. This is not to be confused with the study of the bumps on the head which is phrenology. Phenology is, instead, the study of how the biological world and its naturally occurring events are timed with seasonal and annual variations taken into account.
The Native Americans were experts at phenology without even knowing the term existed or the science behind it and would schedule their crop plantings according to the signs of nature. My favorite example was the reference to a certain planting time being “when the maple leaves were the size of squirrels’ feet.” I don’t even remember now what the particular crop was, but I thought the reference charming at the time and I still do. In the Spring, when my Japanese maples start to unfold their leaves, I always check to see if they are as large as a squirrel’s foot and wonder what I should be planting.
Other early cultures worldwide knew of the signs that indicated that the plants and animals were taking their cues from the local climate. Think of the cherry blossom festivals in ancient Japan and China whose dates can be traced to earlier than the 8th century. These have been adopted by some large cities in the U.S., especially Washington, D.C., Macon, Georgia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and San Diego, California.
But it wasn’t until 1736 that Robert Marsham became the father of modern phenology when he started systematically and precisely recording the signs of Spring on his estate in Norfolk, England. His family kept up the tradition of meticulous records for generations until 1958 when Martha Marsham died. As you can imagine, a long-time record that spans 200 years would be really helpful in a lot of crop plans. Vintners in Europe have been keeping climate records for over 500 years, which gives them a nice, long baseline to work with.
The three main factors in the study of phenology have been traditionally sunlight, temperature and precipitation, all of which -of course- are the basis of climate. These factors work together to determine the timing of natural events. One example would be the bird migrations that base their flying times on the amount of daylight, leaving their wintering grounds as the days become longer. In a reverse order are the bloom times of poinsettias, which cue in to shorter days.
In our current times of climate upheaval, a science like this would also be advantageous in noting specific changes. In my own small way, I have been doing this for about 20 years in my garden journal. Twenty years may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the dedication of the Marsham family, but it has been useful to me just in my garden plantings as well as interesting to see the year-to-year progressions.
Many of our favorite garden sayings can be traced to a form of phenology. Consider "If the oak is out before the ash, 'Twill be a summer of wet and splash; If the ash is out before the oak, 'Twill be a summer of fire and smoke." This is a saying I have never heard before, but I am certainly going to pay attention this spring. Of course, it does make things a tad more difficult as oaks aren’t easily found growing on the Oregon coast.
There is now an organization dedicated to phenology, too. It offers gardeners and amateur scientists an opportunity to record data and have it compiled with the data of other researchers. It is called the United States National Phenology Network and can be reached at www.usanpn.org/ . I kind of liked their description of phenology as being “Nature’s Calendar.” The website offers lots of ideas of keeping records and is looking for volunteer record-keepers from around the country so a larger cache of information can be gleaned. But even if you are not interested in joining other gardeners in keeping track of nature, keeping a record for your own use can be invaluable.
April is the perfect time to begin record keeping because so much changes so quickly. Migrating birds, the emergence of leaves and buds on trees and shrubs, perennials peeking through the soil, the first sign of bees, the first frog song, the first butterfly, and of course the first robin all are good climate indicators. But summer, fall and winter bring their own changes, with flowers blooming and leaves changing colors and eventually dropping.
Some other good citizen scientist programs to check out might be Project Budburst, Project Feederwatch, or Frogwatch USA. All can be found online through your search engine. Find a garden journal or make one of your own from a 59 cent notebook and get to work at becoming an amateur phenologist.
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