Kim Stoddart on The Climate Change-Resilient Vegetable Garden
Photography courtesy of The Climate Change-Resilient Vegetable Garden. If you go online to search for a book on vegetable gardening, you’ll discover there are literally thousands of titles on the topic. We interviewed Stoddart to find out more about what climate-resilient vegetable gardening looks like, and how you can get started. Natural hedging, trees, and shrubs slow the flow of water (and therefore mitigate flood risks) into Kim Stoddart’s vegetable patch. Going no-till is a huge step to help maintain soil structures and the life within it. “Veggies that are over-pampered can become lazy and develop shallow root structures, becoming reliant on the gardener and less resilient, as a result,” cautions Stoddart. 2. Don’t coddle your plants. 3. Think before your spend. Stoddart’s book includes a rainwater harvesting guide with tips for all size properties and budgets. Stoddart shares her favorite resilient and perennial crops, including Jerusalem artichokes. In the book, she details how home-saved seeds can become more adapted to your growing conditions. Stoddart says she’s always looking for wildlife in her vegetable garden. What surprised Stoddart the most while researching and writing this book was how the food system is so susceptible to the impact of climate change when crops on the other side of the world fail. According to Stoddart, climate change-savvy gardening is as much about shoring up your own personal strength and abilities as it is about the work you do on the ground in your growing space. 6 Find your inner resilience. “I have run courses for many different groups, of different ages and demographics, from Royal Horticultural Society shows to empowerment sessions with the long-term unemployed and with people on the autistic spectrum,” Stoddart says. 7. Throw out the ‘rules.’ With its flexibound cover The Climate Change Resilient Vegetable Garden has an accessible cover price of $28.99. So, gardeners feel guilty that they aren’t doing enough.” Stoddart says she hopes to give gardeners the confidence to make choices that work for their gardens because everyone’s garden is different.