Berry, Berry Nice Weather Mild, Wet Spring And Summer Has Many Gardens Bursting

Pretty perennials and a berry season expected to produce loads of plump, succulent fruit are two blessings from last winter’s heavy snowfall and the cool summer upon us.

But the mild, wet weather has many vegetable gardeners cursing their corn, troubling over their tomatoes and seething about their sweet basil.

“I don’t think it’s as bad a growing season as everything thinks it is. The flowers are great,” said Mountain View Farms grower Susi Faville, of Coeur d’Alene. “The things that really like heat are just sitting there sulking, but all the other stuff is happy.”

In July, Spokane County reported precipitation at 152 percent of normal. That’s creating favorable crop conditions south and west of Spokane and in more arid regions like the Palouse, where wheat, peas and lentils are doing well.

Flower lovers also are enjoying prolific blooms and brighter colors this year. But vegetable gardeners, along with hay and bluegrass farmers, are disappointed with their yields.

The moisture is creating the most problems in North Idaho and Washington’s northernmost counties. Sandpoint’s July rainfall is 279 percent of normal, for example. That’s after the region experienced the second-snowiest winter on record, said Dan Barney, superintendent of the University of Idaho’s Sandpoint research center.

As a result, farmers lost much of their winter wheat to snow mold.

“Some farmers have given up on that crop, others went in with spring wheat or barley but it’s not going to give them the same return.”

The winter was particularly hard on trees, shrubs and plants in North Idaho, Barney added. It snowed early and then rained, creating a large ice slab that remained all winter. In the spring, the melt-off began from beneath the ice chunk, which slowly sank into the ground, taking with it fences, tree limbs, brush and other foliage.

“That ice chunk tore up a lot of trees, both in the nurseries and the landscapes,” Barney said.

Garden crops in the northern part of the state are suffering not just from their late start, but from the fact that the winter snow layer acted as a protective blanket under which fungus, bacteria and pests survived.

Fortunately, that snowy quilt also protected Idaho’s mountain huckleberry bushes.

“It should be an outstanding year for huckleberry pickers and I would expect the berries to be extra large and juicy this year,” said Barney, who specializes in huckleberry research.

Jan Schmitt, president of the Inland Empire Gardeners, said she’s noticed mildew on the wildflowers this year. But her own garden in Spokane is thriving.

“I think it’s a very good growing season. I don’t really have any complaints.”

That’s not what Northwest Seed and Pet horticulturist J. Ray is hearing. The wet and humid weather has many of his customers battling mildew and bugs, particularly slugs, spider mites and aphids.

In wet-weather years, the individual soil climate of a person’s land can make a big difference, said Sydney McCrey, master gardener at Washington State University’s Spokane cooperative extension office.

“Some people are having wonderful luck with vegetable gardens, but others are having seeds rot in the ground.”

For flower enthusiasts, it’s a great year for ornamentals, said Coeur d’Alene Garden Club President Betty Howell. Although her roses have a few black spots on their leaves (a sign of mildew), most of the blooms are lasting longer, and boasting more vibrant hues.

“The color has been really intense this year,” Howell said.

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