Taken from Eclectic Gardener @ www.teachinggarden.org
Written by Alan Hickman

So it’s official; the last time southern Ontario had a summer this dry was fifty years ago. For air- conditioned city-dwellers the drought probably doesn’t even register. We’ve buried enough pipes down to the lake that water isn’t rationed any more and ‘in-season’ vegetables are still being trucked in from Mexico so, apart from fewer wet week-ends, what’s to notice?
On the radio a month or so ago, there was a passing mention that hay, cut in the spring and stored for next winter’s feed, was being fed to cattle in July because there was no grazing left in the fields. Other than that the news feeds seem to be oblivious.
Where local farmers gather though, the talk is more dire. So-and-so: "Planted fifty-five acres to soy beans and he’s got nothing; nothing at all. Most of it didn’t germinate and what did dried up." Another: "He’s not going to have any corn or pumpkins." Someone else: "He doesn’t have irrigation and he’s not going to get any apples this year. They’re only this big and they’ve starting to ripen already."
If there’s any consensus in the agricultural community it’s that the best farm crop is houses.
At the Brampton Fairgrounds, the flower beds are a sorry sight. Despite the efforts of volunteers - lugging buckets of water and stringing together hundreds of feet of hose to hand water - even beds filled with well-established, drought-tolerant, hemerocallis have browned out. The beds of marigolds are as scraggy as a flock of vultures ‘round a pile of bones.
Potatoes planted in the Peel Teaching Garden nursery area ended their growth a month too soon. Last year the first potatoes were delivered to the Knight’s Table restaurant the first week of September; this year it was the beginning of August. With barely three months instead of four to fill out the tubers, crop yield is way down. One potato variety, which last year produced 10 kilos of potatoes for every kilo planted, this year produced only 3 kilos per kilo planted. Another variety last year yielded 11 to 1; this year it is down to less than 7 to 1.In 2006, students and volunteers at Peel Teaching Garden grew more than a thousand pounds of fresh vegetables for donation to the Knight’s Table, and this year the target was raised to one ton. The area set aside for vegetables in the garden was more than doubled - over 3,500 square feet to potatoes and tomatoes alone - in the hope of doubling the crop; but, without rain, even matching last year’s harvest will be more a matter of good luck than good planning.
Although the yield is down, there are vegetables to harvest, so, last Saturday, when a volunteer drew attention to a piece in the previous day’s Brampton Guardian, ‘Summer Slowdown Leaves Shortage at Food Bank’, stating that Salvation Army Community and Family Services "desperately needs donations", a small care package was assembled - about twenty-five pounds of cucumbers, tomatoes and potatoes. The volunteer said that, on his way home, he would drop the produce off at the address given in the newspaper report. The following is the gist of an email I received later in the day:
‘Had a devil of a time locating the place but eventually got to the Salvation Army drop off main depot and there was no one there and no signs giving their hours. Phoned them later and got an answering service after pushing x amount of buttons. Said I had fresh farm produce to deliver regarding their plea in the Guardian and to call me. Thought about it for a while and thought: "They’re not going to phone back until Monday." So I took the veggies over to the Knights Table. Wow! Were they ever enthusiastic about getting fresh garden produce. Some of their clients were sitting around outside eating and they individually said how great it was we were bringing things. Makes it all seem worthwhile. So much for Sally Ann!’
Personally I had much the same experience last year when I phoned for information. The details of the call are forgotten, only the impression remains that whoever answered the phone seemed indifferent to my enquiry about donating fresh food and really didn’t give me the information that I asked for.
Farmers and gardeners pretty much have to put up with the weather they get, but organizations who are looking for food can do a lot to prevent a donation drought. Being donor friendly, having a human face and expressing genuine appreciation are all strategies that clearly work.

Day +27 H:36 chance of showers UV6 Winds SW15km/h P.O.P.30%
Night +17 H: 27 chance of rain /thunderstorms 3.2mm W10km/h P.O.P.60%