“Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors.”
Notable biologist like Edgar Denison and Aldo Leopold kept phenological records of the natural occurrences they saw around them. Leopold had decades of journals where he noted the first arrival of spring birds, fall migrations of ducks and the first bloom of wildflowers. Keeping a notebook of when flowers bloom each year is a practice of phenology. The bloom dates can be compared over the years to see if plants may be blooming earlier due to climate change or perhaps disappearing all together.
If plants are blooming earlier, are their pollinators around when they bloom? If the pollinators are not in sync with the flowers, then seeds will not be fertilized. If the plant blooms too early, could it be damaged by a late frost? I saw spring beauties booming in mid-February this year only to be covered by several inches of snow. Dose blooming too early decrease the populations of these plants or their pollinators?
Botanical journals such as Denison’s and Leopold’s contain valuable data that we can compare to notes today to see how life has changed over time. From year-to-year, changes are small and may have their ups and downs, but when we have enough data, we can see a big picture of long-term trends. The graphs from all this data show that plants are blooming earlier and sometimes not at the same time as their pollinators leading to declining populations.
Today, instead of writing in paper journals we can record our sightings into databases like i-naturalist. Allowing so many data points to be recorded in one space where scientist have access to them has made big phenology projects less tedious. Of course, we can still record data from our yards into a garden journal. This age-old practice is a way of keeping in touch with our gardens over the years. Each of our gardens is unique, filled with one of kind individual plants that we can get to know intimately.
Recording phenology is a way of connecting to nature, of being present and attentive. Each of us can study the biological life cycles around us in our own back yards. Keeping a record of birds, blooms, insects, and weather patterns can help us become better gardeners. A garden journal can become a keepsake or just a way to jog the memory the following year. What is happening in your garden today?
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