Good morning, Rural Sprout readers, 

My backyard smells like a Canadian barbecue. Gosh, I hope you folks are okay up there. It’s so bad here in the middle of the mountains in Pennsylvania, I can’t even imagine what it’s like in Ontario. Please, be safe! Whatever that means. What can you do when the world is burning? 

I’ve been reflecting on the last six or seven years of gardening. 

It feels like every year it gets harder to make it through a season without some gardening catastrophe. My kids were lamenting that every summer, they have to spend more time indoors because of heat domes or wildfire smoke. It’s definitely a different world than when we were kids. 

But I’m thankful I’m a gardener. We’re a ridiculously resourceful lot. 

And if anyone can figure out how to keep things from going off the rails, it’s us. Maybe our obsession with garden-fresh tomatoes pushes us to the limit, but I’m thankful for all the gardeners in the world. Even when we have a horrible season, we try again next year. It’s that kind of hope and resilience that finds answers.

And in our quest to keep on picking zucchini and eating tomatoes by the bushel, I’ve got an article for you today about the effects of this extreme heat on pollen. There’s also an important section on how to keep your garden growing and producing during this crazy heat.