Garden by the Elements: Fire

To garden by the elements fire may seem like an extreme and unusual way to garden but it is not literal fire that we need to consider. The fire that we need to pay attention to is fire in the form of energy. Energy has an affect on the growth of the garden. When considering fire when gardening, look at energy in the form of heat and light. Heat and light from the sun, and thus the environment or weather, always needs consideration before you actually install a garden or when taking a fresh look at your established garden. All plants need a degree of light and heat to thrive. Heat and light has to be at least at tolerable degrees for growing and existing plants, but the soil should also be of adequate heat without any light reaching the roots of plants.

The fire energy from the heat and light of the sun is essential to all growing things. When you garden by the elements fire is one of the four major elements essential to the best possible garden. The earth’s geological weather patterns are recorded for gardeners in a chart called the temperate hardiness zone map. This map indicates weather hardiness zones according the average annual temperatures that persist in all areas of the earth. The farther away from the equator that a land is the lower the annual heat it has throughout a year and the closer to it the higher the annual heat it receives. Thus when considering installing plants in a garden you have to know how much heat the plant needs and can tolerate. You also will have to know how little heat the plants can withstand. When you garden by the elements fire, or heat and light, should always be considered even before gathering plants for the garden.

When you garden by the elements in mind take note of how nature uses elements such as fire. Fire energy from the light produced by the sun is what allows plants to use the process of photosynthesis. Plants absorb sunlight and carbon dioxide through leaves while absorbing water, nutrients, and oxygen through the roots to process food. Different plants have different light requirements. Where one plant may grow best with eight hours of sun others may flourish just as well with less light exposure or no direct light exposure at all. Therefore you need to know the requirements of the plant or plants that you intend to install or installed in your garden. It is often best to live with the elements rather than work against them by trying to adjust environment to suit a plant that would otherwise struggle to survive in weather patterns foreign to it. Fire is the one element that cannot be adjusted or changed. The elements of earth, wind, and water can be adjusted to a certain degree. For instance, you may change the soil, block the wind, or provide more water but you cannot change fire that is heat and light. You may provide light at night for some of your plants but all of your plants will depend on the light that the sun provides in your land. You can provide a shade structure in your garden. You may also grow plants in a heated greenhouse but you cannot change what the sun provides.