A Summer Like I’ve Never Experienced Before

Plants are struggling to survive, and we’ll follow suit

During the last year, my region (southwestern Slovenia) received only about 30–40% of annual mean precipitation. The lack of rain has been especially pronounced in the last two or three months. Potato crops are failing, fruit trees are dropping their fruits prematurely, and some of them are going yellow, like in autumn.

Plum is prematurely dropping infantile fruits, the insects then attack it and leave behind only the seeds. The grass is dry as a bone, it crushes under the feet. The last harvest from this tree was in 2020. Photo by author.

This is not only the result of the lack of rain; it is equally due to abnormal temperatures, one heat wave after another. The heat is often accompanied by bora winds, which steal even more moisture from the ground and the plants. For the past two weeks, going outside felt like stepping into a baking oven with ventilation turned on. At that rate, the wind is no longer refreshing. Instead, it makes the heat all the worse.

I don’t remember it ever being like that. Until 2020 the summers were obviously hot, but not that hot and certainly not as dry. The rain did come every now and then, and the heat was bearable. Eventually, we’d also experience a heatwave, but not necessarily every year and not that severe. 2021 was different, and this year only underlines the trend double-fold.

The summer of 2021 marks another shift that I can only now describe fully. Until then, gardening and farming was…