As the New Year approaches, it's an ideal time for gardeners to set goals that are both achievable and enjoyable. Here are our top 10 gardening resolutions to inspire you:
Preorder Spring Plants—Preordering spring plants will save you money while ensuring that the plant you want is not out of stock. The vendor offers you a discounted price to preorder, enabling them to plan more efficiently for the season, and will give those who have preordered priority over those who have not. In fact, the vendor will ship directly to your doorstep at the ideal time for planting and will notify you ahead of time that your preordered plants are on their way. This is a win-win!
Plan Ahead—Planning ahead means that when it comes time for planting, you will already know where you are planting what, and if you will need any further supplies that you don’t currently have, like new hoses or plant supports. Map out your garden on paper. If you are putting in a vegetable garden each year, looking at last year’s drawing can help you to rotate your vegetable plants so that nutrients are not depleted and diseases will not affect your new plantings. For example, brassicas are prone to downy mildew and black rot that can actually overwinter in the soil. Planting something other than the brassica family in that spot for the next 2 to 3 years will most likely prevent the problem from raising its ugly head in future seasons.
Grow Sustainably—This requires some commitment on your part but will result in healthy plants AND less waste.
Composting is one part of sustainable gardening. Composting kitchen waste, except for fats, meats, and dairy, will greatly reduce the amount of waste coming out of your kitchen. You can compost simply, with just a pile in a corner of your yard that you turn regularly, or you can compost with a bin. You can DIY a bin or purchase one commercially made.
Water Conservation—Water is a valuable resource that may not be there in the future if conservation efforts are not put into effect and well-managed. You can do your part in your garden.
Use a simple drip system with a timer to water your gardens, be they vegetable or flower. Watering from above, like with a sprinkler, results in evaporation, as well as contributing to fungal and foliar diseases. A drip system, regardless of how simple or elaborate, will water your plants at soil level, reducing evaporation, providing water directly to the roots, where it is most needed, and will reduce the occurrence of diseases.
Use a rain barrel to collect water for your garden. You can connect a drip hose directly to the rain barrel to water your garden. Rain water does not have chlorine in it. Common sense tells us that it has to be better for your family’s health.
Organic Pest Control—This involves making an educated decision on using sustainable practices to control pests, rather than reaching for the chemical pesticide. Using insecticidal soap, neem oil, or food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) are all effective alternatives to spraying chemicals on your plants, especially in your vegetable garden. You may even save money by making your own insecticidal soap or neem oil mixture; DE is so fine, that it goes ridiculously far and lasts, even through rain. Most chemical insecticides will require reapplication after a rain.
Keep a Garden Journal—Keeping a gardening journal will streamline your gardening chores and save you time and money. How? With a vegetable garden, a simple hand drawn map can help you to better manage the nutrients in your soil and disease management. For flowers and vegetables, you can keep track of what you’ve planted, and what fertilizer worked best (which means you aren’t using trial and error again and wasting money on something that doesn’t work). The same is true of pest control and disease management. You can make note of those annuals that grew best, or of a particular cultivar you liked because of its color and use that information when pre ordering for spring planting. You can even include photographs in your gardening journal, for those plants that you were extremely successful with. Finally, your garden journal may very well be a treasured heirloom that is handed down through the generations. That, in and of itself is a really good reason to keep a journal!
Join our Rewards Program—This is as simple as creating an account and logging in every time you visit our site. Every dollar spent adds a point to your account, while submitting photos on other social media sites will be worth 10 or 25 points (as long as you tag us), and every review will be worth the same. Every point you earn adds $0.05 towards future purchases. You’d be amazed at how quickly those points add up, and in today’s economy, that is saying something!
Try Something New—Too often we gardeners get stuck in somewhat of a rut. We only use the tried and true, which means we are missing out on the excitement of nurturing something new and watching it grow to put on a fantastic display or to add a new flavor to our culinary adventures. Even if a certain plant may present challenges that you have not encountered before, think of the sense of accomplishment and pride you’ll feel upon succeeding! And who knows…maybe this new plant will become a tried and true plant.
Plant a Pollinator Garden—Pollinators, especially bee species, are being decimated by agriculture’s continued use of pesticides. This started happening years ago, but has now come to the forefront, and is a problem of great magnitude! Without the pollinators, our farmers will not be able to feed our planet. If you think food prices are high now, just wait until food is scarce…or non-existent. That being said, if all of the gardeners across the world were to plant Pollinator Gardens designed to attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and others, while practicing sustainable gardening, we would all be doing our part to guarantee our future food supply. Farmers are also getting on board and practicing sustainable crop growing: reducing their use of chemical pesticides, planting trap plants, and planting plants that attract the beneficial insects that will prey on the damaging ones, without harming their crops. By shopping our Plants by Purpose, you can craft a garden with plants for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Just add some small water-sources to your garden, and if you are so inclined, a butterfly house or other shelter, like a small, covered structure for when the weather is bad…and…voila! You have a pollinator garden full of a variety of flowering plants that will hum with activity, a physical manifestation of the good you are doing!
The challenge is on!
We encourage you to adopt these resolutions and share your progress on our Facebook page. For any questions, concerns, or compliments, feel free to reach out through our Contact Page. We look forward to seeing your posts and hearing about your gardening adventures!
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Pollinators are vital to our continued existence. But you may respond - Winter is here, the pollinators are gone. There are quite a few pollinators that overwinter in or near our garden. click here. for an article that will tell you more about how to encourage pollinators in the winter months.
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