Resolutions for all gardeners
By Stephanie Bethke-DeJaegherAs the end of the year draws near, it is easy to look back and what we have learned, what we have done and not done and what battles we won and lost in the garden this past growing season. There are days that we all believe that is just what we are doing. It is often times warring with insects and diseases that threaten to take away a plant or many plants in the garden. We have looked at so many different parts of our gardening world digging literally into deep depths of the gardens in our area and sometimes merely scratching only the surface of what is really going on or what we can do.
Gardening remains a very popular past time and, like the weather, we can talk about our gardens at rather long lengths without managing to hurt someone's feelings over some particular part of it.
Although we gardeners are a passionate lot and we might have an argument or two with each other on a particular subject. We have just enough new things that happen each year to keep us interested in it, especially if we are mainly into the ornamental part of gardening and not the part that provides sustenance for our families-vegetable gardening.
The new plants, the new hot thing is just around the corner for us to explore each year. There are always new varieties and new challenges for us to look ahead to even though, right now, many of us are glad that we have a little time off from the garden.
I have so many ideas for the first few months of the new year for what we can talk about and I have not even tried really hard yet to dig into my pile of gardening literature that is given to me by so many of you.
Until then, when we are ready to move on from all of the holiday craziness that holds us until the middle of January, here are a few reasons to prepare your self for the 2008 gardening season.
The Top 10 resolutions for 2008 for the best garden season yet are: 10: I will stop complaining about watering the lawn and either let it go dormant this year or find an alternative for watering (or better yet, dig it all up and put it into a garden); 9: I will stop complaining about hauling hoses around the yard to water the perennial beds or vegetable beds and start mulching regularly so that less water is needed (or get the kids to do it more often); 8: I will put in some kinds of new flower bed or area for container gardening this year; 7: I will find a great new book on insects and study how to prevent them in my garden before they have nearly eaten the whole thing; 6: I will provide some extra plant material in my garden for winter interest; 5: I will ask for help on problems in my garden that might need an extra helping hand: 4: I will add a small or large water feature to my garden for the wildlife in my yard: 3: I will try out a new variety or two of vegetable or fruit this year (or four or five); 2: I will get up earlier and do some work in the garden before it gets too hot; 1: I will take out the creeping Charlie in my lawn for once and for all!
Thanks for reading this past year and making it such an interesting time.
For more on gardening, you can reach me at 823-4632 or email me at stephanie@starpoint.net
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rangeral
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01-02-09 10:33 AM
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Personally, this is a good time of the year for arm-chair gardening - looking at all the catologs and deciding what to buy (or what I would buy with a small lottery win) and visualizing what the new purchases would look like in the yard. Also thinking about how the first peas and corn of the new crop will taste like, whether the berry crop on the Echo Trail in the BWCA will be a good one, and so on. Helps shorten the rest of the winter!
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