by Tom Oder: If you’re among the almost 50% of Americans who statistics show make New Year’s resolutions, be sure to remember gardening when setting your goals for a new year…
In fact, consider putting gardening at the top of your list.
Gardening can help you achieve some of the other resolutions that are often at the top of resolution lists, such as slowing down, living a simpler life, and exercising.
To help you get started, here are five goals to consider adding to your list of New Year’s resolutions:
1. If You’re Not a Gardener, Become One
You don’t even have to have a yard. Condo and apartment dwellers might be surprised to know how many flowers, herbs, and small vegetables they can grow in pots. Beginning gardeners might also be surprised to learn the many other benefits of gardening. Like all exercise, gardening burns calories while also helping you to destress and unplug. It will also teach you patience — after all, you can’t hurry Mother Nature.
2. Reduce Your Lawn Area
Lawns are high-maintenance money pits. If you replace some of your grass with shrubs, perennials, or even vegetables, you’ll spend less time behind the lawnmower and less money on fertilizing, watering during droughts, and re-seeding in the spring or fall. You can even begin this project now by organically killing a portion of your lawn. All you have to do is select an area of grass and smother it with compost and aged manure or “burn it up” by solarizing it under plastic sheets. By spring, the area should be ready for planting and mulching.
3. Add Native Plants
This will really simplify your life! Native plants adapt much easier to periods of stressful weather, such as droughts or bitter winter cold snaps than the hybrids and non-natives that are often seen in nurseries across the U.S. Native plants also help sustain beneficial insects and bird populations because they attract native pollinators and birds that might not be drawn to non-natives.
4. Start a Compost Bin
Here, again, you don’t need a yard or large space to create garden compost. Small composters no bigger than a patio grill are available from garden centers or online. They’ll turn kitchen scraps, leaves, or yard waste into what some gardeners call “black gold” — nutrient-rich material for your pots or in-ground plants. Industrious and handy gardeners, of course, can build their own bins using 4×4 posts and heavy gauge wire or slatted boards. Either way, for the eco-conscious they serve the added purpose of reducing the amount of recycled material that otherwise would go to the curb.
5. Add One New Sustainable Method to Your Gardening Routine
Working in harmony with nature instead of fighting it will improve the health of your soil, increase the bounty from your garden, and minimize negative effects on the environment — as well as cut down on your stress! There are many sustainable practices you can use to increase your gardening enjoyment. One example would be to resolve to eliminate chemical fertilizers. Another would be to install one or more rain barrels to capture rain runoff from the roof. You could also start using a drip or soaker hose that would put water directly on the plant root zone rather than broadcasting it to unintended places from an oscillating sprinkler.
