Making New Year’s Resolutions for the garden is much more fun than making resolutions in my personal life. No need to give up the cake in the garden; the exercise I get while working in the garden gives me an excuse to eat cake!
As 2018 leaves us, I give you a list to pursue for next year. Some of these resolutions I have already achieved through many years of work, and some of them I continue to pursue, but I will put them all here in case you need some gardening inspiration.
1. Don’t let any weeds go to seed in the garden again, ever.
This is a big one, I know. But every time you see the fronds of the crabgrass plant about to mature enough to spread seeds or the tiny flowers of henbit appear, pull up the plant. Clip off the seed heads and throw them in the garbage if you can’t manage pulling up the weeds. Get my ebook on weed control for more ideas to stop the weeds.
There is a saying, “One year’s seeds makes seven years’ weeds,” and this is true. One mature crabgrass plant can shower 150,000 seeds onto your garden, and so pulling up that one crabgrass plant before it goes to seed can keep you from dealing with 150,000 crabgrass plants in the future.
2. Hoe the soil early and often, sort of like unscrupulous politicians encourage voting.
Don’t wait until the weeds are six inches tall to deal with them. Walk through the garden when the weeds are very tiny, or even before they appear, and lightly disturb the soil with a hoe. This will kill all the weeds and those that are about to appear, with very little effort from you.
Try to do this on the early morning of a dry, hot, day and the weeds will shrivel away in moments.
3. Consider applying mulch to the garden if all this hoeing sounds like too much work.
If you apply it heavily enough, weeds will stay away all season. Consider using heavy-weight, professional-grade landscape fabric if applying mulch made of organic materials sounds like too much work.
Don’t bother with the landscape fabric sold in home centers; it will deteriorate within a few months. I don’t care what it says on the box.
4. Lay out permanent beds in the vegetable garden.
Cultivate this area, and do not walk in it. Leave the paths between the beds for foot and wheelbarrow traffic. Reduce the cost of fertilizers and compost by applying the material only in the beds instead of broadcasting it over the entire garden.
5. Eliminate chemical fertilizers from your garden.
Feed the soil, and the soil will feed the plants. Add organic matter like leaves or straw, compost, grass clippings, alfalfa meal, blood meal, bone meal, or a general organic fertilizer to the garden. Purchase worms from a bait store or online, and add them to the garden if you don’t have any. Chemical fertilizers damage beneficial soil microbes and add unnecessary salt to the soil. Encourage soil life, and your plants will thrive.
6. Get a soil test every year and follow the recommendations.
Ask for organic fertilizer recommendations in the test results. The soil in my garden is deficient in phosphorus, and isn’t very high in anything. It’s the first year on new ground. Because I know that it lacks phosphorus, I can spend my money on adding phosphorus instead of spreading around the money on all of the soil nutrients. Soil test results also indicate whether or not the garden needs lime, and how much lime it needs.
7. Plan ahead for irrigation.
Nothing needs water in my garden this rainy winter, but July will arrive, and instead of dragging around hoses and using sprinklers that water irregularly, I will set up drip irrigation. Drip irrigation saves water and also reduces disease because it doesn’t wet the plant’s foliage.
8. Try something new.
Whether it’s a new flower or vegetable, starting plants from seeds, learning to root cuttings, managing the weeds differently or using season-extension techniques, begin a new project in the garden. My project will be constructing a low tunnel or hoop house in the garden from plastic conduit and greenhouse plastic.
I will grow lettuces and other crops that benefit from a little warm weather and protection, and then in the summer I will cover it with shade cloth to protect plants from the scorching sun. I’ll update you on this project as it progresses; I plan to begin it this coming week!