Resolve to garden greener in the New Year.
1. Incorporate vegetables and herbs into your landscape.
Vegetable gardens are not the only option. Tucking vegetables into flowerbeds, mixed borders and container gardens can expand your planting space. Look for new compact and colorful vegetable varieties that fit nicely into small spaces, planters, and ornamental gardens.
2. Organize your tools:
Instead of wasting time hunting, resolve to get your tools organized and keep them that way. When your tools are always at the ready, you’ll be better able to take care of your yard.
3. Improve water conservation:
Although this goal is especially crucial in drought-prone areas, gardeners in every region can conserve water. Mulch is your friend because it helps the soil hold onto moisture for your plants. Add at least a 2-inch layer wherever you have bare soil. And try choosing plants native to your region; they’re better able to thrive without a lot of extra watering and other pampering. For areas of your garden that may need more water, such as lawn or a vegetable garden, an irrigation system with a timer can really help use water more efficiently.
4. Be good to mother nature:
Much of the trash that we throw away can be used to make our gardens more productive. A great New Year’s resolution is to begin to covert yard and kitchen debris into soil-enriching compost. Many materials can be used to produce compost. Grass clippings, leaves, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit clippings, shredded paper and chopped brush are a few examples of organic matter suitable for composting.
5. Maintain your lawnmower before Spring:
- Read the owner’s manual
- Drain the gasoline at the end of each mowing season
- Check the oil
- Clean out the undercarriage
- Inspect the air filter.
- Check the spark plugs
- Sharpen the blades
- Get a tune-up
Happy New Year!
MVG
