New Years Resolutions
By Suzzanna Walsh, Master
Gardener
It's that time of year again - time for agonizing
reappraisals of who we are, and who we wish to become. While
the resolutions of January become the dissolutions of February, there is at
least the nobility of good intentions. Yes, it's New
Year's resolution time!! The making of New Year's
resolutions goes back to the ancient Babylonians. Their
most popular resolution may have been to return borrowed farm equipment. Present day resolutions must surely include losing weight,
stopping smoking, and exercising more (or at least some). Eating
right might also make the list, as might simply 'being a better person'. Hey, except for the smoking thing, these could be mine!!
Anyway, I'm supposed to be writing about gardening. What
might your 2004 resolutions for gardening be? Here are
some, patterned after mine.
1. Better planning - Use these winter
months to decide on changes you wish to make to your garden or landscape upon
spring's welcome arrival: new or re-arranged flower beds, new plants to use,
and old favorites to keep. Go through all those
nursery catalogs that we gardeners just love to drool over and dog-ear.
2. Plant more California Natives. These indigenous plants often use less water and need less
care than plants not native to our area.
3. Plant 'water wise'.
Use plants including ground cover which are more drought tolerant than
those with unslakable thirst.
4. Do more routine maintenance than
emergency fixing. Keep those flowers deadheaded, weeds
cleared out, and minor pruning up to date.
5. Mulch, Mulch, Mulch!! This water wise and weed-inhibiting step is too often
ignored. What can be better than less water use, fewer
weeds to pull, and an attractive ground cover in your flower beds?
6. Start seedlings in the green house,
or in a sunny window in the house. Again I'm thinking
of perusing those seed catalogs. Starting your own
seedlings can afford great diversity in your plantings, a great sense of wonder
when you see those seedlings sprout through the soil surface, and, how shall I
say it?, the delicious frugality of it all.
7. Think beyond your yard. When you're getting ready to use that chemical in your
landscape, remember it might end up in the groundwater and streams that we
depend on for our needs. Is there another way?
8. Amend your soil with good compost so
that it has the nutrients necessary to sustain your plantings without the
addition of chemical fertilizers. Think natural.
9. Speaking of compost materials -
start your own. The Master Gardener Help line
volunteers would be happy to send you information to get your own compost
started. Give them a call.
10. Enjoy your garden and landscape. If you're like me, you sometimes forget to walk around
your yard and appreciate the plantings, and the simple beauty of nature, right
outside your door. Walk around, smell your roses, read
a book in that lovely gazebo you worked so hard to build, give cuttings to your
friends and neighbors, and again, just enjoy it!
HAPPY NEW YEAR from the