New Year's Resolutions (for Gardening)

JBtheExplorer

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Having New Year's resolutions is a tradition. The start of the new year is a good time to stop and think about what we want to do better in our lives. There are many typical resolutions which people often give up on, such as eating healthier or exercising more, but what about in the garden?

We can make New Year's resolutions for our own garden and become better for it. Many of you know how I feel about using only native plants, and that would be a great choice for a resolution, but you can always start smaller.

A great New Year's resolution is to start adding native plants in your current garden. If you aren't ready to completely switch over to a native garden, adding just one or two native plants may change your mind in the long run. Start with some of the more commonly grown native plant species in your area. In the US, Orange Milkweed is a phenomenal way to make your entrance into native gardening. It can be found at many garden centers, and seed packets are even easier to find. It's a plant that will look good in most gardening styles, as long as it has sun.

Now that I think about it, I gave both my mom and my grandma one this past Spring. They, as many people are, were unsure of it because of the name "milkweed". I told them to just wait and see, and if they didn't like it, I'd remove it for them. By late summer, the plants started to bloom and both my mom and my grandma instantly realized how much they love it. Since then, one of my Grandma's friends and my aunt both want some for their own gardens after seeing it in hers.

It doesn't surprise me. It's a beautiful plant, as are many native species, but people have such a hard time changing their mind until they see it in person, and often times people refuse to see something in person if they've already made their own opinion about it. Had I not planted those milkweeds with the promise to remove them if they didn't like them, my mom and my grandma would've never even considered adding something called "milkweed" to their gardens. Now they both have a plant that they each consider to be their favorite.

Orange Milkweed is only the tip of the iceberg. If you give native plants a chance, you may open up what seems to be a whole new world of gardening. You may see gardening in a completely new way. There's a deeper meaning to native gardening that you can't quite understand until you start it, and until you learn about it.

With a new year right around the corner, think about making a difference in your garden. I'm personally asking you to make your New Year's resolution be about native gardening. The best possible time to start is now. In 2016, I hope to make many more posts about native gardening. I want to share my experiences. I want to share what I've learned. I want to share the interesting creatures that rely on them, and I want to share photos I take of my own native plants to show that native plants are truly beautiful.

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Happy New Year, everyone!
 
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My plan for the new year is to overhaul our garden, change the old decorations to a radical design but the plants will remain and we will just add more plants. Right now we trimmed the bushes and small trees for the Christmas season because we adorned the garden with Christmas lights. I am also planning of buying small figurines like elves and small animals to decorate our front yard.
 
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Actually JB that is my goal for spring...completely eliminate the grassy parts of my front yard and put in native/perennial plants. And another still pond; hopefully I'll get more frogs. I did that at my last house. I've actually dedicated a big chunk of my front yard to vegetable garden beds but I want there to be zero mowing required in front of my house at all.

My yard is about half an acre and I leave as much as possible wild and tangled. The township (not to mention my neighbors) would come down on me if I just let it all go to seed, plus I have to keep the area where the dogs go mowed so I can pick up their poo. :poop: But I leave as much as possible untended.

I have a deep dislike for sterile lawns with fussy little flower beds.
 
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Start growing edibles in the new small garden so far I only have 3 things in mind: two variety of chillies and a variety of tomato. I might start growing other herbs as well, but that might be done from the kitchen window's sill ;)
 
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This is a great post JB, lots of food for thought... I'm really interested in making sure our garden is water-wise and full of indigenous plants that are friendly to the local bird population, that will attract bees and butterflies and that will eventually be self seeding and established. Good luck to us all!
 
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I don't make any New Year's resolutions. Life is too unpredictable. All I want to is to enjoy little things, eat fresh vegetables and grow more miniature roses:) Oh, and maybe I'll buy a new sprouter.
 
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there are 2 things that come to mind..
1. replace the sliding glass door
2. make sure that i utilize the veggie gardens to their fullest ,so i can give away all the excess to all my friends and fellow employees...
 
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there are 2 things that come to mind..
1. replace the sliding glass door
2. make sure that i utilize the veggie gardens to their fullest ,so i can give away all the excess to all my friends and fellow employees...

Yes indeed, me too irt the vegetable garden (mine pales in comparison to yours though!)

Last season's veg garden was craptacular because we had so much rain and cloudy days. Blight took out/diminished most of my tomatoes, eggplants and potatoes and about ten thousand slugs partied in my garden, eating much of everything else. And my fall/cool season veggies all bolted when we had such a warm autumn.

I guess only so much we can do when dealing with Mother Nature (and climate change.) Hopefully I'll be better prepared for wrong growing conditions next year and will adjust accordingly.
 
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JBtheExplorer

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The township (not to mention my neighbors) would come down on me if I just let it all go to seed, plus I have to keep the area where the dogs go mowed so I can pick up their poo.

I suggest collecting the seed from your native plants. They can be donated to various places like nature centers, prairie restorations, & schools, among other places. Some prairie restorations and large scale plantings will often require information of the source of your native plants (not where you purchased them, but where they originated from before that), since they need to know that it's a true native to your area and not grown in other state and not a hybrid or other variety. Schools and other small projects are much less likely to ask that since they're used for smaller garden projects. Of course, you can also give them to people you know and even suggest they share some with people they know.

This year, I got well over 1,000 Orange Milkweed seeds from two of my plants. I could've easily cut the pods off months earlier but I chose to keep all of them to help expand my native garden and to give to others. When more of my plants start producing seed, I'll definitely be donating them for a good cause.

That's yet another great thing about native gardens. Once established, you have year after year of free seed that you can donate, making them that much more important.
 

JBtheExplorer

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http://content.yardmap.org/learn/milkweeds/

Coincidentally this article about native milkweed dropped into my inbox this morning. Too bad it's too late to gather seed! I don't have any growing on my property but I know where it grows wild.

It's never too late to purchase packets of them from garden centers, though! Usually around $2 for 35-75 seeds, and since they need to be outdoors during winter to grow in Spring, now's the best time to do it if you want to see them bloom next year!

I found this image online of someone who used quite a few orange milkweeds around their house and thought it was a great example of someone who used Milkweed in a more formal setting than my prairie-style garden.

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