Gardening Resolutions for 2008

1) I will buy/grow some filler plants for those terrible gaps that I have at summer's end.

2) I will list every plant I purchase, name/color/size/etc, where I will plant it so next spring I'm not planting willy-nilly 'cause by then I've forgotten my orig. plan.

3) I will buy/grow more butterfly plants

4) I will use my Messenger products religiously, I didn't in 2007 and I regretted it

what are yours?

To re-do a lot of my beds,replacing those plants that died in the heat and lack of water due to a broken waterline,with native nector and host plant for butterflies and caterpillars and more native fruiting shrubs for the birds. Just getting caught up is big on my list.

P

To re-do beds that were here when we moved in and to weed, water and fertilize more. To make sure I plant the pecan trees.

vossner your number 2 should be my main resolution for the new year. Somehow no matter how hard I try I plant willy-nilly, I never can remember what I planted and half the time I have forgotten where something was planted.

I call thos willy-nilly beds...my "Plunket Beds" ...plunket here...plunket there...just plunket anywhere..*G*


P

Hi, I think this is a wonderful idea for a thread. I subconsciously make a list every year. I've decided to put less effort into vegie production & more into low maintenance beautification. I'm looking to plant some continuously blooming rose hedges to hid my chainlink fence & add privacy. I also want roses with ornamental hips to add winter interest. I want to make nooks & crannies in my backyard where one can be alone to meditate or visit with friends, so I'm looking to add arbors, benches; etc... Staying within my budget will be the real challenge. Might need to go for the 5 year plan. May you all succeed in 2008 or at least enjoy trying.

I have a big list of resolutions! My goal is to have a well established beautiful yard that is as organic as possible.

1. Keep up with weeding.
2. Religiously apply my Alfalfa tea recipe, I didn't do it this year as an experiment, what a difference...not good!
3. Finish my back yard ...Paths, Patios, Redo pond area, plan and plant East side beds....
4. Plant more native, butterfly attracting,waterwise plants.
5. Plant more fragrant plants.
6. Actually make a calender of what chores I should do for plants and when and then do it on time.
7. Start a compost pile.
8. Start a worm bin
9. Make myself part with few "problem" plants.
10. Attract more birds.
11. Finally, but not least, have a few outdoor parties/ BBQ's this year before it gets too hot!

You all have great resolutions !!
My #1 is- more weeding and #2 staying within budget. I also like the idea about attracting butterflies, but not birds--they eat my cherries and berries. :)
What are Messenger products? What is Alfalfa tea for ?
thanks- Good luck to all !

I started from scratch gardening in sage covered sand 2 years ago. As such, there is soooo much to do - and since I'm in a new zone/environment, there is sooooo much to learn. Things I know intuitively for growing in a z8 or z9 apply not at all here in the high desert z6b! So, everything is renewed again, and after more than a decade of gardening, I am again a beginner...

1. Keep my compost pile as well watered as my garden
2. Take more steps away from chemical fertilizers and towards natural & organic
3. Continue to mulch, mulch, mulch
4. Choose two or 3 varieties of garlic based on harvest season 2007 & 2008 trials and begin growing them from my own bulb stock so that they can become aclimatized to our home
5. Complete more shade progression drawings - I have several winter month drawings, but very few spring, summer and fall ones (guess what season is the least busy!)
6. Start saving seeds from 1 or two varieties of OP vegetables - candidates could be a bean and black eye peas (I'd like to save squash seeds, but I like too many and am not yet up to the segregation and care that needs to be taken to keep them true.)
7. Plant out all my basil seedlings before I kill them indoors
8. Experiment with various nutrient teas such as alfalfa tea, compost tea or manure tea
9. Plant more trees
10. Get an edge up on the rabbits
11. Keep the bird feeders/waterers filled more consistantly
12. In addition to veggies, try some more flowers this year - echinacia, more marigolds (even though the bugs love to eat the blossoms) and maybe some russian sage.
13. Grow 50 sunflower plants
14. Double my garlic planting for Fall 2008 (Fall 2007 I planted 100 cloves)
15. Continue to improve all things related to my garden journal - more weather notes, more observations, more details
16. Come up with some sort of plan for the back yard (it's fenced in but other than 10 lonely, skinny, baby trees, it is bare sand) - won't have time to implement much next year, as I am still focusing in my fenced garden area that contains my veggies, mini orchard and "experimental station." Perhaps it is on a 5 year plan, also - due to time & money constraints.
17. Grow something (pretty much anything) in the back yard that will show some green this summer - just so it isn't so "desert tan" looking - perhaps tomatoes - they grow very well in the desert sun, with beautiful deep green vines - they just don't like to SET FRUIT here. Rabbits and chipmonks don't like them, and the local hawk moth population can have a field day. Sunflowers also love us. Maybe some of them, too. We won't consider this part of the "landscaping plan" - just a green band aid to keep us alive for 2008!
18. By hook or crook, figure out how to get Morning Glories to survive out here.
19. Plant winter rye in the raised beds as they are done for the season
20. Put some sort of water feature in my fenced garden
21. Move my bearded irises out of the veggie raised beds and into some place else
22. Plant garlic around the inside perimeter of my veggie garden in an effort to deter chipmonks

The list goes on and on and on... I guess it is more a To Do list than a resolutions list. I love lists, so I go a little over board any time someone says to list something! Well, one thing I have noticed about moving to the high desert - I will never run out of things to do!

Soap, ck out this link. http://www.edenbio.com/

then do a search right here on DG for "messenger". There are quite a few interesting/information packed threads about it.

It is my most favorite magic potion for plants.

kmom...that is ONE hefty list !

JasperDale, THIS year is when it starts getting EASIER - last year was the "Build Infrastructure" year - 1,000 ft of fencing to fence in the back yard, 250 ft of fencing to fence in a 75x50 garden area (our lovely 100 lb dogs being nearly as destructive as the jack rabbits), 1,500 or so feet of trenching and PVC pipe to bring water to the front fence and to the garden area and to the shop. 500 ft of trenching and electrical conduit to bring electricity to the shop. And planted a dozen trees. Also built 3 raised beds - 4 ft x 8 ft. Of course, also this year I am broke! ... according to the 5 year running plan, somewhere around 1010, we will be running water out to the 2 1/2 acres out back and turn that sand and sage into a pasture... I love my tractor almost as much as my husband and son who did nearly all the work (I make iced tea in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter - and I finance the projects - the men did all the actual work). It is a blessing being married to a man who can build you anything you can show him a picture of! ... my one regret -- we should have gotten an "Ag well" when we sunk the well, not a residential one. We are going to wear our pump out, and our holding tank is too small for the scale of irrigation we will eventually need to do... (if I can find a way to make $500-$1000 of of this piece of sand, we'll qualify for "Ag water use" - which is way more gallons a day than "Residential...)

By the way, of course, the LIST is always longer than the List of Things Actually Done!

Should we all meet back here this time next year to recap the year & make our 2009 resolutions? Hopefully, we'll bump into each other now & then.

Everyone has great ideas! I'm keeping mine simple, so that way I'll accomplish all of them and then I can be proud, lol.

1. Vossner's number 2 is my main goal. I need to add a touch of order to my jungle. Thankfully I asked all of my inlaws and other family members for plant tags for christmas, so that will help and I've been building a garden database for my plants that lists various traits, where they are located on the property, a picture, etc. Maybe when I get that done, I'll stop buying plants that I already have and I'll be able to find everything even when it's not in bloom!

2. Up the level of composting that I do.

3. Finish the outdoor fireplace that I started in the fall.

4. Do something about the evil bermuda grass that keeps invading the front bed from the neighbor's yard.

jessmerritt,
The bermuda grass by itself (from my own experience) should keep you pretty busy. Good luck with item #4! The rest sounds pretty good.

Oh, I've tried everything except nuclear warfare on the bermuda grass...round up, blocking the light with black plastic, over-the-top bermuda grass killer. I get about a month or two of peace, thinking I've won and then it starts creeping in from the neighbors yard again. So, the bermuda grass has been on the to do list for the past few years, lol, and I'm constantly pulling it, but it never goes away!

My new years resolution is to get a nice walk way of some kind leading from my drive way to my front entry AND put more effort in my plant selection and placement so I don't have to keep putting wheels under them.

This coming year I will not ...
Oh, forget it! I will keep buying and planting, no matter WHAT I say!
CC

I'm exhausted just reading kmom's list ! That's a LOT of infrastucture to accomplish.

Keep better records
Don't let my seedlings get ahead of me in the greenhouse
Start some fall crops for next winter
Order an plant fall bulbs instead of just thinking about it
Start some lettuce and radishes this weekend

1. I keep fastidious notes in a journal about where, when and what I plant and then go back and mark the planting with plant markers. However, in the past I get so busy planting that I get behind on the markers. Inevitably I end the year in December with many unmarked plants (but I do have the written record of what is where thank goodness!). My biggest resolution is to install markers as I plant even if it is using the metal marker with a grease pencil to jot the info onto until I get the nicer labels printed out.

2. Do a better job of watering my containers. I start off so good and then vacations and other summer activities get me sidetracked and before I know it I've lost a container-full of plants. :-(

3. Do a better job of keeping up on my weeding. I tend to make it a 2 or 3 time a year thing instead of doing a little bit each week.

4. Refresh my bed edges mid-summer with an edger as most of my beds do not have any hardscape edging.

5. Dampen my plant acquisitions to match my level of being able to get them planted. I always buy so much at the start of spring (easy to sit around all winter and order, order, order) and then I end up having to spend so much time watering plants not yet planted to keep them alive until I can get around to all the planting. (Ashamedly, I always lose some new plants because I don't keep up with the job of watering. Money down the drain.) I figure if I buy as I am able to plant I won't create the additional workload of having to water flats and gallon containers of newly purchased plants.

Those are my big resolutions to improve HOW I garden. A couple of projects I'd like to accomplish this year are:

1. Start composting.
2. Install more butterfly-attracting plants.
3. Start some climbers at various places on my backyard fence.
4. Establish a small dedicated veggie garden. Right now I plop a few herbs and veggies in the midst of my ornamentals.

Good luck to everyone in making 2008 their best gardening year yet! I am bookmarking my post to help keep me reminded of my good intentions for the new year. Thanks Nery for starting an excellent thread topic.