New Year's Resolutions for the garden

Once holiday celebrations wrap up and 2020 comes to a close (hooray), it is time to start thinking about the new year. Are you someone who makes New Year's resolutions? For a lot of people, things like getting more exercise or keeping in better touch with loved ones tend to top the list. What about gardening resolutions? Whether you're new to gardening (welcome!) or a veteran with a proven green thumb, here are a few suggestions for your New Year's resolution list.

1. Try something new. If you are a vegetable gardener that sticks to tried and true varieties, why not give a new crop a little space in the garden? Perhaps it's a different variety of tomato or something totally foreign to you. Trying new things keeps us fresh and on our horticultural toes. If you have a bumper crop you can donate any extras through the CSU Extension Grow & Give program. Who knows, maybe you'll even find something that ends up on your tried and true list.

If you are more of a landscape gardener, you have lots of options to try something new. It seems every year there is a new spot that is just asking to be filled, or a plant that has run its course and needs to be replaced. Or, maybe you want to tackle a whole new section of your yard. Consider adding native plant varieties to your landscape. Water thrifty and attractive to pollinators, they can be incorporated into an existing landscape that is a majority non-native plants. Just make sure to check the mature size, sunlight, water, and soil requirements as you normally would, and you'll be ready to make a new plant friend.

2. Learn about phenology. Phen-what, you might be saying? Stay with me here. Phenology is the study of the timing of biological events in plants and animals. This applies to you and your garden in several ways, but one of the most important has to do with pollinators. If you are interested in creating pollinator habitat in your garden, it is important to have plants that are in bloom for as long as possible. Pollinators need pollen and nectar from your flowers early in the spring, all through the summer and as late into the fall as possible. Simply put, your garden is their grocery store. If the store is closed for the month of August because there isn't anything blooming, they have to go somewhere else to find their sustenance. By focusing on the bloom phenology of the plants in your garden, you can ensure that something is blooming for the whole growing season. And, this ties nicely into resolution #1, as you might have to try something new!

3. Learn about your soil. Healthy soil is the basis for healthy plants whether food crops or ornamentals. Along the Front Range we tend to have tough soil to garden in. Understanding what is happening underfoot makes it a bit easier. So much more than just dirt, soil is a dynamic, living ecosystem composed of billions of microscopic organisms. How you treat your soil has an impact on that ecosystem which in turn, has an impact on how well your plants will grow. A great starting point to learn about the fascinating life that happens in your soil is the CSU Extension Master Gardener "Garden Notes'' which can be found online.

Gardening applies to the more traditional resolutions too. It is great exercise and I'm sure your loved ones would enjoy seeing pictures of your vegetable bounty or prized flowers in bloom. Resolutions or not, here's to a great year of gardening in 2021.