Here are some of our favorite
Gardener Resolutions to aspire to this coming year!
Gardener Resolutions:
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Build a Compost Bin (or a compost pile!) – Compost is natures FREE fertilizer and works better than anything you can buy. Read more about Peppers & Compost »
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Plant More Perennials– to feed the birds and the bees and beautify your landscape. What's great about perennials is that they come back bigger and better every year and they also provide some of the earliest blooms for beauty in your garden and food for the bees.
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Grow New Vegetables from Seed – try growing something new each year! Each year you can grow different hard-to-find varieties of pepper seeds or Heirloom tomato seeds or other vegetables. With seeds, you can grow any varieties you can think of, you're not limited to just what they sell at your local nursery. We of course love growing Hatch Chiles, and have customers around the world growing these hard-to-find-outside-of-New-Mexico-chiles. Or try growing the rainbow of Sweet Pepper Seeds which have wonderful flavor and color to add to any recipe. You can also try some super-hot peppers like the Carolina Reaper seeds, or Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper Seeds, or the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Seeds
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Leave Overwintering Plants Stalks and Leaves – to provide seeds for the birds and cover for native bees and other creatures
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Leave the Leaves on Garden – provides cover for native bees, birds, and feeds the worms. Plus, it will help conserve moisture.
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Hang a Bird Feeder – hang a bird feeder in the winter to provide valuable food for the birds.
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Add a Bird Bath to the Garden – Keep it filled with fresh water in the summer months. We also like to fill a Bird Bath with water on warmer winter days when it's above freezing, you'll see the birds flock to it for a fresh drink and bath during dry winter spells.
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Prune Trees – the best time to prune most trees is in the winter.
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Plant Trees – plant fruit or flowering trees to bring in the birds and the bees and provide your family, neighbors and friends with fresh organic fruit year after year.
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Plant Berries – Plant Raspberries, Blueberries, Elderberries and other berries that thrive in your area to provide fresh fruit every year, and the bees love their blooms!
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Plant Native Plants – plant plants that are native to your area which will thrive and also feed local bees and birds.
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Save Seeds – you can also collect seeds from all your vegetables and herbs to reuse again next year. Make sure to isolate your cross-pollinating vegetables to ensure the same varieties, or you can see what happens!
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Build a Raised Bed – adding more gardening space is ALWAYS a good thing, right?!
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Plant Herbs – herbs like Oregano, Chives, Rosemary, Thyme and others are often perennial and come back every year. Their blooms are beloved by bees, and you can use the herbs in cooking year round. You can also grow Cilantro from seed easily in the cooler months or in a more shady spot. Bees LOVE Cilantro blooms, which go onto become easy seeds to save and replant for a non-stop supply for Cilantro.
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Add Compost to Garden Beds – Compost is the best fertilizer, and homemade compost is loaded with worms, creatures and organic material that will really boost your garden bed fertility and water-holding capacity. We find that compost-fed beds perform much better than garden beds that are treated with fertilizer. If you build the soil, you'll find that you'll have great success at growing all plants. The organic matter in compost boosts nutrients and life in the soil and also hold water so you don't have to water as often. And, since it's free to make compost from your kitchen scraps, leaves and grass clippings (and even paper towels, tissues, twigs, etc), there's no reason not to use compost. Learn more about composting »
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Order a Mushroom Log – you can grow your own Mushrooms in your garden! We really want to try growing mushrooms this year!
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Remove More Lawn Areas – to make room to grow veggies and flowers
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Grow Garlic – it's easy to plant in the fall and harvest in the late spring early/summer. And it goes great with Peppers and Tomatoes of course!
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Grow Saffron – another fun plant to grow in your garden that comes back every year is Saffron – it's a crocus that blooms in the fall and provides three strands of Saffron spice per bloom. Looks beautiful in your fall garden and it provides one of the most precious spices for your recipes!
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Install a Rain Barrel – collect free rain water from your gutters!
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Get a Membership to a Botanic Garden – and visit often for inspiration!
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Add a Container Garden – lots of veggies and herbs grow great in containers and it's an easy way to add gardening space to your patio or balcony.
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Grow Herbs in a Sunny Window – Many herbs grow great in a sunny window, so you can have Cilantro, Basil, Rosemary and other herbs during the winter months for using in recipes.
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Eat Outside More Often – on nice days it's always lovely to enjoy the birds and the bees and the breezes in your garden.
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Grow Lettuces & other Greens – lettuce grows great almost year-round
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Build a Cold Frame – cold frames are great season extenders that allow gardeners to grow year-round even if they have cold snowy winters. Lettuces, spinaches, radishes, chard, kale, onions, cilantro, and many more plants do well under cover without any added heat. Cold Frames use solar heat to keep the soil warm and allow cool-weather veggies to thrive in the winter months.
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Grow More Peppers – chile peppers are some of the most rewarding and easy-to-grow vegetables to you can add in your garden. And, with a rainbow of colors and a huge range of flavors from spicy to sweet, peppers are sure to please everyone! Check out our Sweet Pepper Seeds for a rainbow of peppers that are sweet and flavorful. Or grow our Hatch Chile seeds which allow you to grow New Mexico's famous chile in your own garden. We have gardeners around the world growing our Hatch chile seeds to provide fresh green chile to be used in recipes year-round. You can also grow hot pepper seeds to use in salsa or to dry out and crush into hot pepper flakes or powder. You can also grow the hottest peppers in the world with our super hot pepper seeds.
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Make Hot Pepper Flakes – It's easy to do and one of the best ways to preserve your abundance of homegrown hot peppers!
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Make Hot Sauce – It's amazing to make Easy Fermented Hot Sauce or Vinegar Hot Sauce with your peppers. Hot sauce is a great gift to give to your friends and family. You can also make a No Salt Hot Sauce for those of you watching your sodium intake.
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Plant Seeds with a Child – it's one of the most magical things you can do with kids, they love watching seeds grow from a tiny speck to a huge plant loaded with fresh vegetables!
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Leave your Grass Clippings – use your grass clippings as fertilizer and mulch by leaving them on the lawn. You can also gather grass clippings and use them as mulch in your garden beds. Your plants will thank you for it!
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Check out Gardening Books from the Library – gardening books are filled with new tips and information and are a pleasure to read, especially during the winter months!
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Clean out the Garage or Shed – organize your gardening tools and space so that you can focus more on enjoying the garden.
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Get a Greenhouse – probably all gardener's have the dream of a greenhouse! If a greenhouse is out of reach, build a coldframe instead which is almost as wonderful for growing during the winter months.
- Join a Community Garden – gardening with others is a joy! It's fun to share tips, successes, failures and even plants and seeds when you're part of a Community Garden!
Happy Growing! Cheers to a wonderful New Year filled with family, friends, fun, gardening and homegrown vegetables!
Happy Growing!
