It may be a cliché, but I do enjoy making a few New Year’s resolutions, but mine are of the garden variety. For one, I find them more forgiving and achievable than the traditional resolutions of losing weight and eating better. Does eating better mean more gourmet foods, chocolates, and coffee? No? Oh, so there you go. The weight loss resolution is always a failure: I’m old enough to know that now. So, I’ve moved on, making my resolutions more about gardening, creativity, and nature. And while this is a garden resolution list, I can start it now, I don’t need to wait till spring. I resolve to walk about the garden this week and make note of all the open spaces where I can add more plants, particularly grasses. Grasses in the garden this time of the year would be lovely, they would add to the garden’s winter interest. It’s a shame to have an entire season in the garden feel lack luster. If you are new to the idea of adding native grasses to your garden and having them stand through winter, I invite you to look at photographs of gardens designed by Piet Oudolf.
Next on my resolution is to re-read my Piet Oudolf books. His books are exceptionally well-written with delicious photos to help soothe over our gray, cold winter days. It’s just the garden tonic we need.
Next on my resolution list is to add more native plants. Native plants are well represented in my gardens already, but adding more will do no harm. In fact, it will do a lot of good for supporting the native bees and hummingbirds. If this will be your first resolution to plant native plants, may I suggest Asclepias tuberosa. It’s compact, easy to grow, adored by the monarch butterfly and her caterpillars, and pairs well with Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’.
My next resolution is to give myself permission to remove plants I simply don’t like. Are they still healthy and in good shape? Sure, but I still don’t like them. Your yard is only so big. Your garden is most likely just a part of your yard. That doesn’t leave a lot of space in which to create and experiment: to bring into your personal garden world plants you delight in seeing. If that shrub is just there, because it’s always been there, but you can’t remember why or ever even liking it, do away with it. Life’s too short for plants we don’t love.
And speaking of life’s too short: it’s too short for boring gardens. If your garden fails to bring you joy spring through fall, perhaps even in the winter: if your garden isn’t always changing, offering new blooms and textures throughout the year, if it isn’t luring you outside, even when you’re busy, overwhelmed and juggling too many plates, then your garden is boring. When it comes to what’s around us in our day-to-day, we don’t have a lot of say. Our office may be dull, the drive to work uninspiring, the market too busy, and the laundry room full of dirty clothes. The one place we can make beautiful, where we can have all the color we desire, where butterflies and birds want to hangout and contribute their own pops of color is our garden.
My final resolution is to add more blooms to the garden. I want to see something in bloom from the first hints of spring, when snow still clings to shady garden corners, to the late fall when the first hard frost threatens. I resolve to have more blooms.
