The beginning of each new year is a time for looking back on the past, and even more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want or need to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. As gardeners, there are steps that we can take to improve the ecology and sustainability of our landscapes. Consider adopting one or more of these resolutions for your garden this year:
Plan your vegetable garden for year round production. In most coastal counties, you can grow some sort of vegetable. Careful planning will provide you with produce to harvest year round – reducing your grocery bills and your carbon foot print.
Incorporate fruit and vegetable crops into your landscape. Fruit trees can function as ornamental trees or shrubs in the landscape while small fruits and even vegetables can be integrated into your sunny flowerbeds to add beauty and providing food too.
Choose plants and varieties that are low maintenance and easy to grow in our area. Figs, muscadine grapes, rabbiteye blueberries and persimmons grow well in Onslow county. If you must grow pears, choose a variety that is resistant to fire blight (a common disease in our area) such as Seckel, Moonglow, Kieffer or Magness. Avoid planting crops that will require a lot of pesticide sprays (like apples or many varieties of non-muscadine grapes) to produce a quality crop.
Commit to composting. Composting is a sustainable way of dealing with garden waste and household food scraps that provides you with a valuable soil amendment and can reduce your fertilizer and pesticide inputs in the garden. Use your compost to build your soil. Soils that are high in organic matter store water and nutrients better, improving plant growth and productivity.
Minimize carbon-emitting inputs to the garden. Gasoline-powered tools like lawn mowers and leaf blowers are obvious sources of carbon dioxide emissions but synthetic fertilizers and pesticides require a lot of energy to manufacture, package and transport. Weed, prune and rake leaves by hand when possible. Reduce pesticide and fertilizer use by choosing crops wisely and planting them in locations where they will thrive. Rotate vegetable crops annually to reduce insect and disease pressures. Test your soil and only apply nutrients that are needed.
Harvest, store and use your rainwater. Use cisterns or rainbarrels to collect the water that runs off your roof – use this water first to irrigate your lawn, garden and container gardens.
Minimize your watering needs. Improve the water holding capacity of your soil by adding organic matter. Mulch exposed soil in gardens and flowerbeds to suppress weeds and maintain soil moisture. When designing new plantings, choose plants that will be drought tolerant after establishment (crape myrtles, Chinese and Japanese hollies, junipers, many bulbs, Mediterranean herbs such as sage, rosemary and thyme, and many ornamental grasses just to name a few).
Consider adding chickens, bees or other small livestock to your yard. If you are up for the additional responsibility and commitment, chickens, ducks, guinea hens, rabbits or other small livestock help cycle nutrients in your garden. Carefully managed poultry can help control insect pests and weeds while providing nitrogen and phosphorus to improve soil fertility. Bees pollinate many of our vegetable crops – the loss of native pollinators makes the efforts of beekeepers even more important.
Whichever resolution you choose, I want to wish you and your garden a Happy New Year and a great growing season!
