Yours sounds like a wonderful resolution.

After Kent's Christmas card I find it hard to kill slugs now. So I must resolve to buying lots of copper tape.

Last year I barely worked in my garden. This year I plan to amend the soil and build more raised beds. Hopefully tackle my picket fence and finish painting what I started two years ago. Lastly, to revamp that dreadful plastic pond I have in the front yard.

Happy New Year!!!!! can hardly wait for Spring!

Happy New Year to you all!!!

My new years resolution was/is to try to grow more plants that I have never tried growing before. I have already placed my orders, so it looks like I actually kept this one. Now if the seed just grows for me, I will be one happy gardener.

Sierra

I echo gottagarden on going on more garden tours, our garden club organizes several bus trips a year, gardens and nurseries combined :o). I have one of those little carts on wheels which folds down into a hand held thingy. You'd be amazed what I can stuff into that.

I hope to really get a handle on the garden this year, there are lots of spots that really do need to be redone. I've decided I need to stay with one spot at a time until it's finished instead of jumping all over the place.
If I can get even half of what I have planned done I just might break down and have an open garden for the members of our club. I realize it is never going to be perfect so maybe if nothing else they can learn by all the mistakes I've made and boy there are lots.

Being the plant collector that I am there will probably be a few more push the zone type of plants, nothing ventured nothing gained. I've got a bit of spanish moss up in my little pool room which is still hanging in, most of it I put in the greenhouse for the winter. Does anyone know how much cold it can take?
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

Annette

I have decided to take the plunge and add some fruits/veggies to my garden in 2008.

About 10 years ago, I swore off attempting veggies after battling drought, bugs and critters. The final straw was when we left for a week long vacation, just as the cantalopes were turning a deep green color. I thought they wouldn't ripen for at least a week, and we would be eating fresh cantalopes when we got back.

One week later I was greeted by the sight of squash bugs sucking the life out of my yellow squash, tomatoes with bite marks all over the fruit and cantalopes that had not only ripened in our absence, but had been bitten in half with all the fleshy fruit gone. It was both heart breaking and maddening!!

Last summer I decided to take a small step towards veggie gardening again by buying one tomato plant and potting it up. I have to tell you, those tomatoes were delicious.

In this years seed swap I received some tomato seeds, so I am taking that as a sign to give a veggie garden another try! This past weekend I completed a lasagna bed for my next attempt at a fruit/veggie garden. :-)

So, one of my resolutions for 2008 is to rid myself of prior bad experiences with veggies, and give it another shot!

Marilyn

I resolve to be sensible about cutting back plants when they need it. I have a terrible time with this - not wanting to "sacrifice" even one bud or leaf. Of course, many plants would grow better if I would prune/pinch/shear/or cut them back. I do it with mums and coleus. You'd think I'd get it. So this year - proper grooming!

I have started to winter sow (see that forum if you need info) to help with my winter doldrums since moving from 9b to 7b. Also it is economical and I get to recycle stuff. Also I will plant more edibles in among my shrubs and flowers, and I want to put more vertical elements in the garden. Also more roses. Happy New Year.
Laurie

Well, I will have my hands full this year. I will attempt my first try with growing vegetables. I'm a little overwhelmed, as there are SO many varities out there.
I plan to be armed and ready to battle the slugs and snails. I have been saving milk jugs for traps.
I plan to continue working in our backyard and our front as well. I don't think you're ever really finished with it.
We have alot of sod to take out, but this year, we're going to rent a sod cutter for sure, save on our backs.
I have alot of dividing to do come spring, and there are many perennials I want to get. Always the projects, a potting shed that my dad will be building for me, I'm very ecstatic about that, many garden objects to place in the yard that I have accumulated. It's all very rewarding. We will also do a butterfly garden specifically for our youngest son, who is Autistic, but likes watching the butterflies and hummers that come around.
It's gloomy and cold here, and I start getting really anxious about mid-Feb for winter to go away, but usually, we have to wait until April, I have alot of things to order, so I'm excited.
That's my list to do.

I'm on the same boat as Edna here, since I barely gardened last year as well. Going back to a full time job since April has taken its toll on the amount of gardening I can realistically accomplish. Also, over the years I have come to realize that I'm hardly outside in Summer - too hot for my taste and we escape to the beach every spare moment we have - so it's really not worth while to invest a lot of time and effort in Summer mode for the garden (for that I come here and drool over your colder climates gorgeous gardens :-))

So, my resolutions for this year are basically:

1. To add only stuff that is a slow grower and does not require pruning to look good
2. Is preferably evergreen
3. Has Fall and Winter interest

I think I will slowly turn my garden into mostly a Fall and Winter garden. After all, that's when I need the garden looking good the most and that's when I stay home more often. Spring is well catered for with the roses, so I'll think I'll concentrate on Fall/Winter. I have been doing it for the past few years, but I need to keep adding. In the plans are a couple more red twig dogwoods and some more hollies and camellias. Also thinking about a nudiflorum jasmine (Winter jasmine). Anyone grows one of these? How do you like it?

Eduarda

Eduarda, I grow winter jasmine and like it. It's not nearly the rampant thing that some other jasmines can be, it's polite and mostly stays on its own little arch. Those bright yelow flowers are so welcome over the grey winter months, and it's got such a long bloom time, here at least, from about September til... well it's still going now anyway. The leaves are attractive too.

I haven't got much for garden resolutions this year... I'm expecting a baby in April, so I know I won't be doing much in the garden. I'm planning to fill my beds with easy things from seed, things with presence that take plenty of neglect. Calendula, nasturtiums, that sort of thing. I gathered enough nasturtium seeds from my plants last fall to probably cover my neighborhood with wall to wall nasturtiums if I felt the urge.

Eduarda do plant a winter jasmine I think you will really enjoy it, this is a bit long winded but....I also grow winter jasmine, mine is quite old somewhere around 40 years. Not only a beautiful plant when covered in flowers but is also very attractive when in the green, so to speak. It is tough and reliable, depending on the weather it can start blooming in November and continue on through the winter or if it's a really cold and stays cold I've seen it hold off on flowering till the beginning of March. The year it did this it put on a magnificent show.
My or I should say taken ownership of W.J. is growing on a trellis on the side of the neighbor's carport, why on the neighbor's carport you might ask, well my neighbor at the time planted it on her carport but it's planted in our driveway. Years later after their place had been sold several times another survey was done and what do you know the carport encroaches 8 inches onto our property as does the concrete retaining wall. The poor lady who owned the house at the time had just sold to a young couple and the whole deal was going to fall through, we went to her lawyer with her and signed a waver to the effect the new owners could have access to our driveway if they need to work on their concrete carport. I've also claimed my side of their concrete retaining wall (on our property too) I've covered it in ivy, clematis and other stuff. This is now the wall that helps contains my little courtyard, use to be the top end of the driveway but that's another story :o). I prune the jasmine right back to stubs every spring and I'm rewarded with fresh green growth by summer which is lovely to look at even when not in bloom.

Annette

Oh, yes.
Red,red,red,red,red...And it's all your fault! I'm in love with my red garden and plan to fill in more this year.

Work on the maze since I had to replant 18 arbs this Fall. Last chance for these babies.

Many more veggies...DH roto'd a 4th veggie bed for next year. We'll grow more cabbage, eggplant, peppers, potatoes.
Everything else will have a little more room. DH is talking about a deck. Hmmmm. vote is still out.

georgeanne

My resolution is to begin soil amendment now and keep at it. I need the exercise, and there isn't much else going on in the garden at this time of year. Except for pulling up native grass tussocks and tumbleweeds. Ugh! I spent an hour doing that this morning. Conditions were good because the soil was soft from yesterday's rain.

Last year I planted mixed wildflower seeds in one bed, three times. They just wouldn't sprout. I stepped them into the soil as per the guidelines on the package. The wind is harsh here in April and early May, which was negating my efforts to keep the seeds in a moist environment. The third time I covered them with a thin layer of peat moss, which I covered with a thin layer of sand (my native soil) to keep the peat from blowing away. Thought that might retain enough water to get them to sprout. That did the trick. About fifteen different types of wild flowers sprouted, grew and flowered.

The wildflower seeds, by the way, were a gift from a friend who had travelled through Wyoming. They were packaged in beribboned paper bags, in quarter pound weights. I thought that was a terrific gift. I still have half of the bag. I placed it in a Ziplock, and put it in the freezer for safekeeping.

Lorna

Lorna, maybe you should try winter sowing those seeds? That might be a fun project while things are slow in the garden.

Wish I could Opticcurve, but the temperatures are jumping around too much. An afternoon might go up to 64 degrees, but the next day temps might be down to freezing. I've seen a few seed sprouts around the yard, but a few days later they are dead from the frost. I have a lot of arugula plants in the garden, but they've all frozen.

I can plant some fingerling potatoes which are sprouting. I'll keep them indoors for the time-being. I have a cold frame but I'm not good about remembering to open and close the glass cover every day.