The statistics on New Year’s Resolutions are grim. Estimates are that 80% of New Years resolutions are abandoned by mid-February. So this year I’m going to make resolutions that I’m confident I can keep.

Instead of resolving to exercise an hour a day and to eat twice as many vegetables as I do now I’m going to focus this year on gardening resolutions, which can help me at least meet my exercise goals with lots of outdoor activity. As for eating vegetables, I’m going to keep purchasing a CSA share and exploring great new recipes to use the produce we purchase because my gardening focuses on flowers, trees and shrubs and only a few edibles and herbs.

When I was a younger I typically made lists of resolutions that were so numerous I could never keep them all. Today I am more focused, so out of all my garden plans I’ve decided to choose five resolutions to focus on as a gardener and environmental steward …

1. Hang a bird feeder.

2. Get my worm composting bin up and running full tilt.

3. Dig out the lily of the valley in the back yard.

4. Replace the lily of the valley with bee friendly native plants like monarda or other natives.

5. Turn my large “Lazy Composter” pile at least once a week from May - November.

Because of the climate where we live, I’m only confident of achieving resolutions one and two before mid-April. But that’s okay because it will give me plenty of time to plan out other aspects of the garden including how to enhance the area where we ripped out old shrubs last year. And, we are talking with a neighbor who has expertise in biochar about how we can work together to build our soil and help him build his business.

Meanwhile, we’re also looking for new clients (my day job is marketing communications) as we have some openings for building blogs and web pages in 2020. If you’re interested in talking gardening or talking online blogging or websites I invite you to fill out the form below.