Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for the EcoBeneficial Gardener
1. Reduce or eliminate your lawn – it’s an ecological desert.
2. Focus on increasing the health of your soil – it’s filled with life! Compost is king for most soils, not fertilizer.
3. Eliminate synthetic pesticides, herbicides + fungicides. Use organic counterparts sparingly, if at all.
4. Support beneficial insects with appropriate native plantings. They are nature’s pest control.
5. Plant for a succession of bloom throughout the growing season to support native bees and honey bees. Bees are critical, keystone species.
6. Emulate nature in your garden – use local wild areas as your reference.
7. Plant the right plant in the right place. Don’t put sun-loving plants in the shade, moisture-loving plants in dry soil…
8. Remove invasive plants and replace them thickly and quickly with regional native plants.
9. Tolerate some messiness in your landscape to support wildlife. Check out all the critters living under a dead log!
10. Boost the ecosystem in your landscape by planting a diversity of regional native plants.
Best wishes for a happy and ecologically healthy 2014!
From Kim Eierman at EcoBeneficial!
Photo: Ruby-throated hummingbird nectaring on Campsis radicans (Trumpet Creeper)
Photo credit: Flickr_Kelly Colgan Azar
6 Comments
More from EcoBlog
It’s National Pollinator Week: Thank a Bee, and a Fly, and Even A Beetle
In 2006 the United States Senate designated the first National Pollinator Week as a way to recognize the importance of pollinators to agriculture and ecosystem health. Sure, beekeepers and avid gardeners celebrate this week, but the average American is hard pressed to name even a single pollinator beyond a honey…
Read More
Remembering a Great Naturalist: A Toast to Carol Gracie
This past fall we lost one of the great naturalists of the Northeast, Carol Gracie. Carol was not just a naturalist, but a botanist, photographer, lecturer, and author of four fantastic books: Summer Wildflowers of the Northeast, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, Florapedia, and Wildflowers in the Field and Forest:…
Read More
Why Locally-Sourced, Locally-Grown Native Plants Matter
Have you visited your local farmer’s market lately or picked up your weekly allotment at a CSA? If you are a locavore, like so many of us, you might be asking some pretty specific questions of your suppliers when you are vetting your food choices, such as: Where was this…
Read More
Hello Kim –
Thank you for your continued helpful advise – I love everyone of your postings.
Happy and healthy 2014 and success with all your plantings.
Cheers –
Helga
This is a great list! Happy New Year, Kim.
Thanks Phyllis! Hope you will share the list with Bee City USA followers. What is good for bees is good for the environment!
Thanks for your support Helga! Best wishes to you for a happy and “green” new year!
Best wishes for the New Year from neighboring Tuckahoe – unfortunately i cannot keep bees- against village regulations……
I love your 10 New Years resolutions and while I already do some (lawn!!_ i shall try to do all of them in 2014.
Thanks Susanne! Good to hear that you will be adopting even more “green” resolutions. Every bit helps. Even if you can’t keep bees, you help tremendously by planting for honey bees and native bees. Happy New Year!