Farmers Weekly Review

Non-gardening folk often think that we gardeners just spend the winter lamenting that we are stuck in the non-growing season. Not true (at least it shouldn’t be). Remember the Winter Solstice is the beginning, not the end for us; for every day after that day, it is lighter longer.
So just what is there to do now? It is a great time to do winter pruning, especially on the days Mother Nature turns the outdoor thermostat up to 50. Remember this old adage, “prune when the saw is sharp.” So, before you head out to prune, you might need to sharpen those saws, loppers, and pruners.
The other early January garden task is planning for the growing season ahead. I am sure you have a wish list for the seeds and plants you are interested in adding in the year ahead. Remember that due to the changes in the weather, we are now USDA Horticulture Zone 6 (we used to be Zone 5).
Although I would never be considered a trend follower (my kitchen cabinets are still wood, not painted), I do like to think about the trends I see emerging for gardeners in the new year. And, for once, the garden experts and I agree—Simplicity.
After several decades of ‘more is better,’ many garden designers and home gardeners are looking towards what I call ‘gardening simple.’ Gardening easier and smarter. This includes planning your plants for your lifestyle. I talk to many people each year that say they don’t enjoy their garden the way they used to. The reason?
Their gardens and landscapes are seen as a countless, unrelenting list of jobs; instead of something that takes some effort but reaps so many more benefits that the workload. This oddly comes from success. You start growing, and once you get the hang of it, the garden increases every year in size and number of plants.
And whether it’s your busy schedule that seems busier every day, and or growing older and not in as good physical ‘garden flexible’ shape; it is time to plan for what makes you happy. In the last few years particularly, I have heard many people apologize for not wanting to garden as much or differently. And it is not only ok, it is great. Just make some easy garden strategy changes that will still give you the most of your garden, without that unending to do list.
And remember, we are not the only ones evolving, so is our weather. Hotter, drier. Do you really want to spend your summer watering? And getting an extra job to pay the water bill? No.
So, gardening simpler, smarter, and easier is a great trend. So, while we are waiting to see if we actually have any winter, take some time to look at those thousand pictures of your yard that you took this summer. What was working, what wasn’t?
Are you still feeding a family of five from your vegetable garden or have you spent the last couple of years checking your neighbors car doors to see if they are open so you could slip in a bag of zucchini and tomatoes? Kidding—not kidding. Maybe it is time to cut the vegetable garden back to realistic amounts that you will use.
For me that realization came when I was still planting six of each variety of everything I grew. Now, with few exceptions, I plant one of each kind of tomato and pepper, and one row of each kind of beans. I also found I could try several different varieties without having “growers remorse” when late in the season, there was a lot of produce just rotting on the vine because I ran out of time.
Or did you find yourself going from garden bed to garden bed….crawling? It isn’t the getting down that will get you, it is the getting up and down and up and down. Consider raised beds or containers on the deck or patio,
Speaking of containers, they are a great way to bring the garden up close. Many of us don’t get home from work until end of the gardening day. I so love going out on my postage-stamp sized deck and pluck off a few basil leaves and Juliet salad tomatoes. Or squeeze that chocolate mint and the smell of York peppermint patties wafts across making me think it is cool for a minute.
But containers can be the opposite of simple—water hogs, failing mid-season…how can we make that simpler? First, be sure to pot plants with the same needs together. Don’t plant impatiens, and zinnias. Impatiens are for shade; zinnias are sun lovers.
Also, consider upgrading to the ‘with moisture crystals’ potting mix. It is already available at big box stores, I know. I bought some. I used to think it was a frivolous upgrade, but combining this potting mix with mulching the tops of my pots, the need for watering was cut by more than half.
Is your grass dying out every year under that beautiful sugar maple? Fine! Don’t keep replanting Jimmy John’s Deep Shade Grass Mix, it won’t last. It will grow for six to eight weeks, but then due to drought but even more, tree root competition, it will fail. Decide to either mulch out to the drip line of the tree and possibly adding some drought and shade tolerant perennials.
And any discussion of simple gardening could not be complete without these: zinnias and sunflowers. I don’t know if any of you parked on the side of the Farm Bureau building this summer, but the Master Gardeners have a cutting garden there—all sunflowers and zinnias. All from seed, and except at the start when watering and some weeding are needed, you end up with months of stunning midsummer to frost blooms.
Gardening simple…it’s a good thing.

Easy ways to simplify your garden: Sunflowers and zinnias are easy to grow; bring plants up close in containers; stop dying grass under trees, use mulch and groundcovers; if you can’t get down, bring the garden up! With raised beds.