Some Easy New Years Resolutions for Gardeners
I pretty well stopped making New Years Resolutions years ago. I always seemed to resolve the same things. One - I'm going to stop smoking. I remember actually putting my pack of cigarettes away at the stroke of midnight and making it through the rest of the party smoke-free. Trouble is, the next day I had 7 cigarettes left - and you know what they say about waste not, want not? So I then resolved not to be so wasteful in the New Year.
The other typical resolution is to lose weight. I think most of American makes that one. And most of us fail to keep it. The first problem with this resolutions is that they are actually both negatives. You are saying you won't do something. Sitting around not doing something doesn't feel as if you're actually getting anywhere. And if you go to a New Years party it almost always involves food and drink and so inevitably we absolve ourselves "just for the day." Come January 2 you realize that you've already blown the resolution.
Few make it past January 3.
The best resolutions are positive. The year I resolved to do laundry once a week whether there was much accumulated or not I actually kept my resolution. Doing laundry is a positive - you can actually witness yourself keeping that resolution. That can give a person a tremendous sense of self-satisfaction.
The idea, as I see it, is to take stock and make some positive resolutions - things you DO rather than things that you refrain from doing.
Resolution One: Waste Not - but Don't Want.
One resolution I make every year is to hunt for unbelievable bargains. Not a hard resolution to keep as the thrill of the hunt can be so enjoyable. And we can work on this one immediately.
You probably have a stack of garden catalogs next to your reading chair, much like I do. You've probably seen so many necessary plants that taking out a second mortgage or renting out the kids seem both reasonable and inevitable.
Don't touch that checkbook!
If you go through ALL the catalogs you'll notice that prices can differ - sometimes substantially. Some companies are always pricier than others for no particular reason except that they have found that given the right catalog copy and presentation their customers will actually pay the price. Look elsewhere and you will usually find it cheaper - sometimes MUCH cheaper.
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