With Christmas behind us and one foot firmly planted in winter, what’s a gardener to do as we mark time while we wait for the New Year to begin? Start thinking about our gardens…right? As is the tradition, let’s talk about some New’ Year’s Resolutions for Gardeners on how we can ramp up our gardener game for the coming year.

Since we’re in the midst of seed catalog season, let’s start by spending some time with those catalogs. If you don’t have any, you can peruse their offerings online. Some of my favorites are Baker’s Creek, Johnny’s, and Stokes. But there are a bunch of vendors out there eager to ship us all the seeds our little heart’s desire. Plus, we have a variety of local sources for seeds as well.

As far as the resolutions go, maybe start by trying something new in your garden, be that flowers or vegetables. Last year on our Seed to Supper Farm, toward the end of the season, we planted a few Metki cucumber seeds, and those cucumbers were delicious until the first freeze happens. This spring we plan on adding them to our inventory of veggies we are growing for local food pantries. These cucumbers are best harvested when they are 12 to 18 inches in length but if left on the vine, they can grow even longer. We’re also thinking of adding a row of flowers, because don’t fresh vegetables taste better when you have fresh flowers on the table? I think so.

Next up, how about we take better care of our tools. If you are like me, cleaning my garden tools is close to the last thing on my agenda. However, if we keep them sharp and clean, they will not only do a better job but will also last longer. It’s pretty easy to do. Just scrape off the dirt before it gets caked on the tool and wipe it down with a disinfectant wipe. This disinfectant wipe will help kill any diseases deposited on the tool as we were potentially dealing with a diseased plant. I know this is the season for sharing but sharing plant disease in not part of the fun. It’s also not a bad idea to spray a little WD-40 on a rag and wipe the tool down as well. Again, this will help keep it like new. Sharpening your tools wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Just be sure to wear gloves to protect those fingers.

Also, in the New Year’s resolution category would be trying to be more diligent in keeping up with the weeds. None of us really enjoy weeding. No, I stand corrected, I actually know a gardener or two who do enjoy weeding, but their identity will remain secret to protect the innocent. Just fyi, having people on you team who enjoy weeding is a special bonus, not to be under-appreciated.

But for the rest of us, think about which part of weeding you don’t like. For me, it’s the getting down on my knees to pull the weeds. If that is also the case for you, think about purchasing a weeding tool you can use while standing up. This can make a job we dread into something more tolerable. Or, if you don’t want to lower yourself to the garden level, you could bring the garden up to you. This is what I plan to do at our home this year…build some waist high vegetable beds. I’ve always thought those looked great and since we just finished moving into a new home, waist high vegetable beds will be on the spring construction agenda.

Next, let’s try to work smarted and not harder. We become better gardeners through experience and education. While we can’t help you with the experience part, we can help you with the education portion through our vegetable growing classes we offer each spring. In this one-day class, you’ll learn about soil nutrient maintenance, types of gardens, planning your garden, starting your seeds, planting, harvesting, and how to best take care of pests through integrated pest management strategies. It’s a fun day with other gardeners. You can get more info and tickets on our website www.tulsamastergardeners.org.

Also, how about we make a resolution to lean more into native plants next year. We’ve talked about native plants a bit here before, but in a nutshell, native pollinators etc. are more familiar with native plants than they are with some of the more exciting new cultivars. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having new cultivars in your garden, it’s just helpful to have a good selection of native plants in there as well.

February 1^st we’ll be launching the online store for our yearly plant sale and in this sale, you can choose from about 250 selections - some native and some not. Experiment. Try something new. And once again we’ll have a good selection of milkweed plants for the migrating Monarch butterflies.

In June we’ll be hosting our yearly Master Gardener Garden Tour. Visiting these homes is a great way to learn new techniques and design strategies in addition to just seeing some beautiful flowers.

All this to say, we are looking forward to helping you become a better gardener in 2024. Let’s learn together. See you in the garden.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Steven Hall