Happy New Year! It’s time to get excited about the 2022 gardening season. Grab your garden planning journal and read on to get inspired for everything gardening-related this upcoming year.
From Garden to Table: Growing Your Groceries
While we may be done with the sourdough starter craze, growing your produce is a trend that is here to stay. With increasing grocery bills and a renewed passion for spending time in our yards, 2022 is the perfect year to get serious about what you’re growing and putting on your table.
If you’re short on outdoor space, don’t let that stop you! Try an indoor herb garden or small veggies like tomatoes, radishes or chives.
Plan for spring by plotting out your available planting space for outdoor gardens. Consider yields, growing cycles, and what plants will grow well together as companions. Grow produce that your family will enjoy and versatile veggies to keep recipes interesting.
You can even team up with friends and neighbors to rotate different veggies and do a big swap at harvest time! It’s a surefire way to keep things interesting in your kitchen and garden.
Bringing the Tropics to Your Garden
Most of us living in the Northern hemisphere feel particularly wistful when we think about not traveling to warmer destinations as freely as we once did.
Bring the tropics to your North Dakota garden by adding cannas, caladiums, and varieties of hibiscus. As with any plant, check to make sure you can give these tropicals a taste of their native environment with the right amount of sunlight, water, and shelter. Tropical flowers look beautiful outdoors or as fresh-cut bouquets.
Blending Indoors and Outdoors
Where there was once separation between indoor life and the great outdoors, recent changes in the world have created a need to blend both worlds for optimal relaxation and enjoyment.
Bring the outdoors in by:
- Adding to your houseplant collection
- Helping them thrive by adding grow lights
- Growing herbs by a sunny window
- Grow indoor plants on trellises to add dynamic vertical growth indoors
- Surrounding the immediate exterior of your home with greenery so you can see life whenever you look out a window
Bring the indoors outside by:
- Creating outdoor “rooms” with privacy screens and walls
- Adding indoor comforts like lights and cushions to your patio or other seating areas
- Investing in accessories like a barbeque, fire pit, and high-quality patio furniture
Climate-Conscious Gardening
The way we garden can help the environment and protect our properties! Planning to grow plants native to our area reduces negative impacts on the climate and encourages local wildlife to come and visit your garden.
An added benefit to native plants is that they are very likely to thrive: no more trying to keep something alive that struggles in our climate!
Another way to practice climate-conscious gardening is to plan your garden with fire and floods in mind. Drought-tolerant plants are a wise choice as we experience increasingly dry summers.
Take an inventory of your outdoor space and see if water naturally collects anywhere: you can plant water-loving plants there and set up a rainwater collection system to help save on the water bill.
Gardens for Wellness and Wildlife
One of the reasons we all love gardening is that it brings us peace. This year, design your garden with serenity in mind. Choose plants that bring back happy memories or that spark joy.
Color, texture, sound and scent contribute to the perfect ambiance. You can also consider adding hardscaping features that make the great outdoors extra inviting. Consider water features, fireplaces, and wind chimes to honor each natural element.
Finally, consider which wildlife you would love to see in your garden in 2022. Plant pollinator-friendly flowers and grasses, set up drinking and feeding stations for birds, and make your yard an irresistible pitstop for your favorite creatures.
Visit us at Plant Perfect for more ideas on your North Dakota garden planning guide for 2022.