Over the last couple weeks, we have asked for your gardening/outdoor resolutions for 2022.  We got a bunch of responses!  Let’s take a look at some of them.

Get Outside More

The first resolution I received said they wanted to hike.  After the last couple years of quarantines, cancelling trips, and generally being miserable, I think we can all agree that we need to get out more.  Whether it is hiking on a trail or working in the garden, the outdoors offers a quiet escape from the turmoil of today’s world.  Unplug and find some peace outdoors.

Start A Vegetable Garden

Along those same lines, several people said that they plan to start a garden this year.  Over the last two years our industry has seen tons of new gardeners!  For years people in the horticultural industry would fret about the shrinking number of home gardeners.  Millennials and younger generations simply weren’t taking up gardening like previous generations.

2020 changed that in a huge way!  In 2020, the year of curbside pickup and lockdowns, we actually had trouble growing enough vegetable starts to keep up with wholesale demand and stock the benches in our own stores.  Veggie plants and seeds quickly became the new toilet paper.

Our next fear as an industry came in 2021.  With life somewhat returning to normal, how many of those new gardeners would stick with it?  Surprisingly most did!  According to a survey by Axiom Marketing, a majority of people said they planned to garden the same amount, or even more, in 2021.  Our own sales reflected that.

Plant Pollinator-Friendly Plants

If you follow Bob’s LIVE, you know I have been working on slowly adding a meadow garden to my property.  Likewise, many respondents said they wanted to plant pollinator-friendly plants like butterfly bushes.  I planted a butterfly bush in my meadow garden last summer.  I’m sad to report that the voles thought I was supplying them with a tasty treat.  I’ll need to find a less yummy alternative for this year or add a wire cage to deter the little critters.

 2020 … too?

If you haven’t heard 2022 kinda sounds like “2020 too”.  Let’s hope that it is in relation to probably the one good thing that happened that year – new gardeners!  If you want to become a gardener, now is the time to start.  We’re always here to help you keep growing.

“Don’t touch anything growing it will die and turn brown.” -Gloria

I had to share this one.  After Episode 49 of Bob’s LIVE last year talking about zz plants, I received a message from Gloria asking if I wanted to “adopt” a snake plant.  She ain’t lying! (Just kidding!)  The plant was a little worse for wear, but just needed some TLC.  I’m here to report that it is now happily growing in the corner of my kitchen.  We’re going to see it featured in an upcoming episode of Bob’s LIVE this spring when I show you how to take cuttings and propagate snake plants.  Gloria might just get a baby snake plant in return to hopefully not kill.