By Denny McKeown

There is no guarantee that a New Year's resolution will be kept, but chances are greater that you'll keep it if you'll make the resolution rather than not making it. All the following resolves are easy to keep while helping to make your landscape the best ever.

How Does your Garden Grow?

2010 is just 2 days old. As we enter this new gardening year, realize that a lot of trouble can be headed off with the following resolutions.

1. I resolve to remove the bags of spring flowering bulbs from my car trunk and get them planted this week.

2. I resolve to apply Dimension to my planting beds in mid-March and again in mid- June to cut my weed population by 90 percent.

3. I resolve to apply pre-emergent crab grass control containing Prodiamine that will continue to kill all weed seeds this spring and summer.

4. I resolve to install new plants in the landscape where they want to grow, not necessarily where I want them to go.

5. I resolve to only spray bad bugs with a pesticide labeled for that insect.

6. I resolve to read the labels on all products that I use around my landscape and follow the instructions on the package, bag or bottle.

7. I resolve to only water plants in my landscape when they are dry, checking the soil with a garden trowel before turning on the hose.

8. I resolve to sharpen the blade on my lawn mower before the grass starts to grow this spring.

9. I resolve to leave my grass clippings realizing that this practice is very healthy for my lawn.

10. I resolve to prune my spring flowering trees and shrubs after they bloom, not before.

Not one of my 2010 resolutions is going to cause you any real work and the results will be very beneficial to your landscape. You are welcome to choose any or all of these resolutions.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very safe and happy 2010. I believe January and February are the two longest months of the year. You can shorten this time period by reading good gardening books, studying garden catalogues and planning any landscaping improvements. If those improvements are going to be professionally installed, contact your landscape designer this winter. He or she will have lots of valuable time to spend on your project and you'll be one of the first on their list of spring landscape projects to install.