The end of December is the time to take stock and make promises to your garden and the big green world in which we live. Here are a few ideas for the new year that will make everyone grow easier.

1. Save time, save money, save water.

Use a mulch on top of your soil to seal in moisture and add compost to your garden to act like a sponge and hold water. We may have plenty of rain here in the Pacific Northwest but conserving water will continue to become more important – especially as we see cities across the state increase water rates.

2. Think before you spray a pesticide.

Good bugs follow bad bugs and birds that eat all those bugs hate the smell of pesticides. Laid back gardeners have discovered that most pest problems go away if you just let nature take her course.

3. Mow higher and leave the clippings.

Grasscycling is when you cut the lawn but leave the clippings to decompose and return nitrogen to the soil. Sometimes this is hard to do in our damp climate but investing in a mulching mower chops those clippings into tiny pieces that practically disappear into the lawn. Plus, if you leave the clippings you save the time and work of collecting, storing or sending out the grass clippings.

4. Add some diversity to the landscape.

The more plants you grow the more plants you know and by adding flowering vines, perennials, ornamental grasses and a mix of trees and shrubs you not only improve your landscape but you provide food and shelter for our dwindling birds, bees and beneficial insects. Bees need blooms, birds need trees, seed heads and shrubs for shelter and our native frogs like to hibernate in the center of sword ferns – and the newest varieties of heucheras. Save a critter, add new plants.

5. Don’t be so noisy.

If you need another reason to upgrade your mower or to invest in battery-powered blowers, pruners or power edgers, than consider that the newest models are not only gas and oil free (no air pollution!) but they meet the new standards for noise pollution. Mother nature and your neighbors will rest easier.

6. Grow some food.

Incredible edibles have never been so easy to add to a landscape. Make a screening hedge out of blueberries, train grapes over an arbor or build some raised beds and try easy-to-grow tomatoes, squash and lettuce during the summer. Learning to grow food makes one appreciate the flavor of fresh produce and that will encourage us all to support local farmers and farmers’ markets.

7. Finally, celebrate 2011 by giving back to your community.

If you have land, you can grow flowers or food for a food bank; if you need more knowledge join a garden club or sign up to become a Master Gardener. Winter is the time to sit back and envision the garden and the gardener you want to become.

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Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For book requests or answers to gardening questions, write to her at: P.O. Box 872, Enumclaw, 98022. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a personal reply.

For more gardening information, she can be reached at her Web site, www.binettigarden.com.

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column owned by Marianne Binetti.