Spring Overwhelm

I can honestly say that October’s garden to do list has not gone to plan so I’m still catching up.  Sometimes real life gets in the way of all the things you want to do in the garden. When the challenges of the every day mix with the vigorous growth of a prosperous spring you can end up feeling very overwhelmed with the tasks to do in the garden.  There really is nothing in the garden that can’t wait, other than watering your plants in hot conditions. I will admit I once planted a forgotten box of shooting November flowering lilies in the garden on the 1st November – they didn’t come up that year but they have every year since.

A few tips from me when this does happen – first of all take a step back and take a breath.

The next thing to focus on is break the garden down into smaller sections don’t look at the big picture. Think about how much time you do have to allocate, to gardening.  Select a smaller section to work on first so you know that you can get the bed looking good in a shorter amount of time. I would suggest selecting an area that is close to where you walk past each day or a spot you see all the time from indoors looking out. This will mean once it’s completed you can get a little boost of happiness or sense of accomplishment whenever you pass by the area and it is all finished.  Weed the bed, prune shrubs if needed and or spread mulch. Once one area is complete move to the next section. Don’t try to do everything at once. Work section by section through the garden if you can.

If the weeds are growing beyond your control and are already starting to flower. I would try to dedicate some time to removing the flowering weeds or at the very least clip off the flowers before they go to seed.  You can come back later and remove them by the roots later.

Another tip is if you have wide garden beds,  start by focusing on the first 1 metre of the bed. If this front section of the bed is looking neat and tidy your eye will be drawn along the edges of the bed and the background planting will blur a little into the background.  My last thought on this subject, although it won’t help out at this point in time but being as strategic as possible in winter with your garden tasks is highly important. I’m feeling very grateful now that we did focus on weeding, fertilising, mulching and even some selective pruning where needed during the cooler months. Try next winter if you can to get some dedicated tasks done so you have your garden set up for what hopefully will be another wonderful spring. Even the shortest amount of time spent in the garden will make a difference. A quick weed or clip will make the garden look almost instantly better and give you some relief in your garden guilt