Time is something that is often short supply in the garden. This is relevant for me both at home and at work. Over a few posts, I am going to talk about how time is both a help and a hinderance in both work gardens and at home in my own garden. Today, I am going to talk about time in my own garden.
Even though I garden for work, I love spending time in my own garden. I have recently got into a bit of a lazy rut where I haven’t been spending as much time there as I should have been. This week I have got sorted and been out doing a couple of things each evening after getting home from work. This has been enjoyable, as even doing little things each day has already shown improvements in how my garden looks.
This leads to my first point on time in my garden. During the summer, work is so busy that I am always so tired at the end of any given work day, that I don’t always have any enthusiasm for doing my own gardening at home. Which is why I have decided to spend ten to fifteen minutes in my garden at home every weekday after work. I can do a couple of small jobs that do make a difference to my garden-things like a bit of tidying, watering, looking for pest or disease issues, or just enjoying the plants I have growing in my garden.
In my garden at home, I have the pleasure of never having to rush around like a headless chicken to get things finished by a certain time. Time is for leisure as I potter around in my garden. If I want to spend three hours or three minutes potting up seedlings, I can, as that is my prerogative! If I don’t get some fresh onion seeds sown on Tuesday evening (for whatever reason) that’s fine, I can do it over the next few days when I get chance and no one will complain. My garden, my schedule and my little domain-utterly wonderful!
A fair amount of my time in the garden, or on a garden related topics is spent on trying to decide what I want to grow. Fruit, flowers, vegetables or leafy shrubs-which I prefer any given moment depends on my mood. I love most plants, but have limited space, so I do have to be really strict with myself on my choices-that isn’t always easy!
There is also the fact that I just don’t have as much time to go into the garden as I would like. Life gets in the way, just like it does for everyone. There is work, housework, and other, often very boring things that we need to do instead! There is also other fun stuff like meeting friends or getting outside with my camera, bush walks or reading.
That is a little about my time in my own garden at home. It’s not always easy to get time out there, but it is always a pleasure-even if I forget that sometimes!