The No-Time Gardener!

 Day 2

You would think that I'd start on Day 1.  That would be the sensible approach.

Alas, if you follow this journey you will find I am not necessarily sensible.

So this journey starts with this book:

(click the picture to find the book on Amazon)

I found it while on holiday in Pembrokeshire and it spoke to me.  I have a gorgeous garden.  Estate agents would describe it as "mature and well-established".  I describe it as "wild and unkempt" or "in need of some serious taming".  Basically we moved here four years ago and despite our efforts, have pretty much left it to its own devices.

We are just so busy - with work, volunteering, family life etc etc that gardening falls way down on the priority list, despite the fact that we both enjoy it, and both want to have a lovely garden.

This book talks about exactly that.  And how you can actually make a BIG difference to your garden by committing yourself to just five minutes per day.  Everybody can find 5 minutes, right?  That could be 5 minutes less fiddling around on Facebook or Twitter.  Some days, I might get involved in a task and it will take longer, other days I'll stick to the five minutes.

So I think I'll give it a go.  

I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't manage my 5 minutes every day, but blogging about it here might give me some extra motivation to keep trying.  I might not post on here every day either, because lets face it, that's another 5 minutes!  However, let's see how we get on.

Before

These aren't quite the Before photos, as I've just completed my second day of activity - but it'll still hopefully show the journey my garden goes on.  I'll try to post photos of the whole garden each month, as well as of each task on a daily basis.

Back Garden

Front Garden

Day 1

Yesterday was an easy decision.  We've been away on holiday for two weeks, so I mowed the lawn. The wildlife meadow in the centre of the lawn is now also due to be mown down ready for winter, but husband has ordered a sickle, so I'll leave that for him to do when it arrives.  I also cut back a whole load of dying flowers that were overhanging the lawn on the right hand side, and took out the brown garden waste bin.

Time taken - about 25 minutes

Future Tasks noted - 

• trim or strim the grass around the edge of the lawn
• reseed areas of the lawn where there is a lot of moss or where the dog has peed.

Day 2

You can't actually see how big this shrub was.  I only intended to reduce the size by half, but once I started bringing it down, I could see that it needed to be taken down to the ground. It's a nice shrub with variegated leaves, but there were also two other shrubs growing through it too.  The main problems with it were both how large it was and how it encroached on the lawn.  I'm confident that it will regrow and be easier to keep in shape. Daughter helped me put a lot of it in the garden waste bin, and the rest on the flower bed nearby, ready to take to the recycle centre when I have time.

Time taken - about 40 minutes

Future Tasks noted - 

• take vegetation to recycle centre
• go to garden centre and find some things to plant around the area.  Maybe an elderberry, some spring bulbs and something with some lovely yellow flowers.  I want everything that grows in my garden to be either beautiful, useful or edible.