NOW is the time to find out if your garden will become a burden this year.
You’d think it would be obvious to you when your garden becomes a burden. Sometimes it is but most of us struggle, thinking we’ll have more time next week or the week after or the week after that………..you get the idea.
So how do you work this out because, strange to say, it is often not that obvious?
What it took for me to get the message
Let me tell you a little story as to how the penny finally dropped with me. I had 2 allotments, one for the 9 chickens I kept and one for growing vegetables. One evening the fox called and by the end of his visit, I had no more chickens. Around the same time, the allotment officer contacted me to say that my plot was too weedy and would I please do something about it?
After much railing and ranting on my behalf and with myself, it became clear that the best solution was to give up the chicken allotment and to give half the vegetable allotment to another gardener. It all sounds obvious with hindsight but it took the fox AND the allotment officer to make me realise that I didn’t have enough time to enjoy looking after the hens and grow vegetables and that neither activity fitted comfortably into my lifestyle anymore.
So the key to deciding whether your garden has become a burden or not is to be very honest about whether it fitted comfortably into your lifestyle last year
So what are the clues you are looking for?
Find a point in the day when you will have at least half an hour which will be
uninterrupted, take a cup of tea (or a glass of wine) and go into the garden. Look around it. If your garden is big enough, walk around it.
Instead of looking at all the jobs that need doing or will need doing, look past them and just ask yourself this question ‘How did the garden feel last year?’ If your garden is a large one, go to the different
areas within it and ask the same question. For example, can you look at your borders and feel nothing but delight or were there aspects that felt overwhelming?
Other clues to look for
Other clues to look for are the usage of the words ‘should’ and ‘ought’. Did you say sentences such as ‘I should be in the garden now’ or ‘I want to read the paper but I ought to be doing the garden’?
Best decision
If you do come to the conclusion that your garden has become a burden, then CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve just made the best decision in relation to your garden this year because now you know you need to do things differently.
Free book to help you get started (if you live in the UK).
To help you get started with your new approach to your garden, we are offering you a free copy of our book ‘The Garden Equation. How to make your garden into a delightful part of your lifestyle’.
You can get your copy by registering your details on our website homepage. You need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find it, so don’t give up!
If you’d like to email me with any questions, click here and I’m very happy to help you if I can.
Email me – I’m happy to help. – Or have a look at our website for some ideas – click here.
