Today is the first day of spring and the garden waits for no one! Juggling a newborn can easily put a cramp in gardening productivity, but gardening isn’t just a hobby for me. It is where we get a significant part of the food that ends up on our table. The “stead” part of having a homestead means inside and out of our home is integrated into our daily life. Letting the garden fall by the wayside this season is just not an option for me.
What is an option is how I garden this year. There are some corners I am comfortable cutting. For example, I am buying starts instead of growing everything from seed and picking reliable, productive varieties instead of experimenting with unusual heirlooms. The garden beds will still be full, but I’ll get there a little easier than in past years.
Another strategy I’m focusing on is gardening one hour at a time. Between breastfeeding and diaper changes, I don’t have several hours stretches to tackle garden chores. Instead, I made a list of garden tasks and everyday I’m trying to get out for at least one hour to work on one thing at a time.
Spring is upon us and the garden is waking up. Breaking down garden tasks into little “to-do’s” makes our homestead a lot more manageable. Every time I’m outside, there is a little progress being made and that sense of accomplishment encourages me to keep chipping away at my list.
Make your garden to-do list and make a reasonable commitment to the garden this spring. Now get growing!
Happy Spring! Great advice! Off to create my garden TO DO list…
If you’re not already doing it, put your baby in a stroller and just roll her around the garden with you as you work. Park her in the shade if it’s hot. No reason not to be out there for hours with the baby. Breast feed as necessary outside too. I miss all that.
i’ve been wearing her in our moby baby wrap. i think she’s napping through most of the garden time, but when the weather gets better i’ll try the stroller!