Divide and Conquer Update

After collecting my tools and garden cart, I set out to enjoy a sunny afternoon in my gardens ... Status regarding my goals:

• Compile a list of priority tasks

1. clear and mulch leaves
2. weeding focus: annuals garden areas
3. raised bed: seed planted
4. soak Morning Glory seeds
5. clear around Lonicera Mandarin
6. prune roses (late)
7. prune topiaries

• Establish gardening zones (in order of priority)
  

1. Raised bed — lettuce; herbs; tomato and pepper plants
2. Westside gardens — continue to de-leaf and clear
3. Front door gardens — clear leaves; color spot; mulching
4. Arch garden — clearing pruning around garden path; color spots
5. Eastside garden — plant Morning Glories in container (to aid reseeding); topiary; color spot
6. Backyard gardens — weeding, weeding, weeding!
7. Frontyard gardens — continue to de-leaf and clear; mulch with newspaper and grass; pruning

• Delight in my garden-playground!

Accomplished!

"... the best is yet to be." ~Robert Browning

Divide and Conquer

As in life, the concept of divide and conquer allows one to overcome the nagging procrastination that usually accompanies getting started with a large project.

My sure-fire way of moving off the getting-started block is to use a timer. After all, most of us can do the most dreaded of tasks for 10-20 minutes!

Today, my goal is to map out my garden tasks by overcoming my whining about the reality of not one check mark on my March gardening to-do list. (Illness has been my most frequent challenge. It seems to resurface just when I get all my plates spinning!)

But that is what it is ... So, today I have my timer and my garden journal — and a perfect March day! An inch of rain has nourished my garden beds and they are ready for grooming (also known as weeding!)

Here are my goals:

1. Compile a list of priority tasks.
2. Establish gardening zones.
3. Delight in my garden-playground!

Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. ~Marcelene Cox

Miscellaneous Garden Delights!

Daffodils are my official sign that I am behind. However, since I have never truly felt "on-schedule" in my ever-changing gardens — no problem!

I have been working in small sections of my gardens and the emerging signs of Spring are everywhere! It is clarifying to be outdoors, digging in the dirt in my proverbial playground!

• Mulching Tips and Info
• Gardening Upside-Down
• Immutable Laws of Gardening

No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden. ~Hugh Johnson

Getting Started

Isn't it odd how difficult getting started can be ... And yet how easy a task is once we get started?

Garden is that way for me; I have to find a rhythm of activity. Because right now (and usually again in June and October), when I walk through them, I am overwhelmed with ideas and tasks — and despair.

Yep. Despair.

I realize I am past certain mile markers; such as March fast approaching and I have yet to accomplish the tasks I hoped to get to before now. (Another reason for no posting here ... Even writing about it feels like "too much" ...)

However, writing is the first step toward accomplishing my goals. And blogging seems to be a sure path to my gardening goals! ;-)

So, I am going to get started with posting this list of "first-to-do" in my gardens:

1. Determine arrangement for raised bed plantings; sow during Spring Break.
2. Clear leaves from west wall garden. (Mulch and collect for compost and bed-layering.)
3. Complete bed-layering (newspaper, grass-leaf mix, sand, compost, pine bark mulch).
4. Mark areas for bedding plants; determine plantings.
5. Hoe clover and work into soil (an excellent, no-cost organic soil enrichment!).
   

• Article read today: What’s Keeping You From Starting A Veggie Garden?

Wonderful and Warm January Day!

Early Riser ...

The season of Winter is still a season for gardening. I have enjoyed some of my most relaxing and healing moments during the months of January and February; stepping through my gardens as I look over the sprigs of growth on my Phlox and the golden silhouettes of grasses and flower stalks.

The lessons of Winter are many. My favorite being that dormancy is not death, but a season of rest and renewal which fuels the color of Spring.

As I walked and made notes in my gardens today, I often paused to simply breath in the fresh air ... to close my eyes and allow the rays of the sun to warm my face.

A few things accomplished:

• Watered (and remembered to unhook the hose; a freeze tonight!)
• Spread out fresh mulch over the main walk-path
• Photographed main areas; made notes for clearing, transplanting and new plantings.
• Built fencing to go over compost to my sweet Golden Retriever from helping herself to "snacks"!

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ~Hanna Rion

Winter View

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Martin Luther

Autumn is Garden Time!

My "OSU Mums" ... Go Pokes!

Apparently Autumn temps are going to be higher than average. And rain showers are few and far between.

But who can complain when we have had such mild weather this year? I just want it to be cooler so I will know for sure it is time to plant Pansies and more Mums! :-)

2008 has been more of a maintenance year than one of new design and color! I had very little time to devote to anything more than weed and maintain this growing season. However, that is what I like about gardening: There is always next season.

And this year has been blessed with its share of "design and color" in other areas of my life! Thus, I am content to enjoy the perennial herbs and bloom of gardening years past. (Of which I detailed in May's entries of last year: link)

My Zinnias and Mums are front and center right now. And my Roses are "happy" again, too, as they broadcast various shades of pink hither and yon in my gardens. The heat of August sure seems to zaps 'em. And I have been busy deadheading and trimming herbs (especially my Garlic Chives!).

Zinnias and a visiting butterfly ...

Despite warm afternoons, Oklahoma Autumn mornings remain pleasant and cool ... And prove to be especially from my backyard as I sip a tasty café mocha and take a slow stroll — accompanied by my three canine grrls and a kitty. We silently enjoy some of our favorite moments as we are surrounded by fruitful gardens and native trees providing a canopy of seclusion.