Practicing what I preach

I was probably pushing 50 before I really bought into the idea of tackling housekeeping tasks a few minutes at a time each day, rather than letting things pile up until I reached my breaking point and embarked on a cleaning marathon. I credit Flylady for my epiphany. Although I admit I don't follow her system 100%, I have found the principle of doing a little bit at a time over a long period of time both effective and liberating.

Having routines and doing a little bit at a time works well for me in my garden, too. I am rather sensitive to both heat and bright light, so in the heat of the summer the mantra "you can do anything for 15 minutes" becomes more like 5 minutes at a time for me. You'd be surprised how many weeds you can pull in 5 minutes. Often I just take a stroll around the garden, observing what's new and what needs to be done. I may pull a few weeds, give a thirsty plant a bucket of pond water, or pick ripening vegetables. Then I go inside and cool off. I do not spend hours at a time working in our garden. It is a garden built by minutes snatched here and there over the past 12 years.

This picture shows the northwest corner of our backyard. The north wall, behind the gazebo, is a common wall we share with the HOA-maintained entrance to our development. I do not like looking at bare block walls, so we planted honeysuckle on the west wall and snail vine on the north wall. However, the HOA does not share my esthetic preferences, and we have to be vigilant in keeping the vines on our side of the fence. Today I noticed them creeping over the wall into HOA territory, so we trimmed them back. That task should have taken only 5 minutes, but it was an effort to worm ourselves into the back corner due to the fact that I had been ignoring the honeysuckle vine's stealthy creep up into the pear tree for several months. It really was a jungle in there...hot, sweaty, and overgrown by vines. If I had snipped them  back as soon as they sent their first tentative tendrils into the tips of the tree branches, I would have spared myself considerable effort and discomfort.