APRIL IN THE GARDEN

The last couple of weeks has been very challenging with tech issues and I ended up having to buy a new laptop (gulp) so I haven’t put together your week-by-week growing guide as I was hoping to do. I will endeavour to pop this up on socials weekly throughout the month instead. I have been working on this article though so have popped this here for you instead.

HOW DO WE GET SO MUCH DONE?
This month I thought I would talk about how we seem to get so much done in the garden and on the whenua. For us it doesn’t always feel like we are making much progress, but then we look back on what we’ve achieved over the month and friends/family come to visit and they’re like “wow, you’ve done so much”.

I was recently having a talk with Katrina from Blue Borage and she asked how do we get so much done and manage such a big project, as she has friends and clients that are on lifestyle blocks and often feel overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done.

If you don’t already know, I homeschool our children so while that does give me more flexibility with when I work, it’s also very hard for me to find the time to fit in jobs with having two children with me all the time and all the activities that we do. Jarrod is currently commuting to Auckland 3-4 days a week for work so our farm time is very limited.

A FEW THINGS WE DO TO STAY OUT OF THE OVERWHELM
1. HAVE A BASIC PLAN
We have a Trello board (trello.com) which I set up and I write in the bigger projects, or projects that have to be done within a certain time period, so Jarrod knows that these are our priorities. If I don’t make a note of what I need doing then he will tend to head off to do other jobs (which is great) but for example, weed eating the driveway isn’t helpful when I urgently need a new irrigation tank pad dug out with the digger. Don’t put too many items on this list, maybe just the top five so it’s not so overwhelming and you can budget for and focus on the main projects.

2. DO THE JOBS THAT ARE THE MOST URGENT
Life is busy so even though there is loads to do, focus first on the ones that a screaming at you. While it’s not the most ideal system, getting the tasks done that stop you from loosing a whole lot of plants, pruning your tree’s now before they get too big for you to manage, or by leaving it now will double your work load later - is better than nothing. Each morning I write a list that has one priority job that I am commited to doing that day, then three other jobs that I want to do if my day aligns.

3. A QUICK JOB IS BETTER THAN NO JOB
When our kids were babies, my husband’s nana gave me a great piece of advice “A quick vacuum is better that no vacuum” and I use this on the farm all the time to keep on top of things. A quick weed,/mow/sweep/prune/shed tidy, whatever it is, is better than getting overwhelmed and doing nothing at all. This also applies to working with the moon phases. Life doesn’t always work in with the moon cycles so if I have twenty minutes to sow some seeds and it’s not a sowing day, then so be it. It’s better to get the seeds sown now, rather than not at all.

4. PLAN AHEAD
Each month I plan for the following month for what jobs need to be done and what seeds and plants that can go in so I can figure out the best days (via the moon calendar) for planting, cultivating, pruning, and so on. I can then work out my task planning aroudn this. It also helps me to pre-purchase any seeds or supplies that I need to have ready. If you have everything ready to go and a spare 10 mintues then at least you can make a start. At the moment, we are waiting for some rain to be forecasted before we plant on our second terrace, so while we wait I just go down and dig five holes a day (I tie it in with feeding the ducks)so they are ready for ammendments and planting as soon as I know we’ll get some rain.

5. DO THE JOBS THAT BRING YOU THE MOST JOY
It is much easier to stay motivated when you love what you are doing or love the results. So for me, even though hanging baskets on my chicken run aren’t priority jobs, they bring me so much joy that it helps to keep me motivated and reminds me how putting in the mahi now brings great rewards later. You really need to enjoy what you’re doing (the majority of the time at least) to make this worthwhile. Our time is precious and a gift so it’s important to be spending it in ways that fill our cup.

6. HAVE A VISION
The other thing that both Jarrod and I are very good at doing is having an overall goal and vision of what we want to achieve. We visualise what it will be like to walk down into our thriving food forest and harvest the fruit, walking through all the native bush that we are in the process of planting, hosting guests in our retreat centre we are yet to build, walking into our stock room and seeing all the magickal soaps, botanicals, and products that we’ve been creating here on the farm. When we have a clear vision and get into the flow of life, things just become easier and the right people, items, or situations just happen to pop up at perfect time.

So, there we go. I think that covers our basic strategy for getting stuff done and staying out of the overwhelm. If I think of anything else I will be sure to add that in later. If you have anything that works well for you, please share in the comments.