Time Those Gardening Tasks

I’ve been putting off edging flower borders in the back garden because I didn’t think I had the time. And when I say I’ve been putting it off, I mean I didn’t do it last year and might not have done it the year before.

I just didn’t seem to have the time.

Then the other day, something came over me and I decided to tackle the edges and sharpen them up.

I started on a smaller garden border that surrounds a large honeylocust tree.

I don’t know how many feet around that border is (30 feet? 45 feet?) but that edging task I kept putting off because it was going to take so long?

I did that border in 45 minutes.

“That didn’t take long.”

No, it didn’t.

So armed with my new understanding of what it would really take to edge all the borders, I took a quick lunch break and then proceeded to edge.

And edge.

And edge.

For the entire afternoon until it was supper time.

Then the next morning, I went out and finished the edging in about two hours.

Honestly, for as long as I put off edging those borders, it didn’t take too long, all things considered.

I’ll bet you’ve got some tasks you’re putting off doing in your garden because you think they’ll take too long.

I have just one piece of advice.

Get started and time yourself to get a real sense of how long it takes.

You may be pleasantly surprised, as I was, that putting off some of those tasks takes longer than actually doing them.

(I slowed down a bit from the breakneck speed that I edged the first border in because I decided on the other borders to do a bit of weeding and tidying up as I edged, going as far into each border as I could reach without stepping into the border. Doing that, I discovered a small rose I didn’t remember planting, a mum that was about to get crowded out by some goldenrod, and another Spigelia marilandica that I thought hadn’t survived the winter. Fortunately I didn’t find any more forgotten Easter eggs, but I did turn over a rock which disturbed a bunch of big red ants. Biggest I’ve ever seen. But they didn’t bite me. And of course, there was the big discovery that edging the borders doesn’t take so long that it needs to be put off ever again!)

(Someone may ask at this point why I don’t just edge those beds with some stones or other edging so I never have to edge them again. Well, I might. The front garden borders are all edged with small edging blocks and it does make it easy to trim around them when I mow. And there is one section in back that I edged with some leftover edging blocks. But really, do I have the time to do that? Hmmm… I might!)