I’m beginning to think that I need to keep better records.
Not of the seeds I have or where they’re planned to be in the garden or how much is harvested. No, I’ve gotten pretty good at keeping those records.
What I’m not good at tracking is how much time it actually takes to complete a given garden project.
I have a horrible time guesstimating how long it will take to weed an area or plot it out or plant it out.
Case in point:
Saturday was spent in town running errands, tying up loose ends and enjoying some time with a few friends. While in town, we decided to stop by the urban farm, chat with our renters, assess what still needs to be done to the yard, grab some soil from the backyard (the old chicken run is rich with black gold), and pull out some perennials to transplant on our new property.
We got home late and fried from the day, so made a plan to transplant everything on Sunday.
So, when I got up yesterday (later than usual or intended, but apparently needed), I set out to get the waiting strawberries, rhubarb, echinacea, and hops into the ground in our side yard, thinking it would take an hour or two. The plan was then to move on to the big garden for a couple of hours and then call it a day around 1:00 to allow for some down time and self-care before the busy work-week ahead.
Well, six hours later I was still in the side yard.
And really, the last bit of time was spent rushing around cleaning everything up because there was a very promising storm moving in that actually only brought about seven rain drops, a ton of wind and one gorgeous rainbow.
Now, a little of that time was spent eating breakfast and playing with Sprout, but I’d still guess that a good five hours (with help from Kim) was put into that little patch of land!
So, what did we do in all that time?
We weeded, moved rocks, cut out Elm trees, trimmed back bushes, amended the soil, planted a few echinacea seeds and transplanted 50 (fifty!) strawberries, six rhubarb crowns, two echinacea plants, and six hops.
But do you see what I’m talking about? Here I was thinking this little project would take a max of two hours, but it took three times longer than that! Geez…
On the bright side, it’s all in and adapting (hopefully happily) and will (hopefully) produce gobs and gobs of beautiful deliciousness down the road 🙂
Another bright spot? Our very first harvest of the year: Rhubarb!
One pound, two ounces of gorgeous, tasty, rhubarb…harvested before pulling the crowns out of the ground on Saturday to (hopefully, again) lessen the stress of the move.
So, even though the project took me longer than I thought it would (and I really should figure out a way to track such things…any ideas?), I’m happy with what was done and excited to have some food growing in the ground.
And all those other projects we need to get to will get done, too…just probably not as quickly I think they will 😉
Happy Monday, everyone! Wishing you a marvelous week ahead!
xoxo,
M
Linking up to Harvest Monday…pop on over to see what’s being harvested around the globe this week.
I’m always surprised by how long things take in the garden. I’ve learned to spread things out so I don’t do everything in one day and kill myself, but sometimes it just happens.
Daphne recently posted…Harvest Monday, 4 May 2015
I agree! Spreading it out is best…until one project leads to the next and the next and the next! There are worse things, I’m sure 😉
Hooray for rhubarb! I’m hoping to get our first cutting soon. I’m terrible at estimating projects too. I just try and focus on the task at hand, and whatever gets done, gets done. It sounds like you got a whole lot done, regardless of how long you thought it would take!!!
Thanks for the reminder, Dave! It is definitely important to count the accomplishments, no matter how long it takes! 🙂
My rule of thumb is that any given garden task will take at least twice as long as the amount of time that I’ve allowed for… maybe longer. I can’t get any task done without spending too much time just poking around and gazing. But I guess that’s one of the things that makes gardening such a joy.
Exactly! It is the *true joy of gardening! I call it “puttering” and do it all.the.time! 🙂
I know what you mean, but in my case I plan on doing 1 thing and end up getting lost in other stuff I need to do. By the time I realize I’m late going somewhere or didn’t do something else that needed tending to. Nice harvest. Congrats. The first one of the season always feels so wonderful
Barbie recently posted…Harvest Monday 5.4.2015
Oh yes…there’s that, too! I’m constantly seeing another and another thing to do and then just getting lost in all of it! Oy… 😉
Oh, this post just had me nodding my head from the start – I am in exactly the same boat. It is the (very!) rare task that I actually accomplish in the amount of time I set aside for it. So what I have started to do lately is this – estimate the amount of time that something will take me to do…then double it. Sometimes, even that isn’t enough, but at least it’s a lot closer to the actual time it will take than my original guess. And if I actually get it done in less time, well then I can enjoy having the extra time to do something else.
Margaret recently posted…Sowing Eggplant
Lol! Glad I’m not alone! I like you’re process of doubling the amount of time you think it’ll take. I’ll try that and see if it helps my perspective (and sanity) just a bit 🙂
I like seeing your new place.
I like the beautiful side garden you created, even if it took longer than you anticipated. Maybe it’s just part of the adjustment to a bigger piece of property?
crafty_cristy recently posted…Peaches This Year
Cristy, I definitely think it has something to do with being on a bigger property…I hit waves of utter excitement and complete overwhelm at regular intervals. I also think I’m just bad at judging garden tasks in general 😉