Think you are too busy to garden? If you can set aside just 15 minutes a day for these activities, you can do many necessary garden tasks and be on your way to achieving your own green paradise, with all the benefits of having a garden in your own home.
Gardening at home with little time.
The secret to gardening, without giving up every weekend, is to apply time management principles. Those same skills you use to manage your daily office workload and a packed family schedule can put a beautiful garden at your fingertips, even if you only have 15 minutes a day. How to make it work? With the following tips you can have a small guide to start a garden at home.
1. Think small.
Gardening seems overwhelming when you look at the big picture: pruning bushes, staking vegetables, pulling weeds, adding mulch, eliminating pests, caring for the soil, keeping plants from getting sick or eaten by insects and snails and so on.
The first step to gardening in 15 minutes a day is breaking the big picture down into small tasks. Make lists of things to help you stay on track. When you go out to work in the garden, set a timer for 15 minutes and work as hard as you can until it rings.
2. Organize your tools.
The next key to success is organizing your tools and having the ones you use the most on hand. Store the tools in a small bucket that you can carry, or store them in the garden, inside a mailbox strategically reserved for gardening. Include nitrile gloves in your tool kit.
When you’re gardening for 15 minutes, gloves keep your hands from getting a lot of dirt, requiring a lot of time-consuming washing. With gloves, when 15 minutes have passed, you can simply take them off, wash your hands quickly, and you’re done.
3. Plant intelligently.
Do your homework adding plants to your garden. Put the right plant in the right place, and they’ll grow at their best without much pampering. When a plant is located in the wrong place, it will take more time to try to correct the problem and even our garden will have extra tasks, and it is not what we want. We invite you to consult these tips on easy crops to have a garden at home.
4. Throw away the weeds.
When a garden is left alone, weeds quickly reach our crops. When the weeds bloom, depending on the size of our garden, apply 15 minutes each week to weed. Get more tips on the best garden weed removal methods.
5. Trim and collect.
Remove the dried flowers and collect the ripe fruits or vegetables every two days. It may not take a full 15 minutes, freeing you up for other tasks like weeding or watering. By checking plants frequently during the week, avoid a day devoted to this activity.
6. Water wisely.
Efficient and affordable irrigation equipment is available for every type of garden. Pot drip systems and raised bed soaker hoses make watering a hands-free affair.
To make watering the containers easier, arrange the pots so they are close to each other. Keep a hose handy; Add a faucet splitter to connect multiple hoses to the same spigot or faucet. At the end of the watering, fill buckets or watering cans so they are ready for next time.
7. Use mulch.
Mulch is the most important element in terms of making gardening easier. It reduces watering time because it helps the soil stay moist. It reduces the time spent removing weeds because it helps prevent weeds from germinating.
Cover all planting beds with three inches of mulch. Tackle mulch in 15 minutes a day if you have a small garden. For larger gardens, it may take a weekend to finish the job. Make this task easier by working with family or friends to cover the ground as a team, doing several yards together.
8. Spend time in your garden.
Spend time in your garden every day, if possible. Whether it’s while you’re sipping your morning coffee or taking a walk after dinner, use those visits to assess what’s going on and guide your next 15-minute work period.
Be aware of faded flowers, pest buds, plants that need to be staked, damage to wildlife, and growing weeds. You can even use these hikes to do a bit of fading or weeding, just grab your handy tools and go to them.
