Taking a break this week

This week, I'm taking a rest from the gardening. I'm drawing out a plan, getting input from the kids, and enjoying Spring Break with them. We did take out the bunny pen together, and put it up in granny's yard. And I trimmed the area where the pen was, but that's about it.

Next week, I'll post the plans for the different zones. At least they're fairly neat now... compared to what it was one month ago.

Zone 4: The backyard

There is a lot to be done here and I know there will be big changes... eventually. These pictures are actually after 1 week of work. The grass was cut, some weeds pulled, and the patio was tidied up a little. A whole bag of rubbish was thrown out, filled with stuff that was sitting around on the shelf and all over the ground. So I know we've made some progress.


This weekend, I plan to remove the bunny pen and draw up a plan for our backyard.

Overall, I think this 20 minute/day plan is working out really well. I take a break from work at around 2pm, work for about 20 - 30 minutes then run out to pick up kids.

Update on Zone 3

The week was spent on the side yards, and there has been a little bit of progress there. The gingers are much neater now, the grass is trimmed and I've picked up most of the rubbish along the other side with the ferns. All this in just about 20 minutes a day. Occasionally I miss a day and do a little extra the next day, but I really don't think I've spent more than what would amount to 15 or 20 minutes per day. What you can do with those few extra minutes! Wow.

I didn't completely finish the tasks of removing the fishtail fern and bunny pen. The pen will be removed soon, when I have a bit more time on the weekend. Then I'll be able to trim the mess behind the pen and neaten it up as well.

Zone 3: Side yards

Before pictures of Zone 3

They grow so lush and beautiful! A little too lush. The two sides are regenerating themselves much too quickly! This is a view of our ferns, herb garden and ti leaf garden from the back yard. It's a total mess... including the back porch. No pic of that, but you can tell it's overflowing into the sidewalks. I really need a place for the tools.



And on the other side, here's the red ginger strip, filled with fishtail ferns, smaller ferns, and beautiful red gingers. This is what we'll be working on cleaning up for a couple days. I think I can spend a good 20 minutes in the yard now that work has slowed down.


Tasks for this area will be to trim gingers, cut grass (I had to get the backyard cut already since the children wanted to play in it), weed out the fishtail fern (maybe repotting some), and getting rid of the bunny pen. I probably won't get to all those jobs before the week is up, but any progress is better than none. If I keep neglecting the yard, it'll take over and our house will disappear in the mess.

today we plant... a little bit

Well, at least this week we got one little section planted and weeded. There still is a lot of work to do here. But work has kept me very busy so I haven't done quite as much as I wanted to. We worked for a few longer sessions, maybe a total of 1 hour and was able to get quite a bit done. I did most of the clean up and prep, and the kids did the planting and choosing of plants.

Here's a couple of pics of the section we worked on. We also cleared the extra shoes off the porch, but I still need to get a shoe shelf....

Update

I took a day off today, we're preparing for a birthday party and I have a deadline coming up for work. But the daily 15-20 minutes I did over the past 3 days is beginning to show some progress.

As of right now, it isn't worth taking a picture. I've cleared a spot for the kids to plant their flowers, but everything around it is still a bit of a mess. The porch has been cleared of excess footwear, and swept clean. It isn't beautiful, but it's fairly neat.

I'm working on a plan and hope to have it done soon.

Zone 2: Front yard and porch

I decided to just move our zone schedule down a week and start from zone 1 again come March. The whole yard needs tending to, but since these are the most visible zones, we'd better work these first.

So Zone 2: the front yard and porch, will be cleaned up this week.

Before pictures:

We will also be helping my mother clean up her yard (and home) during the week. She's been meaning to do so forever.