Sunday Musings - February 9, 2025

You're never going to get it all done

Please don’t think my subtitle is negative in any way. It’s just the nature of being a gardener. I have to tell myself this or I feel defeated when I don’t get everything on my list accomplished. It’s a lot, because I didn’t do anything in December or January to prepare, for various reasons, and now I’m “behind” on what needs to be done. Let’s be honest: we’re never going to get everything done.

When you’re standing in the garden, surrounded by clean, empty spaces that you’ve spent hours cleaning it’s easy to feel a bit of smug satisfaction that you’ve completed a chore. It’s okay to feel that way. Sometimes gardening chores are hard, and you should feel a sense of accomplishment for getting them done. Then you realize something else has popped up (often literally) and you didn’t have time to do something else you really needed to get done, and that sinking feeling of “I’m never going to get everything done” starts to creep in.

Garden raised beds I spent two days cleaning out, amending, and planting. I have to get the electric fence back up. There are already footprints in the soil.

You know what? It’s probably true, but you shouldn’t let it get to you.

So many people, myself included, have physical limitations that prevent them doing as much as they would like. I have mild issues, but they do limit the amount of time I can spend doing heavy chores without several days of suffering afterward.

There’s always so much to do when you have a garden that you probably won’t get everything done. Prioritize your tasks, get done what you can, and revel in that smug satisfaction for a few minutes. That weed that popped up while your back was turned will still be there when you get done.

Until next time…

Jennifer