During my first year of gardening, I found myself very overwhelmed by all the weeding that needed to be done. June and July came, the weeds grew faster than I could keep up with…oh, I was also pregnant and experiencing a lot of hip and back pain.
I soon realized that I needed a better system for managing my garden tasks. A system that would require a small amount of work from me each day rather than hours of backbreaking weeding a few times per week. Thankfully, I heard some very helpful advice on a podcast during this time that gave me the exact solution I was looking for!
Gardening contains many joys, but with it also comes hard work. Learning how to properly manage the garden work will relieve a person of overwhelm and in turn create a more successful and tidy garden space. I’ve used a system of garden management for a few years now and it has radically reduced the amount of hard labor I out into my garden each week by simply spreading the tasks out by each day. Continue reading to see all the details of my gardening schedule.
Why I Use a Gardening Schedule
One tip that saved me from garden overwhelm last year was something I heard from Jill from The Prairie Homestead. She mentioned how she broke her gardening tasks up into a weekly schedule.
So I tried it and it helped so very much! No longer was I looking at the weeds throughout the entire garden and wondering how I’d get it all done in one day, but rather tending to one section per day.
I’m definitely planning to implement this system into my garden again this year.
Example Schedule:
| Monday | Pumpkin Patch |
| Tuesday | Sweet corn |
| Wednesday | Watermelons and zucchini |
| Thursday | Lima Beans and Cucumbers |
| Friday | Tomatoes |
| Saturday | Garden borders |
I’ve divided all of my garden work into these different sections, so I know exactly which one to focus on for the current day.
So on Wednesday, for example, I know that I will just tend to the watermelons and cucumbers. This includes weeding, harvesting as needed, propping up a toppled cucumber limb, and so on. I will care for the needs of those sections on that particular day.
Now there may be times that I can move to another section if one doesn’t take as long as another, but there is no pressure to get it all done at once.
Rather than spending 2 hours at a time frantically chopping down weeds here, there, and everywhere, my attention is focused for 30 or 45 minutes per day. And an amazing thing happens…my garden is managed so much better in little bits at a time each day than in one stressful day every other week!
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