London - Gawd, you know things are getting desperate when you have to start thinking about time management while you are gardening.
The book that keeps popping into my head is Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which claims that all of our actions can be sorted into four slots. First, the big guns: Important and Urgent - you have to do these before anything else (putting out the fire in your burning house, etc). Next come the sweated deadlines that you won't remember in a year's time: Urgent but Not Important. Then, the vital investment in the long term: Important but not Urgent. And finally, a category of insignificant little things that qualify as none of the above.
It's strange to think that there is ever anything urgent about a garden, but it's a feeling I get a lot this time of year. Leaves open, buds pop, sap rises, and all this new growth equates to a rising panic about all the jobs that still need doing: stonework needing painting before it's covered by climbers for the summer; gaps in the bulb planting from last year which require a quick run to the garden centre for plugging; pruning of shrubs still not finished after a cold winter. I've listed hundreds of little tasks on a sheet of paper.
Obvious, of course, which bits of gardening qualify as both important and urgent. That's when your fence falls down right on top of your neighbour's newly seeded lawn (speaking from recent experience). But working out how to calibrate the two next categories - that's the stuff of life itself, isn't it? Weeding, trimming and mowing the grass are boring but unignorable tasks; so when to fit in those important things which have no inherent urgency, such as rethinking the whole design of a garden? Ah, it's a hard balancing act.
There's just so little time. And maybe that's the key. We may be dreaming of a minimalist gazebo built in fine white limestone, but let's be realistic. Gardening is a ferocious reminder of time passing, of days clicking past, as things change from dawn to dawn. Aim to sort out what's actually there and then enjoy it, at least until Easter gives us some breathing space for a bigger think.
Timed deadlines are a really good way to make sure jobs get finished: setting a deadline of two hours and working accordingly hard to make sure the task actually gets done. Then stop. Don't keep hammering yourself until you can hardly walk - take a moment to enjoy what you've achieved.
And I'm a late but passionate convert to scrupulous tidying up. I have slowly come around to the thinking that it's the kindest thing you can do for yourself: tidy up and you can suddenly see how beautiful everything looks. I, for instance, find myself slowly picking twigs out of flowerpots; I have even been known to arrange gravel. And that's the moment you realise that some of the nicest moments come in a garden when you are doing something neither important nor urgent.
ALL IN GOOD TIME
SET GOALS
Work out in your head one task that needs doing. If the job is too big, aim to do a set fraction of it, such as, “Clip 50 per cent of the front hedge.”
STAY FOCUSED
Choose one bit of the garden and stick to it: finish one task rather than tackling bits of 14. Look up anything you need to know, such as pruning rules, beforehand. Do not go indoors and get on the internet mid-prune.
HAVE A SET END TIME
Set a timer and don't go beyond it. Don't spend all weekend gardening; that's not what a garden is for. Tidy up, take the clippings to the tip, then have a cup of tea. And preferably cake. - The Independent on Sunday