Five Minutes a Day

Weeding is a part of any gardener’s life.  Like death and taxes, weeding is inevitable.  I dislike weeding, but I prefer my yard when I don’t see Oxalis, wild tomatoes (nasty, prickly things), and other invaders.  Because I dislike the task, I tend to ignore the weeds, and then trying to get rid of them seems like an overwhelmingly impossible task.   Until now.

About two months ago, I was staring at my front yard, despairing over the weeds.  I could see dandelions turning into shrubs, and Henbit creeping along the ground.  I was pretty sure that the wild onions were popping up out of the ground as I was watching them.  Every time I turned around, I saw more.  And more.  It was so depressing.  

My husband and I were getting ready to go on a run to Fischer Hardware, but I really felt like I had to do *something* to the weeds before they got completely out of hand.  “Five minutes,” I told myself.  “Five minutes to get this patch of weeds right in front of you done, and then leave for the hardware store.”  And five minutes it was.

The next day, I did another five minutes when I came home from work. The day after that, another five minutes.  A couple of days later I started with five minutes, and it morphed into twenty minutes.  A week later, the yard started looking pretty good, and I didn’t feel like I had spent hours weeding without any results to show.  I haven’t weeded every single day, but it’s been enough to make the yard look fairly tidy, and I feel like I’m finally on top of that aspect of my yard.

If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of keeping your yard weeded, try giving it five minutes out of your day.  Focus on one little patch of your yard for five minutes, and after a few days, I promise you will notice the difference.