A few things off the "To Do" list - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Sunday 27 February, 2011

by Rosemary at 9:48am in Smallholding 1 comment Comments closed

Do you have a "To Do" list? I have several - there's an annual one, that has big projects on it, there's one specifically for fencing and boundaries, a planting plan for the vegetable garden and there's a daily one.

The annual action plan is so scary I can only look at it once a week, when Dan and I update it. It has completion dates and notes of who's responsible for various projects.

The fencing / boundary one is new. Dan and I walked all the boundaries last weekend and made quite detailed notes of the current condition, then decided what action needed to be taken and when (ideally). It's been subject to some amendment because of the drainage issue we have, but we're back to putting up the fence to divide Five Acre next weekend. I'll just need to be patient regarding the calves. John and Dan finished the south boundary fence of Five Acre yesterday; the east fence is new and in good condition; other two are good enough for this year. If we have time, we will refurbish part of the west boundary fence, but it's not essential.

The planting plan for the vegetable garden lists all the varieties, which beds, what spacing and what time they have to be planted and harvested. This takes away the thinking when we're busy - I do the thinking during the long, dark nights. Now, I just do what the plan says.

Then there's the daily To Do List. I do this every night before I go to bed. It's kind of cathartic - I empty my mind of things to do and I sleep better. Scoring things off is also very therapeutic. Sometimes it isn't a very long list, in that it's things I HAVE to do - it doesn't include the routine tasks or the ones that I get distracted into doing. And there are lots of distractions here.

Yesterday, I prepared the bed and planted the garlic - Elephant and Solent Wight. That's the first planting in the new vegetable garden. When returning the rake to the potting shed, I started to rake the bit of lawn where a skip had been sitting during the renovation. I ended up getting the lawn rake and doing the whole area, then putting down grass seed on the bare parts.

Then I emptied the last of the stuff out of the caravan - that was on the list. It's been shut up since October but I was pleased to see that it was bone dry and not at all musty. Having brought the stuff round, it all had to be sorted, washed and, in the case of the cats' sheepskin cushion covers, groomed (?).

I also got distracted by some snowdrops in the wood, the woodpeckers and getting a bit of sun - none of these things were on the list but it was good to do them anyway.