RETIRE IN YOUR MIND

 

Coming soon...(not to my garden, though, with all the deer waiting for a tasty tulip treat)

Retiring in my mind: I have decided to try this activity on Sundays. I will aim at finishing all my obligatory home maintenance on Saturdays, and then enjoy my mental retirement on Sundays.

Usually, cleaning, food shopping and cooking are taking almost an entire day, but yesterday (Saturday), I had the afternoon to visit my garden for the first time this year.

As I have mentioned before, gardening is one of my biggest stress busters.

Yesterday the garden was was sunny and inviting, a wonderful preview of Spring! I noticed that in addition to my daffodils poking through the soil, the only other green "stuff" was weeds. So, it was the right time to identify the invaders and get them out of my flower beds before the growing season.

I also cleaned up a bit the plant remains from last year, and planted some garlic for early spring harvest. I love green garlic with  any meal in the evenings; however, I have rarely seen green garlic sold in my local supermarket.

I have no fence around my property and when I plant any veggies, I am usually not the one to get the harvest first. The deer, the rabbits and the birds are always ahead of me… I remember a year when I woke up to look at the backyard and find out all my tomato plants completely decimated: only the main stalks were standing, everything else was eaten… In addition to deer and rabbits, we have bears, coyotes, foxes and who knows what else (in fact, I do not want to know). 

So, this year I will try to be more creative (without installing a fence) and plant veggies in my flower beds – hopefully, some of the bigger flowers will limit the access of the animals to the vegetable plants. I will also experiment with more marigolds – supposedly, their smell repels not only bugs, but also some animals. Last year I tried to protect some of my hosta plants (a favorite treat for the deer) by spreading leftover pieces of soap (Irish Spring) around them. It seemed that it worked, but I am not sure I want soap where I grow my food. Other natural animal repellents also exist (usually, a mix of smelly/fermented spices and foods), but one has to keep spraying these every week to keep up with the rain here.
Anyway, I am excited that the warmer weather has arrived, and I can get out in the garden for a few hours a week. Even better - since we switched to summer time this weekend, I will have more daylight hours after I come home from work.

In addition to gardening, another great way to retire in my mind (at least on a weekend) is to get a few books from the library. Fiction books are my first choice; however, I feel guilty when I read them, since in my mind I need to self-improve on several fronts and reading more specialized books dedicated to my self-improvement ideas is preferable. Anyway, I may try to follow up on my plan this weekend. A quick stop at the library is on my afternoon schedule.