Good Time Management!

DESPITE being too young to qualify for membership, I recently found myself on the excellent Saga website, Sagazone.co.uk and discovered that many of its members were keen gardeners.
This shouldn’t have come as any surprise as according to research carried out by Saga itself, gardening and growing vegetables was the single most popular activity amongst people who have retired.
It must be lovely to have all the time in the world to spend tending carrots and raising beautiful dahlias but I’m not sure that retirees have any more time on the hands than the rest of us. Everyone I know who has finally given up work seems to be so busy traveling, playing golf or undertaking charity activities that I’m surprised that they find enough time to raise an eyebrow, never mind a crop of vegetables.
Maybe the truth is that they are just better at managing their time and have learnt how to pace themselves, so that instead of trying to squeeze in a whole weekend of gardening, they do small amounts at regular intervals.
It is a tactic I’m trying in my own garden. Without great chunks of time to devote to it, I now divide every task into half-hour slots and I’m pleasantly surprised at the results.
In 30 minutes I can weed a bed or plant several bags of tulips. In the same time I can empty a pot, refill it with compost and create a display of winter bedding that will bring cheer to the garden for months.
And it is amazing how much easier it is to get started on some of the back-breaking and laborious tasks, such as scraping out the weeds from between the cracks in the path, when you know you are only going to be at it for half an hour and not all afternoon.
I’m so convinced by the system that I’ve added a new item to by gardening wish-list for Christmas – a stop watch.
Agnes Stevenson