Sunday, June 2, 2013

The yogurt-container method of gardening

A long time ago, before we even moved to Haliburton Hill, I was faced with the job of painting the entire back side of a shingled house.  It was kind of overwhelming because I didn't want to rent a sprayer so the job required intensive scrubbing with a brush in between the shingles.  

I approached the job by filling a yogurt container with paint every morning and painting until the container was empty. It took the whole summer but I got the job done. I called it the yogurt-contained method of painting a house.

Now we're up here on the hill with this huge, overwhelming garden and I've decided to approach it the same way. Instead of a yogurt container I'm using one of those plastic gardening buckets.


I take it out with my gardening tools every day (when it's not raining) and fill the container with the weeds, twigs, clippings and other gardening debris.  When the container's filled, I'm done for the day.  

Depending on the area I'm working in it takes between half an hour and an hour to fill the container.  Occasionally I'll keep going and fill two or three more, but this is often counter-productive because I end up stiff and sore and unwilling to go into the garden the next day.



We didn't have any idea how much work the garden would take but the yogurt-container method is helping me to cope.  







You can see today's container full above, and on the left is the area I managed to tidy up. It took
about an hour.



And here's what's waiting for me tomorrow, along with my tools and my little stool.  

With the yogurt-container method I know I can get another section  done without too much resistance -- just as long as it doesn't rain.

 

3 comments:

  1. Ok How big was the Yogurt container ?
    I really like the plastic bucket idea too. One always wants to do it all in a day or weekend but it is just not possible.
    I do something similar...I put the kitchen timer on and then see how much I can do. It makes me focus and not get side tracked.
    Your garden is looking lovely.
    Our rain is still to come, It is sunny and hot right now it is 105 down from 108. Yes summer is here.

    cheers, parsnip

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  2. It was the large size that holds about three cups but only filled just over half full. Glad it's cooled down some. We've been having clouds and rain until today. Hoping summers here as we'll.
    Joanna

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