Tips To Keep On Track During The Growing Season

During spring and summer, there’s a lot going on around the homestead and in the garden. Read on to learn some tips to help you keep on track.

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Tips For Time Management On The Homestead

Today I want to share some tips that I’ve found helpful when trying to manage all the things on the homestead. For the last few weeks, I have been putting in garden beds on weekends, hoeing weeds, planting and sowing on the evening after work, and doing long days of working in the garden on the weekends. So let’s dig in and see how things shake down because it isn’t easy working a job from 7.30 in the morning to whatever time at night and managing acreage.

Prep Beforehand

I try to prepare a box or basket or a bag with the seeds I’m going to be planting the next day on the night before. I’m planting on a bigger scale than before but I used to do this when I lived in the suburbs too. So check your seed starting schedule if you have one or your calendar and see what plants are needing to be sown. Are you sowing more lettuce or is it time for your cowpeas? Is it time to get your melons out? I look at my seed schedule and I pull out the seed packets of those that I need to do. So today I need to sow my runner beans, I’ll go through my seed packets of the varieties that I have already decided to grow this year. Pull out the beans that I need to start and pop them in the gardening basket ready for me to take out to the garden today. Same thing with the turnips and rutabaga and anything else that I need to have started this week.

Organize seeds early

I’ve found that when I go through the seed stash with my family and we decide on what we are growing for the year, all of those varieties that make it in the yes pile, I put into another tote so I know this is what is being planted this year and I don’t need to spend time looking through everything to find what I’m looking for. Before I started separating out the seeds I’m planting this year I would end up with more varieties I was trying to cram into the garden because I would find something that was not slated for growing and it would mysteriously make it back into the garden and then I would be trying to find room for it to grow. Can you relate? 😀

The Magic Of Mulch

I really miss not having mulch available right now. The mowers both broke and the weeds are trying to take back the garden beds so I need to dedicate more time to weeding which as you probably know in your garden can take a lot of time. Mulching was my number one time-saving tool in the garden. It drastically cuts down on the weeding. One thing that is helping me with the weeds right now is getting the hoe in the garden beds regularly and getting the garden beds planted and seeds are sown as soon as I have weeded so that the new plants and seeds have an opportunity to get established before the weeds. That might look like tomatoes being transplanted, carrots, cilantro, or basil seeds sown around the tomatoes. At least this is good exercise being out in the garden!

Check-In And Evaluate Goals Often

Don’t be afraid to re-evaluate your goals or tasks needing to be done. Perhaps you have events with family or the kids have commitments for a science fair or sports. Maybe you get unexpectedly sick or discover the poison plant trifecta of poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison oak and have an allergic reaction and can’t get out in the garden for a few days. That happened to us!

We’re also at the mercy of the weather as gardeners and need to change our plans. A few days of thunderstorms meant I couldn’t get out and sow or transplant my tomatoes and peppers so I did some spring cleaning indoors instead, did some bulk cooking and meal planning, and took stock of canning supplies ready for August and September. I now know ahead of time that I need canning jar lids so I’ll be on the lookout for those at the store when I go.

The point is, sometimes we need to be flexible and adapt our plans. I’m a worrier, my husband is a lot more go-with the flow whereas I like to stick to a plan. More often than not, there’s, something more urgent that needs to be done. I take a few deep breaths to center myself and find calm which can be hard I know but we often re-prioritize tasks based on urgency.

Reach Out For Help

Enlist help if you can. I know so many of you listening are going at this homesteader thing on your own. I know a lot of you don’t have support from family members in doing this. My family hates gardening. It’s a labor of love for me but even then there are days when there is too much to do or it is too difficult to do. Reach out to friends and family and see if they would be willing to lend a helping hand, you might be pleasantly surprised. If no help comes and I know how that feels! Then set yourself small goals to help keep you motivated and on track.

Small, achievable goals

I’m still planting peppers and tomatoes and I’ve spent hours in the field trying to get them in even with family help. I try to have a goal of planting out 10 seedlings or sowing 5 seed packets something that is achievable each evening. Having a smaller goal helps me have a little win and keep on track with the bigger task at hand. You could try setting a timer to be out in the garden weeding for 10 minutes to keep that on track or have a list of 3 jobs on the homestead that need to be done that week that you can check off like

sow beets
put up a fence around the garden
meal prep for the week.

I like lists. There’s something very satisfying to crossing off something on a list. My husband easily gets overwhelmed with a list so I sometimes put my list items on separate slips of paper and put them in a jar. We then pull a job from the jar to tackle. Once that task is done we get another job from the jar.

It’s OK To Have Off Days

It’s ok to have a day where it feels like things are not ok. Sometimes we get overwhelmed and that’s ok. It’s ok to feel stressed, upset, and anxious. I’ve definitely had a day where I felt like that. I had a good cry and I really didn’t want to get out into the garden which is one of my favorite hobbies. We need that mental break sometimes. It’s ok.

Maybe you want to go fishing, hike, take the puppies to the beach, go to the pub and sing karaoke, play a video game, make a fort with the kids, anything other than digging another row of potatoes or plant out another seedling. I made the decision that I needed a day with the doggies doing something that wasn’t gardening or cleaning. I watched movies, did some patchwork and quilting, and crocheted. I’m someone who is always busy doing something, I can’t really just sit and watch a movie, I need to be crocheting or knitting whilst I do it. But after taking that mental break, I felt so much better in getting out into the garden the next day and I got more done than I had planned I was able to make up for the lost time and it didn’t feel like a chore.

Dial Back If You Need To

There’s no shame in saying I’ve taken on too much and I need to scale things back either. If you are doing too much and getting overwhelmed then homesteading and gardening aren’t going to be fun or enjoyable anymore and I’m sure it being fun and enjoyable is one reason that you are doing this kind of lifestyle right? Take stock of where you are right now and what you had planned. What do you need to change? Maybe you’re putting in your garden and it’s taking way longer than expected and you had planned on building a chicken coop to get chickens by July. Maybe focus on the garden for this season and build the chicken coop over winter instead.

Maybe getting 6 ducks and a goat is taking up more time and money than you had anticipated because the goat is always escaping and you need to find a new home for them.? I know suburban homesteaders just like you who have had to scale back on livestock and find new homes for them or they’ve become food for the family earlier than expected because it has been more than they can handle.

It’s not a failure, it has been a lesson learned and you know your limitations for the future.

We had ideas of a goat, 2 pigs, meat chickens, laying chickens and ducks oh, and putting in an orchard and nut trees for this year on the homestead. There’s no chance of the goat and pigs this year given the garden is in the first year and taking more time than we estimated and that’s ok. We’ve had to prioritize major home repairs and some demolition work over that. The chickens are dependent on my husband building a sturdy, predator-proof chicken tractor. We’re reusing some lumber from the demolished dilapidated barn to build the chicken tractor but we’re not there yet. If the chickens don’t come until next year, I’m ok with that although I really want the chickens to help take care of the dang ticks! As for the orchard, well bareroot tree season is past now and there are local orchards nearby so I can get local produce.

Slow Down To Speed Up

You can always add to your homestead once you have got the hang of the other things you are managing. If this is your first year gardening, stick with that before adding more to your homestead. Get a couple of seasons under your belt before adding in something else. Sometimes you got to slow down to be able to speed up. Maybe look at getting locally raised meat or eggs rather than raising them yourself until you feel comfortable in doing so.

Find Joy

Don’t forget to enjoy what you are doing. Taking a break is important! I often like to sit outside and have a cup of tea overlooking the property or pick my dinner from the garden and enjoy it on the deck. I like to look at past pictures of the garden and homestead and see how much I’ve done, how taller the plants are getting the flowers that are blooming and the bees that visit them. You’ve done an incredible amount of work and you should celebrate that, marvel at them, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. You might take a moment to enjoy a nicely organized pantry that you just finished, a batch of soap you made, the sweater you finally finished knitting, or the wood trestle table that you finished staining.

It’s important to enjoy them and remember why you want to homestead.

How do you make the best use of your time on the homestead? Let me know over in the Facebook group.

Dig In and Learn More

If this post has started ideas for your garden, be sure to check out these related posts and helpful books:

What is your favorite way to keep on track? Let me know over in the Facebook group

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