Country Time Management

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Photo: Ferli Achirulli

If the dacha is located far from the city and it is possible to get out to the beds only on weekends, then planning is indispensable. After all, trips to the dacha are not only weeding and harvesting, after a week of work you want to recover and relax. But how to do everything? Time management or planning your time will help.

First of all, write down a list of tasks that you face. They will, of course, be different in spring, summer and early fall. Imagine that 2 days off is a continuous process, or the rails along which a train with carriages goes ahead, this train is TIME. And our task is to load the train so that there are as many cars as possible on it. As you may have guessed, the carriages are the TASKS that we need to accomplish. And now for an example.

Now summer and work in the garden-garden looks something like this:

- weeding, - lawn mowing, - watering, - mulching,

- harvesting, - sowing new crops, - feeding and spraying against pests, - crop processing, harvesting.

But! In addition to the obligatory work in the garden, there are no less obligatory and enjoyable ones, such as:

- barbecue, - sunbathing and water procedures (pool, river, etc.), - walks around the neighborhood or visiting neighbors.

To have enough time for both, we need a clear work plan. And now we start the threads, they are also TASKS. Having the above list, you can optimize the work as follows.

We allocate areas of responsibility for each family member. For example, a spouse mows the lawn, leaves the grass to wither in the sun. Then he rakes it into carts and brings it to you for mulching plantings. What to do with your husband in between - decide for yourself: either give him coffee with a newspaper to “read” or ask the lopsided porch to do it.

Children are instructed to harvest - raspberries, currants, gooseberries, cherries. Such work is useful - it forms patience and additionally develops fine motor skills. The latter is important not only for babies, even adult women are encouraged to give work to their fingers - through embroidery, knitting and other needlework. Such activities normalize hormonal levels.

If the children are too young, or have not lived with you for a long time, and there is a lot of work to harvest, I advise you to find an assistant. In any high-rise building there is a decent aunt Vera (Shura, Manya), who is bored with retirement, and she will gladly respond to your offer to spend a weekend outside the city. Thank you with a part of the harvest - and it will not waste your time and you will save a lot of time. Some people in this way take the townspeople as helpers to dig up potatoes. They pay off with a sack of harvest - and everyone is happy.

Watering is a separate conversation. And even a topic for a separate material. Carrying in buckets is difficult. Watering with a hose is also not an option, the pressure on the weekend in the evening drops so much that this task is stretched indefinitely. Therefore, I propose to solve this issue in advance and thoroughly, so as not to waste energy on watering at all. Organize irrigation using drip irrigation with automatic shutdown and turn on of water by the hour using the controller. The good thing about the automation is that it can be programmed for the duration of watering and it does not turn on, if it rains, the sensors turn off the water. This is especially good for areas where there are problems with regular water supplies. With a capacity of 200 liters or more, the problem of regular watering is completely eliminated without problems.

So, you have watered the plants, now mulch with mowed and withered grass so that the moisture does not evaporate and you can start planting. It is best to plant in the evening, but no later than the time when the sun goes down the horizon. Moreover, at this time it is just good to have dinner on the terrace. On fresh plantings, sketch out the branches of nettles, remove them on your next visit to the country, and the seedlings will not be affected by the sun during your absence.

And the next day, early in the morning, feed the plants, lay a new barrel of green fertilizer and start harvesting. The soil after the previous watering is still wet - the solution with top dressing will be evenly distributed in the soil.

In general, take an example from experienced logisticians - launch several processes at the same time, plan and fix plans - and then you will not only have time to do everything, but you will also have time for a peaceful rest!