Spring Cleaning

Spring Weeding  Comes Before Spring Cleaning-

by Katherine Denton

In the throes of spring cleaning? Take a cue from the garden and weed first before you clean. Master gardeners know the power of a well-tended and planned garden. Their gardens transport the visitor into a haven of peace and tranquility. Like gardens, our homes are also havens of tranquility. Is your home a refuge that feeds your spirit and gives you strength? If not, your home may need some planning, tending and maintaining.

Get started creating your own refuge with a ten tips for spring cleaning and weeding both your home and garden.

1– Acknowledge you’re going to get dirty.

2-  It will take time, tending and patience.

3-  There will be a visible reward.

4-  Choose your spot to start– In the garden it can be an overgrown weedy patch. Or vice versa, In your home it can be an unruly closet.

5-  Ask yourself what the purpose of this area is. Do you want this weedy patch to be a vegetable garden? And this unruly closet to be a place to put games?

6-  Be Realistic. Beautiful gardens and homes take effort. They do not appear out of nothingness. Just like in life, what you nurture and focus on grows, even if it is something negative. Take the time out to plan because your plan or goal is the foundation of your vision. Haphazard planning breeds chaos.

7- Dig in! Get your hands in the dirt and start working toward your goal. Weeding brings clarity to what is important. Nurture the things you love. You find the rose when you pull the bush of weeds out. Let go of plants, possessions, people, and responsibilities that are holding you back from having a tranquil refuge. Focus on what is important and beautiful to you.  Removing the old is something necessary if you want something new and better to take its place. Sometimes a scorched earth approach is necessary to begin again.

8- When replanting the room or the garden, think low maintenance. People tend to overplant seeds and then have unruly gardens that are not easy to maintain.  Remember the old saying, give a weed an inch, it will take a yard. The same is true with clutter. Give yourself and your family space with room to grow.

9- The easiest to maintain gardens are filled with perennials, and indigenous plants. They grow naturally without a lot of care and they return year after year. Perennials in your home would be the basics that you rely on, use, and enjoy. Think of your annuals as minor changes like pansies in the spring, or Christmas decorations during the holidays. Stop the search for more. Search for simplicity.

10- Sit back and enjoy your efforts…Happy weeding!