One of my tasks to complete before the doggies and I move is to clean up my city house and yard. A task that has been neglected for the past few years as I wrote my series of books. I've skimmed along the surface of cleaning and maintenance--at least enough to stay under the radar of the Health Department. :)
Now, I'm serious about spiffing things up. I'm doing this in layers, similar to the process I use to write books.
--A sweep through to decide what to do with each area/room (like to planning/plotting a book).
--Taking care of major tasks, such as reclaiming the walkways and getting rid of large areas of overgrown weeds--similar to completing the scene sheets I do for a book to lay out the main points of the story.
--The next step will be going back over the yard and house to pull out weeds that have grown back or were missed in the first sweep, edging the grassy areas, etc. The final edits to a story, so to speak, where I make sure everything flows smoothly.
I'm in the "major tasks" stage of the house and yard. The front and narrow side yards are looking pretty good, and I've started on the back yard--which seems to get away from me by early summer each year. I'm taking a more casual approach this year. In the areas where grass wants to grow, I'm letting it take over and just plan to mow it instead of struggling to get all the grass and roots out. In places where vigorous flowering plants take over, I'm going to enjoy their blooms, then mow when the blooms fade. (Yes, I purchased a new mower last year and am going to make use of it. :)
To keep myself from becoming overwhelmed, I've been walking through the areas that look pretty good and enjoying the "ahh…" feeling of happy plants growing in beds that have just been watered by the hoses and sprinklers I set up a week or so ago. Definitely an "ahh…"
The photo is one of the side yards where I've reclaimed the pathway and put all the plants in pots to move with us when we get our country property. Ah, progress!
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