A lesson in why you shouldn’t procrastinate

So, I’m making great progress with my To Do list.

I’ve been ticking off things left, right and centre in the computer gardening department and we can firmly lay that at the feet of the rainy days we had this week.  My weather station is telling me we had 18.6mm for the week and 16mm was from yesterday.  So, there was no alternative but to be productive in the office.  There is still plenty to be done but it doesn’t feel as daunting as it did in the beginning of the week.

I have finally sorted out my garden plan, going through where everything will go, which determines how many plants are needed and how many seeds I need to sow.  This determines what seeds I need, prompting me to go through my seed collection and weed out the ones that didn’t make the list and which ones and which ones needed replenishing.  Finally, I was able to put in my seed orders.  Although I had a list, I’m a bit like a kid in a candy store when it comes to seeds and so a couple of extra unplanned ones ended up in the shopping cart.  I do have a little spare space for ‘accidents’ like this so, she’ll be right.   I ended up staying in my garden office to well after dark to get this long overdue task done.

It felt so good to finally have this done.  Normally I do this in early July and for the life of me I can’t work out why I didn’t this year.  It has set me back with a load of other tasks in a giant chain reaction.    All I needed to do now was get seed raising mix and some potting mix, finish cleaning the dome and I can get started sowing seeds.   I headed on into the house and flopped down into a chair in an exhausted state.   I’ll get to the garden centre at some point in the next few days to gather my supplies.  No hurry.

Nah… wrong.  A couple of hours later I find myself staring in shock at the Prime Minister announcing we’re heading back into lockdown…  How things can change an instant.  Technically we are at Level 2, however it is complicated as everything we do, from getting milk and bread, to the kids’ school, to going to the garden centre is within the Auckland boundary and that is in level 3.   So, this morning before the midday cut off we donned masks and went to the supermarket – not to panic stock up, but we were out of dog food for Jasper and toothpaste and other weird items.  Last time taught us it was ok to ‘shop normal’.  Although the queues were rather long, but fast moving.

Then we went to the garden centre… not so much to panic stock up, but rather get what I should have got weeks ago and so with a trolley loaded with seeding raising mix and potting mix it may have looked like I was stocking up, but alas no – this is what ‘shop normal’ looks like for me at the garden centre at the start of spring.   Although I have to say the red, white, and black currants weren’t on the list and kind of some how jumped into the trolley in all the chaos.

And hopefully I have all I need to get this season started, whether this lockdown is just 3 days as they suggest or longer as I suspect.  But if I had been more organised and procrastinated less, I wouldn’t have needed to go out at all.   The thing is, if you put off something to do later, you can never really be confident that would even be possible, especially these days.  I think I need to embrace a ‘seize the day’ attitude and if something needs doing just do it.  If something ‘needs’ buying then buy it.  If there is nothing to be gained from waiting then why wait.

I’m looking forward to a new decisive me, although I may need to force myself away from my old ways.  But first I need to plough through the backlog I created for myself through unnecessary deliberations.   This week’s to do list has just amped up a gear in the sense of urgency, so I can find a more peaceful existence later on…

Come again soon – the new motto is ‘just do it’ before it is too late, and you can’t anymore.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)