Gardening Out Of The Dirt or The Anticipation Factor

It is one day into the new year and about 2 months since I graduated from Master Gardening School.  Technically, I am currently a Master Gardener Intern and will not be certified until I complete a research project and volunteer hours.  Graduation vs. certification is a discussion for another time.

Most of us, when we talk about gardening, we talk about things that are happening in the actual dirt of your actual garden, but time spent out of the dirt is equally important.  More on the specifics of that in a moment - stay with me here.

My day job is in a restaurant, and I recently was promoted into a management position, and one of the perks of my new role is that I receive a complimentary meal every time I work.

So yesterday and today I worked during the day and when my shift ended I ordered a dish I had been wanting to try and ate it at the bar with a glass of wine.  This is not the cleanest eating habit, true.  But these were two dishes I had been wanting to try for a while, and it felt like a real treat to enjoy something delicious and indulgent, especially after a VERY busy holiday season in the restaurant business and to toast myself on my promotion.   So .. what can make delicious food taste even better?

I sat at the end of the bar by myself.  Yesterday I had broiled Virginia trout with broccolini and olives with a glass of Albarino, and today it was roasted squab with new potatoes and candied carrots with a glass of Pinot Noir, and each time nothing had ever tasted so good.  The dishes were each a complex of layered taste, and the wine complimented it beautifully.  It was like a beautifully woven tapestry!  And yes this does relate to our topic today of gardening out of the soil.

How can we garden "out of the dirt" and how can we garden in January?

One of the reasons my meal experiences were so transporting the past couple of days (other than the fact that our chef is amazing and the food is always *FANTASTIC*) was The Anticipation Factor.  Having wanted to try the dishes for a while and finally having the opportunity.  The sense of reward - a delicious meal not just to feed my body today but also as indicative of having earned this new position.  Wanting something for a while, thinking about it, fantasizing even, planning for it, working for it, and then HAVING IT.

Do you see where I'm going?  The number one way you can be gardening at this time of the year is to be planning the garden you will plant this spring.  What will you grow?  How will your plot of land take shape?  Where will your various plants find their homes?  

If you're not sure where to start, I encourage you to organize the seeds that you have on hand.  What do you have, what do you need, are they being stored correctly (somewhere cool, dry, and dark)?  If you don't have seeds or need more, where will you buy them from?  This is the time to start researching vendors, prices, varietals, etc.

Do you garden with others?  Maybe your family members garden with you, or you have friends/neighbors in your community garden plot, or a garden club (formal or not)?  This is also a great time ]to meet with those people (formally or not) to talk about their needs and plans for gardening this season.  Before you get your heart and mind set on something that may not work for your teammates, get their input.  It's also a good time to share thoughts with each other about what worked or didn't last season and why, to give and take advice and input.

A third consideration for your garden planning is possibly rotating your "crops" or plants.  Different plants deplete the soil in different ways, which means that growing the same thing in the same place year after year will eventually lead to that plant being less and less vigorous each growing season.  You can keep your soil healthy and your plants lush and vibrant by moving them around into different places each year, making rotation another really important part of the planning process.

Speaking of soil, when was the last time you had yours tested?  It's a great idea to test each year, especially if your'e planning to plant something you haven't grown before, but if it's been more than three years (or never!) since you had it tested - it's definitely time.  Unfamiliar with soil testing?  Your local Master Gardeners can help!  Google "master gardeners" and your state name, and you should quickly find a link to at least one chapter in your area, and the fine and friendly folks who respond to that email or answer that phone should be able to help (for free!).  We definitely recommend the mail-in kits (as opposed to something you would buy somewhere like Lowe's and then try to do at home) - they get sent to a professional testing lab, typically at a university with an agriculture program in your state and the results are emailed to you, for a fee of usually between $10 and $20.  The instructions are clear, and you don't need to send in very much soil to get accurate results.  Plus Master Gardeners are available to answer any questions you have about the process!  (And, no, we have no financial interest in soil tests- they are just the most reliable :))  What can you do with the results?  The report will include very specific information on what fertilizers and other amendments YOUR soil needs.  January is a great time to do this (provided your soil is not frozen!), so you can factor these needs into your planning.  Your soil is the single most important determinant of the success of your garden, and it is not all the same, so get it right!!!  Feel free to reach out if you need more info about soil testing.

Finally - start sketching out your garden.  Once you've taken stock of what seeds you have on hand, what you want to grow this year, where you're going to grow it, what fertilizers and amendments you will need to make that happen (and whether that information changes your plans in any way), and the input of the other people involved, sit down with a piece of paper and pencil and start to draw it out.  This can be as detailed oriented and to scale as you like (graph paper and a ruler, ideally an architect's scale, will be needed, as well as precise information about your piece of land), or as casual as a freehand drawing on a piece of notebook paper.  Whatever works for you.  And you can always tighten or loosen the drawing up as planting time approaches.  However you decide to approach the project, put pencil (it's erasable!) to paper and start to plan and dream about what will be where at the height of growing season.

Other Gardening Activities This Week

This definitely doesn't sound very "garden-y", but today and tomorrow are also great days to bake.  You can make something complex from scratch or put something together from chilled dough or a boxed mix.  It doesn't matter.  We are in a time of year for staying inside, keeping warm, nesting.  What goes better with that mood than something freshly baked?:)  How is this possibly related to gardening?  When we garden, we work with mother nature, we flow with the seasons.  Don't fight the season - flow with it.  Bake something today or tomorrow and dream about your garden while you do.

Another activity for any day this week is cutting firewood.  Want to be outside, want to be working with plants?  If you have trees and branches that you felled in the fall, take some time over any (or all!) days over the next week, to cut and stack your firewood.  Not a firewood cutting kind of gal or guy?  What about going out to buy firewood or having some delivered this week?  It's that time of year!  If you have a fireplace, I definitely recommend having a fire pretty much every day this week.  Doesn't matter if it's not "cold enough" out.  Same points as above - it's the season we are in, go for it!  Don't have a fireplace?  I get it - me either right now, and it's a bummer.  How about lighting a candle or two at home, especially one that is wood scented (pine, cedar, sandalwood, they even have ones scented to smell like campfire!)?

The Anticipation Factor

Settle in to January, folks.  It's a time of year for nesting and planning.  Invest in the planning now, and, come planting and growing season, enjoyment of your garden will be that much more delicious :)

Organizing the Situation

(Amanda Gordon on the Potomac River in 2018)

Greetings from Alexandria, VA.  This is home and it is beautiful. Although we have a thriving commercial and tourist district, many parts, including my home, are super nice and quiet.  And many professional organizers within just a mile. 

I have been working with professional organizers for more than 10 years. For the past three years, I have had my own professional organizing business with clients all over Northern Virginia. I have also studied professional organizing, gaining almost 40 hours of intense practice, enlightening philosophy, and delightful community. My experience of hiring professional organizers for myself has been very different. I seriously value my time – especially the precious time I devote to organizing, design, and productivity practices. In working with other professional organizers, I have missed the intimacy of community, respect, and paying attention to feelings that I like to bring to my clients.

This year, I will begin the process of becoming a Certified Professional Organizer with the National Association of Professional Organizers.  Finally after many years of organizing, I can put the little CPO after my name. Sounds funny.  Tee Hee!

I am on a mission to start an organizing community here. A group of good folks navigating their home and work spaces with joy and efficiency.  Its' BOUND to happen here.  INTENTION OF THE MIND.  ACTION OF THE BODY.

Each Wednesday this year, I will offer you some simple steps you can take to work on organizing your home.  They will help you, step by step, in manageable ways, stop seeing the clutter in your house and stop wasting time looking for items.  I also will invite you each week to adopt a new habit that will help you STAY organized, so you really feel like you are making progress and are not Sisyphus pushing that heavy organizing stone up the hill every time you turn around.  Finally (although not necessarily in this order), I will also offer you a home design tip each week, so your home will become more the beautiful oasis you need and want it to be!

OK - let's get started with organizing your life in 2020 - week one!!!

Organizing Activities For You - Week One
If you have set an intention/made a resolution of better organizing your home and life in 2020, congratulations!!!   

There are many steps you can take on your own, but I know it can be overwhelming thinking about where to start.  Fear not!

We all want to feel balanced, especially at home.  If you're like most people, certainly most Americans, you have piles of dirty laundry in one or more rooms, a sink full of dirty dishes, and at least one unmade bed at any time.  Trust me - this is true.  I have spent a lot of time in a lot of clients' homes.  Even the people who look the most put-together often are living in disaster.  Those homes that always look picture perfect when you're over?  MANY of them look that way as the result of a week of frantic activity, involving multiple hired professionals, leading up to that dinner party/holiday celebration, and you likely would be shocked to discover the state of things behind the closed doors your hosts have asked you not to open.  Trust me - I am often one of the professionals working on these homes!  Sadly, this is how many of us now live.  And when we want to fix our own homes, all these projects call for attention, and we don't know where to start.  

One principle I'd like you to keep in mind is the word BALANCE.  I am not here to try to create a perfect home for you, and please don't be under the illusion that if you have a perfect home (or a perfect body, for that matter), you will suddenly have a perfect life.  A LOT of people achieve that "perfection" and sacrifice their wellness and balance in the process.  Then maintaining that "perfection" requires an incredible amount of time and energy (and often money), leaving them with little to none leftover to, for example, feed their marriage and other relationships, get enough sleep, be able to be in the present moment, etc.  So we are not going for perfection in our organizing projects - we are going for BALANCE.

Steps This Week

1.  Let's start with the entryway, as this is the first area you and others see when coming home. (And, yes, even though guests don't usually see it, this project includes the hall closet :)).

2.  Think of your entryway as setting the tone for your home.  It is the first area you see.  We want the tone here to be clean, welcoming, clutter-free, warm, and inviting.  Keep those words in mind as you go.

3.  Pick one day this week that will be your day to work on decluttering.  Just one.  That's all you need.  What day this week will you work on this project?  Not all day - don't worry!  Pick one day that you will commit to spending 30 minutes on organizing this week.

4.  Get together the supplies you will need, which are basically just, for now, trash bags and some big cardboard boxes (maybe you have some leftover from Christmas?  If not, most storage places sell them and they are not terribly expensive.  Be sure to get some packing tape and scissors so you can put them together), and some sharpies.

Entryway

Again, this is the first part of the house you, your family, and guests see.  When you unclutter this area, I guarantee you will begin to love its look :)  You live in your entryway as much as in any other space in your home.  And when it is well-organized, it will make your life easier.  

Our mantra for this area is: USE IT OR LOSE IT.  Things in this area that you use in this area need a home, and things that you don't use in this area need to go live somewhere else.  That is the truth.  What are the only essentials you need in this area?  Make a home for them.  (Hint: this is the overall rule we will apply throughout our year of organizing).  

Not sure exactly how to make this happen or where to even start?  That's perfectly normal and also totally okay.  Just take one day this week, set your timer for 30 minutes (maybe put on your favorite playlist during this time?), get your supplies together and start somewhere.  Do your best.  When the timer goes off, you're done!  (Just be sure you can still get safely in and out the actual home entrance :))

Need something more concrete to work with?  OK, do you have kids?  Can you create some toy bins (even if they're just cardboard boxes) with labels (even if it's just your writing in sharpie)?  Boxes and sharpies are probably not the long-time look you want for your home, but if you're holding out for the budget for those $3000 custom toy boxes, is it good and balanced for you to live in chaos until then?:)  OK, so organize into what you've got on hand now.  They will not magically make your home perfectly clean at all times - they WILL make it less painful to pick up each evening before going to bed.  (Yes, organizing your home will involve daily effort - more on that in a minute :))  We are looking for ways to make your entryway a little more neat right now.  These are the same principles we will apply to the living room, bedroom, guest room, kids' rooms, closets, bathrooms, etc. as we move through the year.

No kids?  Create the bins with labels for what you do see in the foyer (pet toys, shoes, umbrellas, mail, recycling items, etc.).

Extra Credit

1.  If you have the time or the budget, I encourage you to create a clean slate in the entryway.  Emphasis on the word CLEAN.  This will involve taking EVERYTHING out of the space and having it scrubbed down (literally from top to bottom - crown molding and lighting fixtures down to the floors, including scrubbing the grout between the tiles).  Wipe down the inside and outside of the door, wipe off all moldings/baseboards/chair rails, disinfect knobs and locks, and wash the mirrors and windows.  I recommend hiring a professional cleaning service to do this - remember we are going for BALANCE here, not super person status :)

2.  Do you have the right furniture in the foyer?  How do you feel/what do you think about what you have there now?  If you don't have room for furniture in your foyer, or perceive that space as less cluttered without furniture, what about the hall closet?  Could you purchase some easy closet organizing items or hire a closet organizing service to make this space more useful for you than just a clothing rail and shelf?  Would it make more sense in your home to put a piece of organizing furniture not in the foyer itself but rather in another hallway near the entrance?  Tip: a dresser or some small end tables work great, if another item is not in the budget/plan right now.  Remember - this does not have to be the final House Beautiful solution - just something to restore some sanity and balance for now.

3.  What about the rug/floor covering?  Is it clean or are there stains?  Is it your style?  Is it fraying?  Each year, whatever you have on the floor here will need attention.  Your choices are (a) deep clean it, (b) replace it, or (c) clean and store it and replace it with an alternate one each season.  Which will it be this year?

4.  Finally, even if the organizing part of the foyer isn't done, you can still decorate this area.  Remember that what you are looking for here in terms of tone is WELCOMING.  What small touches in this area would feel welcoming to you (maybe a plant or fresh flowers)?

Week One - Decorating/Design Tip

I've talked a bit above about "interim" organizing solutions, and I firmly believe in them, but most of us don't want to live with "brown cardboard" as our main design theme!  You don't need to hire a professional decorator or buy an entire home out of an expensive catalog - YOU can make your home more beautiful, day by day, week by week, and I'm excited to offer you tips on how to!

My tip of the week this week is DIY.  Don't panic.  I'm not talking about watching HGTV and trying to suspend a 4-poster bed from the ceiling or taking a sledgehammer to a inconvenient wall and hope it works out for you the way it always does for Chip Gaines.  In fact, my first piece of advice on what and how to DIY is to avoid anything that intimidates you.  We all have different budgets and different levels of comfort regarding handiwork, so only you can answer what you're comfortable with and what not.  Don't do something that scares you or seems super expensive or that you're worried might create damage you can't fix.  What I mostly want to encourage you this week is not to think that you're completely helpless and hopeless when it comes to design.  You're not!  I'm going to offer some ideas here for things you could do at home all by yourself (particularly, although not necessarily limited to, the foyer, since that is our area of focus now). 

1.  Buy some chalkboard paint and paint yourself a chalkboard.  You'll need some blue painters tape to tape off the chalkboard area, a ruler and level to make the area neat, and one or two brushes (all should be available at Home Depot or someplace similar).  That's it!  You could also buy some white paint to make an outline around your new chalkboard, but that's not needed.  And hey?  If you can't make a perfect rectangle, that's okay too!  Make the uneven edges part of your design!  The chalkboard paint goes on and dries just like regular paint, and it's magnetic.  So grab some white chalk for notes or shopping lists and some magnets (what about pretty magnets that look like little plants?), and you've got a nice little organizing area without adding the expense or bulk of furniture.  (These items also should be available at Home Depot and/or Michael's or another craft store, and you don't need to buy a special eraser - a damp paper towel will do just fine.)  Don't like this idea for your foyer?  Keep it in your back pocket for your kitchen and/or kids' rooms ;)

2.  Go to the Dollar store and pick up some glass jars.  Take them home and spray paint them (outside or in a well-ventilated area, please) and, when dry, stick vinyl letters on them to label what they will hold (paint and letters available from Michael's).  Once again, the letters don't go on perfectly straight?  Make that part of the charm - make it intentional!  If you've got your own glass jars lying around at home, so much the better!  Don't like this idea for the foyer?  What about for organizing your crafting supplies?

3.  What's your idea?  Either of those above inspire a thought for you?  I'm all about projects that cost less than $20 (including any needed equipment) and no more than 45 minutes.  Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments!

Week One - Daily Organizing/Cleaning Habit

In order to maintain your newly organized and beautified home, you are going to need to spend time on a regular basis to keep it looking fresh.

This week, I invite you to cultivate the habit of 5 minutes each week going through your mail and magazines.  These tend to accumulate in our foyer area, which is why I picked this habit to coincide with this week's projects.

Here's what I'd like you to do: Put aside 3 boxes (or good-sized brown grocery store bags) and designate each: (1) TOSS, (2) READ, (3) KEEP/FILE.  Then sit down with your accumulated mail, magazines, junk mail, etc. in your foyer (or living room, kitchen counter, dining room table, wherever) and sort.  Set the timer for 5 minutes and sort until timer goes off.  Then you're done!  

A couple of notes:

* TOSS bag is just what it says.  This is junk, stuff you don't need to keep for any reason whatsoever.

* KEEP/FILE are things you need to hold onto, such as perhaps a document related to your taxes for last or this year, communications from your doctor or other health provider, car maintenance records, etc.  We will talk later this year about what you need to keep and how to file it.  For now, just put in this bag anything you think you need to hold onto but don't need to take action on right now.

* READ is basically everything else.  For example, Christmas cards/letters to read, alumni/ae magazines you like to flip through, an invoice you need to pay, etc.  Your'e not DOING these things now - you're putting these things in one place so that you can deal with them later.  Find something time-sensitive?  Pull it out and deal with it TODAY, or, at the very least, create a fourth URGENT bag and then be very careful about what you put in there - those are very special things that are not READING material and require immediate action.

Too much, too overwhelming?  Start today with 1 minute (including the setting up of the boxes/bags).  Tomorrow go for 2 minutes.  The next day 3, and so on, until you reach 5.  5 minutes is the max time you should spend on this each day.  Even if you have a MOUNTAIN of unsorted mail, 5 minutes a day will get you there.  I strongly believe in 5 minutes a day, because we are cultivating a HABIT, not a one-off project.  The habit of doing this for 5 minutes each day is what will prevent the mail from becoming a mail mountain in the future.  It's 5 minutes a day of loving yourself, your family, and your home enough to care for them on an ongoing basis.  One of the things that is great about this project is you can do it sitting down!  On your butt on the floor, listening to favorite music, or on the couch, watching guilty pleasure TV, or on your bed, while talking on the phone with your bestie.  Your choice - just make it a DAILY HABIT.

When one of the bags is full, deal with it.  JUNK bag full?  Take it to recycling or trash.  The time to do that counts as part of your 5 min!  READ bag full?  Start reading/processing that mail!  That time counts in your 5 min!  Don't want to read now?  Move that bag into your living room or bedroom or wherever you normally would read it, open a new READ bag, and keep sorting.  Also, guess what happens to that mail after you've read/dealt with it?  That's right - it goes into the TOSS or KEEP bag (no other choices).  KEEP/FILE bag full?  Guess what I'm going to suggest you do?:)  Or, if you're not up for it, or don't have a system, move the bag into your office for future filing (which I promise, again, we will discuss later this year).  

There's one more piece to this puzzle: however big your current pile of accumulated mail is, you MUST spend part of your 5 min each day dealing with the NEW mail coming into your home.  You actually do that first, and THEN turn to the collected pile.  That's another reason I recommend keeping these bags in your foyer.  Going forward, you will sort the mail AS IT COMES IN.  It actually won't even make it past your foyer into your home!  It will be sorted into one of the bags IMMEDIATELY upon arrival.  And, yes, that time counts as part of your 5 minutes?

Remember: this is a DAILY HABIT we are cultivating.  Eventually, you won't have accumulated mail - you'll only be dealing with new mail as it comes in, and then processing those bags when they're full (or, at the next level, BEFORE they're full - maybe on a weekly or even daily basis!)  But don't worry about that right now - work on cultivating the HABIT of 5 minutes each day sorting and then processing new mail and accumulated mail.  NO MORE THAN 5 MINUTES A DAY.  Make it easy, and it's more likely you'll do it.  You will be surprised how much progress can be made in 5 minutes each day.  Not sure about that?  Then let's make a deal.  Spend 5 minutes doing it each day this week, and let's see where you are next Wednesday :)

Sending you organized and BALANCED wishes for the New Year!  We will chat again tomorrow.