DECLUTTERING THE YARD
We’ve started following Dana’ 5-step process in our yard, too. Trash = weeds, brambles & pruning.
Easy stuff = trash bins, chairs, tools, etc.
Decluttering = removing plants & hardscape we don’t want anymore.
Take it there now = transplanting, moving bricks/rocks to where we do want them now, unpackaging & placing items we’ve purchased.
Embracing the space/making it fit = mapping & planning new plantings with their adult sizes in mind, and not overcrowding the yard with furniture & decor.
Clutter threshold = making changes in the direction of simpler design and workflows, less maintenance. It sometimes also means asking for help to do a larger task like pruning a tree from the roof or clearing a stand of blackberries.
Our most effective concept has been: Better is good. I decided that 20 minutes matters; so if I have a 20-minute block + clothes-changing and hand-washing time and if the weather is tolerable, I go work in the yard.
During daylight savings time, this can be both before and after work. During late fall and early spring, it might be only immediately after work and on weekends. Whenever I can fit it around work and household tasks.
I also found myself overwhelmed with all the different issues I saw in the yards, so I created a rotation: brambles, weeds, pruning, projects, creek banks. Each yard work session – no matter how long or short – focuses on one type of task in turn.
Workdays: Day 1, I clear brambles: blackberries, thistles, any prickly bushes – only until my available time is up. Day 2, I clear weeds in the rockbeds, dandelions and prickly lettuce in the lawn. Day 3, I prune trees and bushes. Day 4, I work a bit on whatever project we have going on – currently transforming our front lawn to xeriscape.
Weekends: I work around 2 hours a day on creek banks. I trim grass, dig out blackberries, prune trees and bushes, pull debris from the stream.
Within each category, I work on things in visibility order. So I generally focus on brambles, weeds, and pruning in the front yard before the back yard. I work on the blackberry patch in the back yard before the thistles in the lawn. And so on. We’ve also decided to focus this year on the front yard xeriscape project instead of balancing our time between that and the back yard project.
We’re years away from being to our maintenance phase and under our clutter threshold, but each year we have seen loads of improvement!
