Gardening by Numbers

I have this wonderful ability to get carried away with planning.  I get so carried away that I get overexcited, then overwhelmed as I plan my little heart out over the house projects, work projects, life projects, anything to keep me busy for the time being.  Lately, future garden projects have been filtering through my mind - especially when I walk from the car to the front door and notice that fewer and fewer plants are coming back each year after the winter.  How many times have I walked this walk thinking, "A row of roses would be great here.  Oh and how about a nice bench and stone path here.  That railing needs new paint.  The Rose of Sharon is leaning farther - we need to prune it and stake it back."  Enough. Take a breath!  

This year, I vow for a change.  Each day, as I walk to the front door, I look over the garden and give each area a number.  Each little flower bed or 'project area' gets a number, not to signify their importance, but to separate them from the 'whole'.  And each area must be small.  If it is a large garden area, it gets more than one number.  The idea is to keep each area small enough to take care of (dig up, plant, move, prune) in part of a day.  Next, I will note down those numbered areas and make some safe, simple plans.  The Rose of Sharon?  That's number 4.  All I need do to cross #4 off my list is stake it back to the house to keep it off the pathway.  There.  All done.  I typically consider my yard in its entirety, rather than in small increments.  Taking #4 off my list is a big deal.  It leads to another number (maybe #5, or maybe not), but I will take on that next number when I'm ready.  If I look at the yard as a whole project, I get easily overwhelmed with it's enormity.  Taking it apart makes it more digestible and exciting.

I realize this is the same with other life projects.  Some projects need to be completed in order, or in smaller amounts of time.  A garden can be left to unfold over months or years - not so the project with looming deadlines.  But how do stress and procrastination serve us over these projects?  Can't we also take them apart in small pieces and accomplish the same task?  Is it wrong to feel a sense of pride at completing the smallest task toward the greater whole?  Somewhere it must have been decreed that stress and anxiety was the way to go for those of us on deadlines as so many of us continue to work this way, even though it makes us sick.

Back to my garden and the feelings I was getting while walking to the front door.  I vow to develop my number plan to take the anxiety out of coming home to undone projects.  And when stress comes knocking at my door, I'll tell it to 'take a number'.