{"id":35830,"date":"2016-08-06T13:28:09","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T19:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=35830"},"modified":"2018-03-08T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T20:25:53","slug":"strategies-for-deciding-how-much-garden-you-can-manage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/strategies-for-deciding-how-much-garden-you-can-manage\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategies for Deciding How Much Garden You Can Manage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Strategies<\/a>Hardly anyone\u2019s garden is<\/strong> the size they want it to be. Either it is too small and limits options. Or it is too large and overwhelms with maintenance needs. Enthusiastic gardeners tend to keep increasing the size of their garden until, one day, they discover they either need to hire help or adjust their gardening strategy.<\/p>\n

The garden may or may not be synonymous with the yard. It depends on your perspective. If you equate the two, there are still different elements to your yard that require more or less regular care. Flower gardens and vegetable gardens are what many Americans mean by \u201ctheir gardens.\u201d Those areas generally take more time and manual labor per square foot to maintain.<\/p>\n

So what is a gardener to do when they have gone past the tipping point? How should choices be made about what to change and how to change it? This is an issue I have been dealing with the last few years. Up until a couple of years ago, I attempted to routinely rotate through different gardens, giving equal priority to every location. What I found was that I was constantly frustrated. Every time I got around to an area, it was out of control. (click on any photo to enlarge)<\/em><\/p>\n

For the last couple of years, I adopted a different approach. Realizing that I was going to have to choose which areas to keep as typical garden beds, I determined to give priority to areas based on:<\/p>\n