Want to feel super-organized as the new year starts? Follow some simple “to-do” guidelines for the home and garden. Insert your own chores, if you are feeling ambitious.
Many of the garden suggestions are from weekendgardener.net.
JANUARY
Garden tips:
Seed catalogs will be arriving. Order early to beat the rush.
Draw a map of your garden. As the year progresses, write what did well and what went wrong.
Home tips:
Label every box as you put away Christmas and other holiday decorations. It will save aggravation in November as you excitedly retrieve the boxes from the attic or garage.
Start 2010 with labeled boxes and folders for receipts and important tax information. That will make your April 2011 much less stressful.
FEBRUARY
Garden tips:
Avoid walking on grass or ground cover while they are frozen. The frozen leaves are brittle and easily damaged.
Spray “no-stick” cooking spray on your shovel. The snow will slide right off.
Home tips:
Every weekend this month, pick a corner of your messiest room and tackle it. By the end of the month, the room will be clean and organized and you won’t feel as if it took any effort at all.
Go to at least one home-and-garden or home-improvement show. It’s a wonderful diversion in blustery, last-forever winter weather.
MARCH
Garden tips:
Prune evergreen shrubs before growth starts.
Start looking for harbingers of spring in the garden. These include glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa luciliae); winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis); common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis); netted iris (Iris reticulata), spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum). If you don’t have any, consider planting them in the fall.
Home tips:
Get your windows professionally washed inside and out. It’s indulgent and feels so good once it’s done.
Buy a flowering houseplant to remind yourself that winter isn’t forever.
APRIL
Garden tips:
Buy plants with well-developed root systems that are vigorous, but not too large for their pots, and have lots of unopened buds.
Make a plot layout of your flower borders.
Home tips:
Take your curtains down and wash them. And, frankly, don’t put them back up. Let spring sunshine fill your rooms.
Have your cooling system serviced so it will be up and running efficiently when the weather heats up.
MAY
Garden tips:
Prune spring-flowering shrubs after flowering is completed.
Fertilize everything right now. Annuals, fruit trees, fuchsias, perennials, shrubs, etc. Use a higher-phosphorus fertilizer like a 10-60-10 for better flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Home tips:
Avoid mixing cut daffodils with tulips. Daffodils produce a chemical “slime” that injures tulip blooms. If you want to use these two flowers in an arrangement, place the daffodils in another container for a day after cutting, then rinse off the stems and add to the vase of tulips. Adding six drops of bleach to each quart of water also helps.
Pull the patio furniture out and give it a good washing.
JUNE
Garden tips:
For a step-by-step tutorial, complete with pictures, on “How to Start a Vegetable Garden,” go to weekendgardener.net/vegetable-gardening-tips/starting-garden-050705.htm. Go to weekendgardener.net/vegetable-gardening-tips/maintain-garden-060706.htm for maintenance tips.
Divide spring and early-summer flowering perennials after the blooms fade. Jiggle the roots apart with two spading forks. This takes more time, but damages fewer roots than cutting the clump apart, according to weekendgardener.net.
Home tips:
Be ready for summer power outages. Check your generator, if you own one. If not, make sure your flashlights are handy and you have plenty of batteries.
Power-wash the outside of your house. After a long winter and muddy spring, it needs a bath.
JULY
Garden tips:
Mow your lawn to the appropriate height during hot weather (not too low to the ground). This reduces water loss and helps lower soil temperatures.
If you have been pinching back your mums this summer, mid-July is the time to stop so they will be able to develop flower buds for the fall.
Home tips:
Check sprinklers and drip systems to make sure all outlets are working.
You’ve been cleaning all winter and spring. Give yourself a break and have house cleaners come in for one day. Cost varies, but should be about $120 to $150. Use the not-cleaning time to go to your community pool and read a good book. Remember the sunscreen.
AUGUST
Garden tips:
Planning new landscape planting? Decide now on the plants and placement.
Add mulch or organic matter such as ground bark, compost, grass clippings or leaves to keep down weeds and hold in moisture.
Home tips:
Have an evening garden party, complete with plenty of white twinkle lights in the trees and finger foods. This is the apex of garden beauty, and friends will have already finished their family vacations, so the timing is perfect.
Call for furnace repair/maintenance now, beating the September “it’s-getting-cold” crowd.
Read full story.
Article courtesy of: cleveland.com
