5 Daily Garden Chores

Tomato Blossoms

In my ultimate wisdom I know that doing daily garden chores is definitely the way to go. If I accomplish just a few things every day I can keep ahead everything that needs done and maintain my sanity. But I also know in my ultimate wisdom that daily garden chores are not always going to happen. Still it's a good thing to keep in mind. Even 20 minutes in the garden doing a small list of maintenance chores will go a long way toward keeping order in the garden. Besides it's a great way to wind down the day and relax. So after you come home from work or after dinner when the evening sun is beginning it's descent here are a few things to try to accomplish each day:

• Casual Weeding - a few minutes a day spent weeding can control those weeds infinitely better than one big weeding day followed by another big weeding day two weeks later. It's just easier to casually grab a weed and toss it roots and all into the grass for it to die under the summer sun (Take that Johnson Grass!). You can do this even if you're just going to the mailbox or walking the dog.
• Sucker - They say "there's a sucker born every minute right?" They must have been talking about tomatoes! Tomatoes can quickly get out of hand so a few minutes of suckering is important to keep them under control.
• Staking - Staking deals with tomatoes mostly but also vines. If you tie off a couple more ties on your tomatoes each day and you'll keep ahead of their rapid growth.
• Bug watch - While out there scout for bugs both good and bad, then figure out what to do with them. Some you can squish and others may need insecticidal soap. Pay particular attention to squash bugs and cucumber beetles!
• Harvest - Anything that's ripe!

Of course there are all kinds of things you could be doing for this list but the idea is to keep it short so you can do it in 10-20 minutes. You can also swap out a chores on alternate days to add more to your menu!

What daily chores are on your list?