Due to the covid-19 pandemic, a large percentage of the UKs workforce is now being asked to work from home. Some people have taken to this better than others, while others have found it hard to set themselves a good schedule that balances work and rest properly. Experts recommend that while working from home it is a great idea to take regular breaks, even if they are only short ones, and what better way to spend that time than having some quick gardening breaks?
Getting out in the garden will fill your lungs with fresh air, get you back in touch with nature, and leave you feeling de-stressed and refreshed with a recharged focus. This will ultimately lead to you being more productive whilst feeling much better at the same time. So, what jobs can you be getting on with while you have a timeout from the computer screen? Well, there are actually quite a lot, but we have chosen to highlight just a few of them here today.
Below you find out about quick gardening breaks you can do while working at home due to the coronavirus.
Sow vegetable seeds in pots
There’s a good selection of options available to you if you decide to grow vegetables in pots. From tomatoes to carrots and spring onions, you can start growing your own within minutes. What’s more you don’t even need to have a large garden to grow them, or even a garden at all! Some vegetables can be grown in pots on a balcony or windowsill.
All you need to do is fill a pot or container with some damp compost then sprinkle some seeds on top. Finally, use another thin layer of compost to cover the seeds and put the pot somewhere it’ll get a lot of sunlight. You’ll have to make sure you keep the compost damp, but that’ll give you something to do in your next gardening break, won’t it?
Sow flower seeds in the garden
Growing vegetables is not your thing? Then how about adding more colour to your garden by sowing the seeds of hardy annuals in your borders or beds. The easiest way to do this, is to make a groove in the soil that slopes in from both sides. This only needs to be shallow and won’t take long to do, and then you can just sow the seeds so that they aren’t too close to each other to avoid them becoming overcrowded. Once the seeds have been sowed, cover them with the soil that you pushed aside to make the groove that the seeds are in, and then water them with a fine spraying watering can.
Alternatively, you could mix the seeds with some sand and then spread them onto your beds before raking the top layer of soil so that the seeds are covered.
Cut the grass
Breaking out the lawnmower and giving your grass a well needed trim will not only improve the look of your garden, but will provide you with an energising bit of light exercise at the same time. If you have a large lawn, and you don’t think you’ll get it all done in a short time, just do half, or even a third, and then finish it off during future breaks. Got a smaller lawn that doesn’t take long to cut with your lawnmower? Then how about grabbing some shears or an edging tool, and giving your garden a polished finish?
Scarifying your lawn is a great way of keeping it healthy, so that’s another little quick gardening break task for you. If you’re not sure about what scarifying is or how to do it properly, we have an article on just that subject on How to revive a lawn after scarifying
Clearing leaves
With Autumn comes leaves. Leaves on the lawn, on the patio, on the driveway, and everywhere else you look. So, why not take 10 minutes away from the computer, grab some fresh air, and clear up some of those leaves while you’re at it?
You can either use large leaf collector gloves, or if you’ve got a significant amount of leaves to shift, a leaf blower/vacuum machine can work wonders. You can then use the collected leaves for mulch or as part of your compost heap.
Pruning
This time of year is great for pruning your trees and trimming your hedges. If you have fruit trees, they can benefit a lot from pruning them just before the winter arrives, helping to promote the growth of buds and flowers.
Other plants and hedges might have done a lot of growth during the summer, and so pruning them back into a nice tidy state is probably a good idea.
Create places forto hibernate
Hedgehog numbers in the UK have been falling for quite some time now and it is said that there are less than a million left. A big part of the reason for the reduction in hedgehog population is that their natural habitats have been destroyed by human development, and so they end up travelling further to find a safer place to hibernate, and thus are more at risk.
A wonderful way to spend your gardening break while working from home, is to build a little place for our spiked friends to wait out the winter in. A simple pile of leaves or compost is ideal, and will provide shelter and warmth for them when they need it most.
Prepare your soil
Adding fertiliser to your soil, or spreading compost or manure onto it, doesn’t take long and your garden will benefit from it greatly. Even simply digging over to aerate it can work wonders and breathe new life into your old soil.
Of course, weeding your beds and borders, as well as sorting out any drainage problems, are also excellent little tasks that you can carry out during a quick gardening break while working from home.
