Covid-19 Idea: Landscaping Project

Jay Bell

Turning Homeschooling Into Home Equity with My Kids

Clearing a space, leveling it, building a fire pit, and installing a patio was a multi-day effort that gives us a new space to enjoy.

The beauty of a landscaping project is that it’s physical, it’s outdoors, and it transforms a space. Physicians sometimes literally write prescriptions for time outdoors.

​The physical nature of this sort of effort relieves stress and improves sleep. There’s a constructive channeling of a person’s focus, creativity, and energy. It can involve research, spatial relations, math, or science. Adults are no different than kids: accomplishing a goal and having a tangible finished product feels great. Nowadays, it’s also a small part of the world that you can actually control.

This project progressed at its own pace, allowing time for a break, a snack, and time to admire the progress.

Those living in a place they don’t own might feel this can’t apply to them. But there are smaller options, such as creating a colorful scene through planting a variety of flowers in various sized containers. Or you can start a vegetable garden in flower pots in lieu of a raised bed. You might line the back patio with tiki torches.

​There’s a vastly increased ability to order what you need and have curbside pickup or delivery these days. There may even be a chance to re-purpose materials you already have, such as using that old pile of flagstones or bricks for a small side patio; or splitting some plants to have free shrubs; or transplanting some ground cover or flowers that have been spreading. The mental challenge of reusing materials can be interesting, budget-friendly, and safe.

The finished product allowed for the kids to have a socially distant evening with their grandmother.

Again, the project can work within any constraints you have. But the many aspects of completing it will pay visual dividends for your space and invisible ones for you.