2017-09-08Staff Report 2 Home Gardening: Spring is the ideal season to start growing your own garden. Imagine harvesting fresh, nutritious vegetables and fruit straight from your backyard! Consider planting potatoes, onions, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, guavas, pears or apricots as the soil begins to warm up. If you enjoy the sight and scent of flowers, sow floral seeds in pots for your front porch or on your lawn, they will provide a welcoming treat for your visitors. There are a variety of spring flower buds that you can plant such as tulips, daffodils, roses and lilies. Create a compost pile for your seeds; make sure your garden receives enough sunlight and water the soil with a watering can. Personal growth: If you have given yourself some new year’s resolutions earlier on in the year, now is a good time to examine your progress. There is no use in stressing out if you haven’t achieved everything you want yet. Just re-evaluate your goals and get back on track with your plans, and don’t allow procrastination to become a habit. Some of your objectives can seem overwhelming when you look at them from a goal-oriented perspective but your vision will become clearer when you write down weekly or daily to-do lists. Be your own cheerleader and motivator, and above all learn to love yourself for who you are inside and outside. Getting In Shape: During winter, you may have indulged in some decadent treats, and the bundles of clothes that you wore helped to hide the extra weight gain. Spring is here and the warm weather allows you to show some skin, so now you realise that you are not in shape. Start out by reducing the junk food, eating more vegetables, fruit and drinking plenty of water. Include some workout activities such as walking and aerobics in your weekly schedule, or sign up at a local gym. Strive to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and very soon, you will look and feel wonderful. Wardrobe Update: The cold weather is subsiding and clothing shops are filled with the latest trends in spring wear. Before you splurge on new attire, draw up a budget and decide how much you can afford to spend on clothes, shoes and accessories. When it comes to style choices for this season, it’s all about bright hues, vibrant patterns, solid stripes and bold prints. Pair up bold patterns with neutral colours to achieve a cohesive look or mix bold-printed items to create fabulous ensembles. Have fun experimenting with different colours and fabrics. Spring Cleaning: Make room in your closet for new outfits by neatly packing away your winter clothes. You need to wash blankets before storing them until next winter. Dirt can accumulate in areas of your home and if there is, too much clutter; tidily store away your heater, dust the air-conditioners and ceiling fans. Thoroughly clean your carpets, rugs and upholstery, wax the floors, re-organise shelves and wash your curtains plus the windows. Clear out any expired products from your kitchen and wipe your refrigerator meticulously. A clean home produces a relaxing atmosphere for you and your family. Beauty Ndapanda is a lifestyle blogger/writer. Her articles include wellness and beauty tips to help readers look and feel their best, while her topics on introspection examine thoughts and emotional processes for navigating through life’s ups and downs. – www.beautyndapanda.com 2017-09-08Staff Report 2
