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| This is my stressiest time of year -as may have been apparent with an increase in churlishness and general whining. No more plants can go in the ground now (no water) so the garden is filled with hundreds of pots filled with plants getting larger and thirstier by the day while the fruit harvest is gathering pace. Weeks of eating strawberries failed to make much of a dent in the insane crop while the raspberries have been at the other extreme - virused and deathly, a crop, any crop, a rare event (it has been 8 years since we last had decent raspberry crops but we must have raspberry jelly) so they had to be seized and gathered - bad enough spending hours picking.....it is the days of hot jamming, pureeing and kitchen toiling which oppresses me......but I am old enough and mean enough to be unable to waste perfectly good food (and frankly, our fruit is excellent). The currants are ready too I used to make a lot of cordial for my children (which is why I have 20+ bushes). Cutting the grass paths is no sort of priority anymore so the allotment is going into jungle mode (it is only midsummer - why did I think I also needed 100+ (huge)roses). Or 50 tomatoes (ketchup). Worst of all, at the moment of maximum stress, hair-pulling despair, the most comforting, calming activity was to find myself SOWING MORE SEEDS. Foxgloves (again), rehmannia, oxslips..........my name is Suzan and I am a plant addict |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Good for you! I feel much better about my many homeless seedlings, cuttings and divisions that give me the cold shoulder every morning when I leave for work and then cry for water every evening when I get home. The driveway is probably not the neatest spot for them, but I need the daily guilt for motivation. I'll second your confession. My name is Frank, and I am a plant addict. |
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- Posted by duluthinbloomz4 zone 4a (My Page) on Wed, Jun 25, 14 at 18:50
| The weather is not cooperating - this may be another year with no summer. The sun's out now, but it's been a stretch of chilly fog, some drizzle, temps struggling to get into the low 60's. I've got some annuals to get in along with couple of peonies and assorted other perennials, beds with weeds up to my hips. My name is Susan and I'm tending toward lazy. |
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- Posted by prairiemoon2 zone 6a/MA (My Page) on Wed, Jun 25, 14 at 19:09
| You have my sympathy, Suzan. That sounds like such a lot of responsibility. You titled the thread correctly. Pressure. I wonder if you are doing it all yourself or if you have some help? I assume that growing it all and preserving it all is something you really wanted to do. Sounds like something that in better circumstances, would be a part of my own ideal gardening goals. Raspberry jam is one of our favorites too. I always wondered what you could make from currants, have never grown them. I don't think the gardening goals are wrong. What causes the pressure? I would think you might enjoy a lot of the gardening tasks you have to do, it's when they all seem to collide and have to be done in a hurry up mode, then you have events conspire against you, like too much rain, or too little rain, a slow start in the spring, etc. And I don't know about you, but I often feel I have bitten off more than I can chew. I was just thinking that about 30 minutes ago. [g] I usually feel it this time of year too, because I rarely get everything done that I want to have done before it starts to get hot. And it's about now that rain becomes infrequent and inadequate and I have to make up for that with a lot of watering which can not be postponed. This year, I have had a spring project take too long and keep me away from routine jobs, so I was in catch up mode too until I strained my achilles tendon and now am off my feet altogether, having to rely on family to do the bare minimum. I have one more shot at getting things to a point of being manageable on Saturday, when dear daughter will spend the day with DH to try to catch us up, then other priorities will swoop in. I find it hard to enjoy the garden when it gets away from me. Hard to look at work waiting to be done, or plants starting to get yellow leaves at the base, or needing deadheading, and spring purchases still in pots and on and on. You care about it, then you have to stop caring about it or drive yourself crazy. But I suppose, as has happened to me in the past, it feels awful for awhile, then it all starts to even out and you get an opportunity to catchup and you're happy in your garden again. Or you don't and you just have to pick and choose what is the most important to you, and let go of some things that won't get done this year. It's just the highs and lows, that I suppose every person has with any activity they commit themselves to. I don't think gardeners are unique in that way. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian MI z5 (My Page) on Thu, Jun 26, 14 at 8:33
| oh crikey ... you are living your dream ... and all you can do is complain ... when are you going to go hippie zen for us.. and wax poetic on the glories .. think of thomas hardy ... and create some prose ... too much luscious fruit .. its hot in summer... my jungle acts like a jungle ... pshaw .. do a post telling us how great it is ... or did i miss that one??? take care campy ... ken |
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| I am sitting here with a bowl of strawberry ice-cream, strawberry sorbet, strawberries and cream.....so yep, whining is a bit pathetic......and unattractive.....and my saskatoon seeds arrived in post, along with ribes aureum (so I am far beyond help)........ Thanks for the Hardy, Ken.......in literal as well as metaphorical purple prose - fabulous. |
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| Too long since I read Hardy and what I read didn't have that passage. But in my callow youth would I even have noticed that passage? I was thinking, Dylan? Joyce? (how pretentious of me, I never read Joyce) One can get tired of strawberries, even bought ones. When they are in season I don't even think of a grocery budget. I buy local strawberries when I see them and eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. My car is littered with dried up strawberry 'tops', I arrive at nursing homes with red stained fingers and sticky lips. And I am relieved when the season ends because my compulsive appetite for strawberries can't be indulged and my digestive system gets a break. Strawberries are like tomatoes for me: there is so little resemblance to the "real" in-season fruit I can't bring myself to spend money on the out of season imitation. Of course, sometimes I can't resist buying those "virtual" strawberries out of season. They never fail to disappoint. Marie |
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| feh, no-one actually 'reads' Joyce - they might have to drudge through various bits for exams.....or even enjoy some of the more florid passages.......but entire books? The strawberries are out of control - I swear I started off with a dozen plants but they are now occupying 2 large beds, escaping onto the paths and making a bid for world domination by sneaking along the hedge lines. The first picks of our fruit and veggies are always special (tomatoes have another month before I will be eating any of them)....but the most eagerly awaited crops are the humble potatoes. For the past decade, it is barely possible to find potatoes for frying (chips) in the UK. Soggy, horrid things (and for sure, I have tried the various double and triple frying methods)- I blame the supermarket practice of washing everything and long storage because the same varieties are still available and consistent.....but our own Kestrel spuds are a delight and mark the start of chip season. The ancient frying pan comes out of storage (because it is a frightening sight with half an inch of encrusted solidified oil baked on the outside of the pan) and we gather about waiting for the CRISP and delicious potatoes to leap out of the frying basket and into our mouths (even better with home-made ketchup). The humble potato - a gourmet treat! |
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