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watertrade

Garden getting me down.

How do your plants make you feel?  

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When I first started collecting plants it really was a great hobby I really enjoyed - I loved spending time in the greenhouse pottering around doing whatever it took to keep everything happy and pest free.

Over the last year or so I have had much less time and as a result what used to relax me has caused lots of stress, weeds, pests, rot of all types. I basically bit off more than I could chew and now I struggle to get everything (anything) done. :(

have any of you guys been through a similar experience?. I like to think that one day I will have more time and will bring my collection back to its former glory but I can't see it happening any time soon.

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yes wt to me it does :)

it comes in cycles

like everything

eventually,(hopefully) the dirt settles,imho

and then you fall in love all over again, yet this time, more new plants become your friend

xoxo

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That's just the beat of life is it not?

Intense/relaxed and the cycle continues.

IMO ethereal drifter is spot on the money!

In the bigger picture is it such a bad thing to watch the weeds come and go - as if an external representation of your state of mind. As the cycle continues the weeds will disappear, and if left unsought your passion will come back on it's own. Sit back and watch the show.

In practical terms downsize, find a new interest for a while and let the hardy plants do their thing. Come back to life with new plants and seedlings, ride it out........ and........... wait for the next downturn... "wait a second this feels strangely familiar...." and the cycle continues.

The best show is life, and you don't always have to be the director - sitting back and being in the audience for a while can be refreshing.

Good luck

EDIT: spelling

Edited by Undercover Hippie

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Watering the garden can be a real pain the the ass during the hot weather. Frustrations when bugs destroy new growth and germinating seeds.

But I get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from just sitting down looking and watching the fruits of my effort in the garden. Seeing new pups grow, and making plans for trades.

Of course then a possum comes along and nibbles the top off a pristine pup and spoils the fun. What can you do?

95% joy 5% irritating

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I have been struggling with a chronic debilitating injury that makes it near impossible for me to sit down, let alone get out of my house (piriformis syndrome). Consequently, my social life has been near to non-existent over the last year. Cultivating and propagating my beloved and awesome collection of cacti is one of the things that made this bearable, and has really helped me a lot.

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I moved a while back and my garden is split in two, I have no more room to bring anymore to where I am and have to move out the other stuff remaining soon or loose it. Sum very rare plants and specimens, esp for WA. The place is littered with pereopskis by the hundreds all about which were to be grafting stock. I no longer have my 400W HPS friend to help out and act as a nice warm getaway to garden in during the cold winter months. I used to have all the time in the world, now any spare I have I choose to spend with my family instead. I need to do sumthing really bad. I work full time and so does my partner, in the hope that not too long, I will be able to have my large garden again, my orchard, ducks, chickens and stop working so fucking hard that any chance I get I put my head down and sleep. U r not alone by any means, the only way I can justify it is that my priorities have changed for the time. It's a means to an end. I pawn off plants to friends who have lush gardens and I trust, so I can reaquire in the future. It's hard to know wat to do, so I just do the little I can. I am lucky and live only minutes from work, so try and water and weed on lunch breaks. I do spurts of propagation with much haste and go with wat I get. Sumtimes it just means strapping the headlamp on and gardening at night. I feel alot more self concious doing this in suburbia now though, rather than the rural I used to live in. Oh well, only another $40k to save till we got a deposit together for a low end house/property. :blink::BANGHEAD2:

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I hate my garden. Just spent five hours hacking down trees and djungle that was growing over the road and stabbing peoples eyes out. Its fun in summer but it makes me so much work i sometimes feel like cementing it all.

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At this moment, hell no, 99% fun and maybe 1% frustration. Got an acre of extra land this year and have already bought a boatload of useful seeds, plants and trees to transform the meadow into an edible & ethnobotany landscape. The only things I sometimes get fed up with is watering every day in the indoor garden, getting stuff not to germinate/take off or harvesting cannabis plants (I'm in the Netherlands, don't worry about incrimination, lol), which is a tedious chore when everything needs to get harvested at once when the botrytis runs rampant outside. Oh, plus weeding out the never ending Aegopodium podagrarium (thank you Romans!) and Convolvulus sepium, that stuff really get's on my nerves.

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I am not the most anxious person, so I might not be the best to answer.

In fact , I chose to delve into cacti just because they dont need so much caring for. Growing plants from seed is much more anxious, cause its faster, requires more manipulation.

In those 4 years that I got into ethnobotany, in practice I have left my darling little, being an excellent father and also learner. I am glad I learned cultivating plants, from venus flytrap, to brugmansia from cuttings, to vines like argyreia and turbina from seed to cacti, yeas with this order, lol, but I haven't felt I was oppressed by it. This was an illumination for me, as it was -it seemed so- the first time I was not only interested but actually nurturing and being reliably supportive and father to something or someone other than my self, without feeling pressure or anything.

A passion must not because an anxiety. Its not your job. I am liking propagating plants so much, that I am might just do this: do it my job, and then we see how anxious it might be.

but I believe it depends on the person...

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WTF! What kind of poll is this? Happiness grows in the garden peeps!!! You guys got to have some serious "MAN THE F UP" botanical doses!!! hahaha

I went through so many phases. From having a huge collection to living in a small apartment with just a few plants,.... I just adapted. I don't worry too much when I loose plants. It's not my livelihood. Just a hobby and I take the good with the bad,... the bad,... if you want to continue to grow is usually where the learning takes place.

And like Mutant,.. I chose cacti and succulents because they need less care. And I try to stay with the plants that are best suited for my environment.

As for weeding,... I keep my plants in pots,... and put gravel or a thick layer of Course Sharp Sand to discourage weeds or to easily weed the weeds.

Sometimes it's allot of effort, but the way I have seen it till now is that, that's the reason I appreciate it more. It's just like anything else,.. you have to make effort in order to reap the benefits.

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When I go through stages of no time for gardening or just couldnt be assed I normally just reduce my plants down to a more managable number and wait till that time has passed to get back into it.

Its easy to think that youve put too much effort in to start getting rid of plants but really its not that hard to get those plants again although they probably wouldnt be so big. But who doesnt like babies? The worst thing is if you try to keep them all but dont have the time then some start to die or gets diseases and thats more sad than if you just got rid of them while they were still healthy.

Having said that gardening is one of the best things for dealing with shitty times and depression IMO. I always need to have somethings growing nearby.

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When I go through stages of no time for gardening or just couldnt be assed I normally just reduce my plants down to a more managable number and wait till that time has passed to get back into it.

Its easy to think that youve put too much effort in to start getting rid of plants but really its not that hard to get those plants again although they probably wouldnt be so big. But who doesnt like babies? The worst thing is if you try to keep them all but dont have the time then some start to die or gets diseases and thats more sad than if you just got rid of them while they were still healthy.

Having said that gardening is one of the best things for dealing with shitty times and depression IMO. I always need to have somethings growing nearby.

 

+1

Very therapuetic for me also but preparing a vege patch from scratch or continual weeding because your neighbour doesnt mow or weed can sometimes be a burden. But then you sit down with a beer and look at it all and get the warm fuzzies as you have satisfied your passion for your hobby and invested in your entire families health.

I like the sentence by Undercover Hippie about not always being the director but enjoy being in the audience. It is easy to get lost in trying to achieve a goal to the point of expelling all joy.

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my garden always is a source of joy, unless things go wrong.

it's either, your own fault or anything else, or a mixture of both.

if a cyclon and your neighbours pipes drown your plants, than it is depressing.

when i was more of a beginner, i once stumbled, and droped a full tray, of sown out lophs. since than, i always walk very slowly when moving trays.

so it's a learning curve, to avaoid more of the depressing moments of your garden!

when i was very young, my parents had an alotment, and i have the most joyish memories of that, i think thats why i love my garden so much now.

sometimes, as mentioned in the heat of the summer, watering can get very laborous, that's why i, rather not bite off more, than i can chew, in my garden.

my biggest joy, is probagation, the moment when you see a new seedling for the first time,

or you managed to strike a cutting, of a kind, the one you struggled before.

Edited by planthelper

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wow i am the most depressed with my garden of all voters so far :(

i really want to grow a heap of plants, but i don't want anything in the ground here, and waiting around for the opportunity to start a garden has been crap. i've had some pot plants going ballistic but they always end up wilted or dead when i forget to water or just can't be fucked.

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Im happy happy, but im a newbie. Also some of you have cacti bigger then my courtyard XD

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Ive been dragging my plants around in pots from place to place for the last 10 years (6 moves) and each move telling myself "thats it, I'm getting rid of ..%, cutting down, etc blah etc.

But I dont.

Attrition thru the neglect cyle takes it's toll, but I'm also always adding, can't help myself.

At the moment I'm in an upcurve with it- cleaning up, repotting, weeding etc, in no small way instigated and inspired by some recent posts on this forum- Tripsis's garden pics &

Mutants cacti porn to name a few outstandings.

Sooo.... right now I guess for me its around 95% up & 5% not, and how i can easily guage that is that at twilight I find myself just wanting to go out and look at everything one last time.

Like now.

(funny thing is, I only came top this site for the myco action):lol:

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Thanks Guys,

Thanks for the replies. hanging out in the garden used to be one of the only places I relaxed, it was giving a lot back to me so it is sad this has changed. Its only this year since my son was born that I haven't had the time. I'm sure things will improve as he gets older.

It is nice to hear about other peoples experiences, there are some nice replies in here which made me think about how I used to collect plants. I basically used to collect a few of everything from everyone! I have lots of different cacti that I am hoping to keep - lots of variation.

What I will probably do is put all the Trichocereus in the ground and let them do their own thing. the ones I have in the ground already are happy enough on their own ( except for the snails! ) The ones I have in pots are just not reaching their potential.

Today I decided to leave work early and spend a bit of time in the garden. in the 20 minutes I had I made a good dent in the weeds in my outdoor patch. and funnily enough I enjoyed myself! ;)

 

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First year of kiddies is hard. After 9-10 months, they become really fun, but a lot of work. After 3.5 years, they become easier again. And after 5, they're at school. Hurrah!

Hope the garden bug bites you again!

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Watertrade it does get better :)

We have a 5 year old daughter we and have been in our house for 10 years. We have built our garden from scratch and after five years we had reasonable size garden that was starting to mature and then along came our second child we watched all of our hard work get over grown with weeds and plant die from neglect.

As my daughter got older we were able to spend more time in the garden and stop the carnage. It was hard at the beginning to get on top of the weeds but the reward was massive my girls love being outside so we were able to work in the garden while they play.

Cheers

Got

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Yep. Good point GOT. My wife calls our backyard the Silent Babysitter. All we do is open the door and we have silence. That said, I don't have as many cacti as do you, WT.

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Another point, I dont have kids but I have nieces and nephews. After a certain age (i dont really know but maybe 5ish like other said) kids start to get an interest in gardening and its such a joy to have them following you around and trying to help out in the garden (except water with a hose and uprooting plants from pointing the hose straight at them). They become so fascinated by nature and want to learn all about plants and to be able to share your knowledge with them makes you feel like a boss :) So WT maybe you can just do what you have to do to get through until you have more time and the passion comes back and you can start to share your garden time with your kids.

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I still have the passion for the garden, hopefully one day my son will want to inherit my plants. he is learning already he gets swung around under my arm while I'm watering everything with the hose.

I was in one of my greenhouses the other day giving the place a good soak with him under one arm, I tripped over something, lost balance and we both almost ended head first into some Trichocereus. biggrin.gif kind of funny but Mrs Watertrade would have been so pissed. anyway, we survived.

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my son activly interacted with the garden from a very early age, once they can crawl, they like the garden.

once, i got up early, and i spotted my child feeding himselfe, from the garden (berry fruits) with ~2years of age.

children are far less work, if they spent a lot of time in the garden.

visiting one's childhood garden, in adulthood, after not seeing it for a long time, is a very powerfull experience, specialy, if you see still the same bushes, which meant a whole universe for you!

garden + kid's = great combo! introduce them early, let them sleep in the open, when possible, from small onwards.

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As the name suggests I’m not generally one for public discussion, both here and in the “real” world (as if the two are somehow different?!?). The constant one-upmanship and comparisons seem a waste of valuable time and concentration, in my world either let your mind rest or be put to use for something constructive.

This is not always socially appropriate and I am still figuring out whether it is a blessing or a curse to hold no interest in these interactions, as they are everywhere an inescapable. Hence the love of gardens who don’t talk back, and when they do they only have something important to say.

That is why this thread is so unique – it seems Mr watertrade has hit a common theme that many before him have felt, each piece of information and each post contained within is free from the aforementioned bickering’s of everyday social interactions – bullshit free genuine advice from a personal perspective without the need for defence. Many gems to be treasured here!

On to the children:

They are the jewel of your eye, your crowning achievement, you have been there for them since day one catering for there every need – each glimpse brings a smile to your heart and a tear to your eye.

Now put them on a high shelf away from your toddler! Toddlers know no difference between that long piece of grass we ripped out of the way yesterday and that 10 year old seed grown loph. Two theoretical gardens are a necessity for survival, both of the plants and the children depending on what is being grown.

“These are Daddy’s plants we DON’T TOUCH these ones” – have that phrase on handy as it will need to be frequently repeated, even if things are seemingly placed out of reach.

“These are OUR PLANTS we can PLAY with these ones!” – with everything, watering can included, at their level.

However, this charade only lasts so long and they know the real gardening is going on “over there” – but if their little souls are that clued on they are not far from understanding that those plants are not to be messed with. Unfortunately those developments are not always simultaneous and therefore some plants require maximum security!

All plants are of equal value to young children – and we still think we teach them….

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