Garden thoughts, plans, and daydreams are captured here while sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying some type of food that is probably not good for me.
Feeling Gardening Burnout
It’s easy in the Spring and early summer to be highly motivated to complete your garden daily tasks. But as the summer wears on, I can begin to feel the effects of garden burnout. I become less and less motivated and begin a slide toward apathy and just wanting to pull everything out and throw it into the compost pile. This is accentuated by the heat in my area in August and September. This year we hit temps in the 90s throughout August and the first half of September with very little rainfall.
Since I work nights at my regular job, the first task I would do when I got home was to water all the plants. This usually happened around 7:30 and by August would take me about an hour to complete. In the winter, I come home from work eat my supper, your breakfast and then go to bed around 8:30 am and sleep 6-8 hours. With this schedule, my body is ready to go to sleep at 8:30 am and when I finish watering the plants, it its around that time. I still want something to eat so I wind up getting to bed around 9 am.
The Effect Of Summer Heat on Garden Motivation
With the temperatures of August I should be watering every day and if I’m honest, some days I should water twice a day. But instead what often happens is that I am tired and ready to eat and go to sleep so I begin by telling myself, I’ll check everything when I get up and if it is showing signs of needing water, I’ll water then. And the temperatures will often stay in the 90s until 7-8 pm. I step outside and am immediately drained. I force myself to water the plants but many days it should be the second watering and not the first. And if it rains, well, I can easily justify not watering for 2-3 days.
To me it is a result of garden burnout. This year I sought out inspiration to help push me through and help me find my motivation again. My go to source these days for gardening info is You Tube. I subscribe to several channels that provide gardening tips, ideas, and helpful information. And although Ii do not want to homestead, I find watching those who do to be inspiring. You Tube makes suggestions of channels and specific videos they think you will find interesting.
The Discovery of A Remedy For Burnout
One evening at the beginning of September, I discovered a channel called ‘Traplines and Inlines”. The video that You Tube was suggesting for me to watch was a tour of this young man’s homestead. I’ve added it below if you want to check it out. I was amazed at what all this young man had accomplished. It was a major feat for any person. But then to find out that he was 20 years old and had begun all of this at 17 was unbelievable. How many 17 year olds do you know that are so motivated that they work every day from sun up to sun down and figure out how to do whatever tasks they want to accomplish that day? And in the beginning he was finishing his last year of high school.
I Was Shamed Into Action
I am not afraid to tell you that this young man shamed me into action. Here I am several decades older than him and I am whining about heat and having to water my garden every day. I hope you’ll take the time to view some of his videos. If you do, I have two WARNINGS I want to make. First, if you are offended by strong language, do not watch. It isn’t so bad relatively speaking, in the video I’ve added below but there are some where he uses very colorful language. Second, in the winter he makes his living from trapping. If you would be uncomfortable seeing animals trapped and killed for their furs, do not watch the videos about trapping.
I watched the video below and then went back to the beginning of his posts and watched all the videos for building the cabin, the chicken coop, the workshop, the outhouse, solar panel and system installation, vehicle maintenance and repair, product reviews, solar energy and I watch the trapping videos. I also want to give you the translation for one word. He uses the word “deadly” to denote something that is excellent. He is a Canadian located in the northern part of the province of Saskatchewan.
I find his videos to be motivating, intelligent, and sometimes comical. The perfect remedy for garden burnout.
In the pic for this “But First, Coffee” at the top, I have shown the young man’s pic on my laptop as I’m watching the video mentioned. I do not use his name because he does not give his name. He doesn’t give a reason for this, he just never says his name. In the pic you will also see that I am enjoying the Halloween version of Oreo Cookies which I found at the grocery store today when I was shopping. You can tell by the orange filling. They were exceptional with my coffee. But honestly, I’ve never found an Oreo Cookie flavor that I didn’t like.
Yes, I do realize that a drip system could save me a lot of time. But this blog is about saving time and money. The time would be saved, but at this point, I do not have the funds to shell out for a drip system. This may come in the future but it is still cheaper to get out and water the garden myself.
Do you ever suffer from Gardening Burnout? Please share in the comments what you have done to deal with Gardening Burnout.