Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: snow white on August 30, 2018, 10:06
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How do you guys get your motivation back for the allotment? Needing tips/advise.
After two lots of vicious vandalism and hot, dry weather which has meant my crops were nearly a failure, I just can't seem to get any enthusiasm to get up there any more. I have so much to do but little motivation to do it. :(
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Sorry to hear that Snowy :(
But I do emphathise. I've struggled for the last couple of years. I don't have the answer but in the meantime I've done what I can to make the plot low-maintenance. For example, I covered over some areas that I knew I wouldn't get round to dealing with, so that I didn't have to weed them or worry about them bothering neighbours.
I also grew crops that I knew wouldn't be really fussy and I could leave for several days between visits.
It might just be a question of getting through this season as best you can, and starting from scratch next season - being kind to yourself for the time being rather than beating yourself up about what you 'should' be doing.
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life is busy. if it has become to much of a disappointment/chore maybe a break might be good!
time is short for me but if I have had a few hours in the garden I feel like a different person.
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This has been a funny year for growing and vandalism doesn't help with morale. Let's just say your get up and go has been affected, but just put things to bed for this year and make plans for 2019.
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I'd agree with what's already been said. Without going into detail we've been through a dreadful eighteen months at home, and I got to the point where I felt too weary and down to do anything at all, let alone go to the allotment.
I did, finally drag myself down there, and it's true what they say - fresh air, a little exercise, and a chat with someone different does indeed work wonders, if only for a short while.
Cover up everything that isn't entirely necessary just yet, and just enjoy an hour or so down there. I sometimes find that going very early in the morning when nobody else is around but the birds, the wind in the trees and hopefully, the sun is very soothing, and often helps to re-set your body and mind.
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My motivation isn't very good at the moment either - and I only have a garden :(
But as others have said before me, when you finally do it, its great. I have been in the gar
den for a few hours today, lawn, edge, weeding, trying to pull up sad ornamental grasses from a gravel bed.
Now I am writing this and looking out onto it, and really please I made the effort, and got my mojo back, and I have started to plan next year, that's exciting.
Maybe you could cover some of it and rest it (and you), as somebody has already said. Or perhaps just grow spuds, and then trade them with other plotters :D Whatever you do, remember it is supposed to be enjoyable. regards Mrs Bouquet
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I'm another whose interest has wained as the summer has gone on. So much time has been spent watering and not doing other planned jobs. Funnily enough I got the urge to start flicking through my seed collection and last years catalogues so I guess my interest is already on next year now.
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Thanks for your replys. Guess I will just be easy on myself and let the seed madness overtake me into enthusiasm again. :)
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When I feel like that I say to myself just do one little job that will make you feel better when it's done, such as tidying out a small cupboard, removing some weeds, mop a floor or polish a piece of furniture, then sit back and enjoy!
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Reading all these comments has helped me too.
I've been the same this year.
Started the year with good plans, started making paths to make plot more managable, digging ready for planting but struggled with most things, brassicas died in sun or eaten by slugs and onions more pickled onion size ;)
After holidays away and night shifts on return, I've not been to plot for over 3 weeks.
Planned to go today but just didn't as motivation not there.
I know once I pop down that I'll remember how much I love it but this year has left my plot with so many empty patches and hard undiggable soil.
I'm so glad I'm not alone feeling bit fed up.
My plot is so friendly and peaceful, surrounded by trees so I'm sure my mojo will return :)
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I sowed autumn greens and various bits last Saturday and they are all up. There are small amounts of each, just for pots at home and possibly a few on the plot (if I get areas cleared). There are also perennial flowers from seed sale packs I didn't get round to sowing this spring. Some of those are up as well.
This year has not been great. Some things just haven't produced anywhere near what I would usually expect. Cabbage and tomatoes are my only 2 really huge crops on the plot ::) There are leeks and greens for the winter. Wizard beans, garlic, onions and shallots will join them. Like everyone else, I am clearing through the rest and putting it to bed.
Those little trays of green shoots have given me a boost though. They are so keen to get growing, so hopefully some small extra crops to enjoy and a garden full of flowers next year :)
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My plot is a mess, the same as everyone else's - just as the council has decided to send out non-cultivation letters. There is a meeting soon, so I'll have to have a word - give us a break for goodness sake!
Gearing up to go there, when I've drunk my tea, but not really in the mood - I think the only things that will be growing well will be the grass paths and the weeds :(
I'm going into Autumn mode, clear beds/crops and cover ready for winter. Early yes, but just not in the mood for much else. I'm taking Phacelia seeds for green manure on a couple of beds with poor soil.
Standing crops are just swede and a few winter brassicas.
I haven't even got my leeks in as the ground was too hard earlier, really not sure it's even worth planting them now. I'll see what my mojo thinks about that this weekend. ::)
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When your mojo's gone there's one thing you mustn't do and that is to beat yourself up about it because it makes you feel even worse. I've had depression issues most of my life and it's a learning process as to how you handle it to get back on the road to recovery. Two things that really helped me to feel better was to have my nails done with false tips so they looked natural, then this year I got some lovely new (and much-needed) nice clothes. Boy, what a morale-booster! :) I still have to gently talk to myself about doing things I don't feel like doing, but if I just do a little bit then it really makes me feel better.
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Well done Gg - me too. Mrs Bouquet
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Just stay positive, you must still enjoying being on the plot when you there.
I've been doing no dig now for three years on most of my plot the weeding has reduced lots, what has grown are so easy to pull out.
The water I done though out the summer once new seedlings got established was twice a week when really hot, once a week other then that. The greenhouse was a little more of course.
So I haven't had the chore of weeding and watering every time I was there. Leaves time for other jobs and relaxing.
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Just stay positive, you must still enjoying being on the plot when you there.
I've been doing no dig now for three years on most of my plot the weeding has reduced lots, what has grown are so easy to pull out.
The water I done though out the summer once new seedlings got established was twice a week when really hot, once a week other then that. The greenhouse was a little more of course.
So I haven't had the chore of weeding and watering every time I was there. Leaves time for other jobs and relaxing.
Yes that’s been my experience this year too after turning to no dig( I never did dig a lot before apart from planting & harvesting potatoes)
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I have part of my plot to no dig (raised beds) and the rest is fruit and either black membrane or grass. I do have lots of weeds growing up inbetween everything, though I plan to do a bit each day. Even no dig entails lots of manure lugging about. I am doing the minimum at the moment and hope I don't get any letters about the state of it. :( We renew in December so I have a few months to think about it. :closedeyes:
Thanks for all your replys. :)
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It's been a funny sort of year. Normally by now I'd be complaining about dead cukes, tomatoes with botrytis, the plague of spider mites and emptying out the greenhouses, this morning I was stringing up a second cordon on the sungolds. :wacko:
The veg patch itself though has been enough this year to make me rage quit and I'll be returning it to lawn.
Just to play devils advocate a bit; if you're not happy with the plot now do you know why? Is it the lack of return, the work required, the time needed or have your interests change. If you don't know why you're not happy, doing nothing about it may just end up with you being in the same position Sept 2019 resenting wasting a year fighting with the plot.
It's perfectly fine not to want to spend hours weeding, lugging poo around or picking slugs out of your lettuce, if you do give up your plot you shouldn't see it as a failure at all. You had one, you enjoyed it and then you passed it to someone else to do the same.
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Very true Lardman.
For me I think this year has been a lot of work, on a new plot, plus unkind weather for most crops, resulting in small harvests compared to normal. Carrying watering cans for hours on end seemed like an awful lot of work for very little reward tbh
Hopefully next year will be better, if not then it will be time for me to hand back the keys and spend my time and effort in my garden.
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Agree this year has been a bit thankless.
For myself, I finally visited my plot today before it rained and was pleasantly surprised to see how well my pumpkins, squash and courgettes have done.
Not much else has grown well but it didn't look as bad as expected and most of the other plots were the same so everyone else is in the same boat.
Planning on having a couple of days tackling superficial weeds and start getting ready for autumn.
Have made plot look more manageable this year with paths so hopefully by end of autumn, I'll feel pleasure in plot again.
Looking at plot today has reminded me how much work I've put into it especially since I took on full plot and that I don't want to give it up.
4 years ago I had some family issues and it became my place to escape to for peace and quiet.
Hoping that weather is kinder to us all next year and our pleasure in our plots returns.
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On the whole I’ve had a good year, I’ve had the t8me to really get to grips with the plot & mostly it has looked the best it ever has. I really feel going no dig has helped me achieve this with less effort.
The last few weeks I’ve not had time to visit so often to garden & over the weekend was feeling a bit stressed knowing I’d got lots to do & a holiday looming up the week after next. I went yesterday with my daughter & friend to harvest & saw the plot through their eyes, particularly through friends eyes, she was amazed by it all , so I think sometimes it’s just us beating ourselves with the stick that we keep especially fir ourselves, we’d never be that hard on any one else.
Cut yourselves some slack, accept that the weather has made it tough this year, just go to your plots to be reinfected by the magic of it & I think you’ll find that it soon becomes your place to unwind & just be.
Plus all the other suggestions that have been made are all good ways too