True Confessions: Gardening Can Frustrate You

We like to talk about how much fun gardening is, because the giant portion of the experience of gardening is full of pleasure and satisfaction, but I had a couple days that remind me how frustrating it can be.

First, is the frenetic mowers. They want to get it done, those nice flat sheets of green; but sometimes , especially in weedy parts of the garden the wild look and the mowing deck create the clash of titans… and the poor little plants are no match for the forces of mother nature and the will of man. My Niobe clematis was mowed off at ground level with a mass of withered leaf, stem and bloom to tell the tale.

Then, as I inspected plants I saw what a heyday aphids and other insects are having with the spring growth. Something is eating the rose foliage, and I am not sure if the late cold snaps or insects have created some damage that I am seeing…. while the weeds are growing like nobody’s business (especially in these economic times). I got a little dismayed to put it mildly.

The rain bypassed us, so my pots were drying out and some of the Nicotiana I put in the ground was quite sad.

And Then I read Doug Green’s “Relax for Crying Out Loud” via JWLWJW (who is giving lessons on how to put old logs to good use). Doug says “I’m almost equally pleased to tell you that the more you kill, the easier it becomes”. I’m not quite there yet, but I think the advice to not sweat the small stuff- or even so much of the big stuff if it is out of your control is advice well taken.

But I did think a moment of truth was in order to say that, yes, sometimes the garden is stressful and no, it is not always peaceful.

Still, gardening is one of my favorite things in life.