Losing the will?

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alan refail
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I sat down this afternoon to sort out my seed orders for next year - I usually have this sorted before now. Before I started I thought back over the past awful year and the pretty useless four or five before that - and I suddenly lost all will to carry on. And then it was dark and raining outside - again! I felt I had finally reached the stage of saying: that's it, I'm packing it in. If it wasn't for the promise of the polytunnel crops I think I would have given up before now. I will get round to sorting the seeds and ordering new ones, but I am still feeling in very low (gardening) spirits.

Sorry about the moan.
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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oldherbaceous
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Dear Alan, i reckon you certainly are not alone with these thoughts, this year. Reading some of the posts over the last few months, i think a lot of people have found things very tough. Even myself and Clive have struggled to keep on top of things at work, and my allotments are well behind. But hopefully the new year will bring us a fresh start, and we will all be able to smile about all of the previous disasters.

Must go, dinner is just being served in the East Wing, see there is always something to smile about.... i wonder what burnt delights await... :)
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
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Geoff
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I've just emailed a copy of that to cook for you OH as I think you accidentally missed her off the cc.
I did my seed stock check a couple of weeks ago, made a list of what I thought we needed with some choices like "looks promising, buy some more?" then the wife took over. She had also read the last three years "Undercover" columns from the magazine in anticipation of the polytunnel. The last of three packages arrived yesterday (impressed by Moles using a next day carrier) but I haven't sorted them yet to see what surprises I have to try and grow next year.
Back to the depression though, decided I need to rearrange the polytunnel parts in the garage as it doesn't look like they are coming out for a while with the ground frozen solid and likely to stay that way. Cheered myself up in the cold sunshine with a bit of chainsaw action, always therapeutic, had a tree to remove from by where the PT is going.
farmer jon
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spare a thought for those of us who have to make a living from working on the land,this year has been disastrous,just hope the forecasters get it wrong about the hard winter ahead. as for xmas dinner ? let's just hope that the mousetrap catches a nice plump one on xmas eve :lol:
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Clive.
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Yet to do my work seed order....

We are well behind with border work... :(

..but today with the hard ground I got a few pruning jobs done...this cheered me
...and I got to chat to a few visitors too....including one young lady who announced that she knew my daughter.....er, I don't think so :shock: :oops: A little identity confusion with regard my former work colleague...I think... :)


I see the farmer, adjacent to the gardens, struggled to get some Linseed stubble ploughed the other week...large John Deere with 4 furrow plough...later I think he was using same tractor but with only 3 furrows. It started to dry on the top and power harrow/seed drill combination was in use....then the rains returned and the tractor was abandoned in the field for over a week in the hope of continuing...but now it looks like the drilling has been abandoned. :(

Clive.
Monika
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I do hope you feel a bit more cheerful now, Alan. This afternoon's posting didn't sound like you at all!

Admittedly, it's been a challenging year. BUT it did produce some food, after all. For today's lunch, we had slow-cooked beef with mashed potatoes, roast carrots, parsnips, beetroot and our teeny-weeny Brussels sprouts, all (except the potatoes) harvested this morning, though it took some effort to dig through the frozen top crust.

I agree with your comments about Moles Seeds, Geoff. Our order, too, arrived the next day. Quite a few of he others are already here, although none of them will be needed till next spring, of course.
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Farmers have struggled too, some still have spuds in the ground - just too wet to harvest. It was even too frozen for my chicken to scratch around in the dirt instead they chose off the frozen ground on a perch today. At this rate there will be a hike in food prices, so I'm grateful for what we are able to produce.
Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconcieved notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
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alan refail
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Pulled myself together - got the seed orders in today and feel a lot more optimistic :)

farmer jon wrote:spare a thought for those of us who have to make a living from working on the land,this year has been disastrous,just hope the forecasters get it wrong about the hard winter ahead.


Jon

I'm sure all our thoughts are with those of you need to make a living out of growing- mine certainly are. And I hope not to hear too many complaints about the increased price of food this winter. Farmers in this part of the world have not suffered too much as almost all are stock farming, beef cattle and, of course, sheep.
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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glallotments
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I'm in the process of writing end of year reviews for my blog and must say when you look at what was produced it wasn't as bad as I remember it being. Sometimes memory plays tricks. A good spin-off of writing a blog and taking lots of photos is that when you look back over the year you get a clearer picture and can focus on what actually went well.
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Shallot Man
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My new years resolution was to use the pound shop this year. I.E six different tomato seeds for the proverbial quid. I will let you know if it is going to be a mistake.
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Geoff
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Got my planning diary there for £1
PLUMPUDDING
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Geoff and Shallot man, I don't go in the Pound shop very often as there isn't one near here, but I can't stop myself wondering how much things are when they don't have prices on! I got five packets of flower seeds - for £1 - last year and they were lovely.

I think we've been missing being outside in the sunshine and the feel-good effects gardening has this year, as well as being depressed by what the cold and wet has done to some of our crops. On the whole though I think we gardeners are optimists and carry on planning and getting our seed orders in and looking forward to next year.

This year has made me think about what crops have been a complete waste of time like a large bed of squash and pumpkins and what crops will be more useful. Thinking about it, the rogue pumpkin that grew in the compost heap the year before was so huge that we've only just used up the last tub of pumpkin soup, so perhaps just growing one in the compost could be a good use of space.

Anyway - glad to hear you've cheered up Alan
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Clive.
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At last,
I have just added up "my" seed order...sat at this fiddling little laptop :?

Has it stopped raining yet.......

Clive.
sally wright
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Dear All,
here is a little ditty I made up a couple of years ago.

Oh Lord won't you give me a bottomless purse,
the seed lists have landed, oh my they're a curse,
they're full of cute pictures and that just makes it worse,
oh Lord won't you give me a bottomless purse.

this can be sung to the Janis Joplin song tune about a mercedes car.
Have fun with the catalogues!
Regards Sally Wright.
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Primrose
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I've made up my mind to ignore the various seed catalogues which have arrived this year. I have two boxes of half used seed packets which need using up. Tempting as it is to continually experiment with new varieties as I've done in the past, it's quite a waste of money just using half a dozen seeds from an untried tomato variety for example, when I have about 15 barely used tomato seeds packets already open.

Add that up across all the seed packets I use in the course of a year and I have to ask myself if the value of the vegs I grow equates to the amount I've shelled out on seed packets!
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