Here's a quote from you on another thread:

"Well, I'm sorry it was so bad for you. If it's any consolation, everyone probably has these same experiences."

So, if it's any consolation....

(Now this is meant to be a joke so don't get upset.) (:

Greg
Southern Nevada

Get gardening mates, Dennis. I will never garden alone again. It is not just that, if a load of cinder blocks comes in, there is going to be four or seven pairs of hands taking care of them (I would burn out in the past, on such a project). It is the frequent visitors, the fact that you can go on vacation secure that someone will take care of it while you are gone, the shared appreciation for a great tomato, the fact that you can forget about spraying BT because someone else made it their responsibility.

You have enough produce that you can bring in an entire family. The only really important thing is that they have a good attitude.

And fortify, fortify, fortify. Drip, drip drip. Mulch mulch mulch. Avoid anything that does not grow well like the plague.

Hi Dennis

I can not believe that you are feeling this way, don't worry it will pass...it must be heat that we are all experiencing this summer.

I look up to you, you are the first one that likes to try new things and have a lot of knowledge about veggies.

It helps me that I have a little garden,lol, then is workable for me to do, sometimes when I wish for a big garden and all the work involved, I change my mind.:)

Silvia

I just bought an ipod so I can listen to Christian music while I garden. My DD down loaded it for me. It has helped alot!!

Every year, i have promises from family and friends and significant other to help with the weeding, harvesting, canning etc....but it's always just this little red hen out there getting repetitive motion injuries...

I'll bring the salsa and chips for the pity party, i see you already have a selection of whine, but i'm goin for the bloody (fingers)Mary. ;~)

Denni,

We decided to turn our neglected hayfield into an orchard/berry/market farm three years ago. Since then, it has been destroyed every year by monsoons. Financially, my wife lost two jobs and we've been wiped out four out of the last five by medical bills. I lost 240 cole crops to rabbits/deer. Lost three plantings beets, English peas, snowpeas, all lettuces, kohlrabi, 120 lbs seed potatoes, 180 raspberry plants, 2 cherry trees, 2 peach trees, 2 apple trees, 1 plum, 35 blackberries, 9 gooseberries, 11 rhubarb, 6 blueberries,all spinach, chard, mowed down nearly 2,000 onions, replanted winter squash and pumpkins 3 times, lost 9 50 ft rows of beans to weeds, same w/40 pepper plants, 60 assorted tomatoes,lost all ornamental corn and glads, popcorn. The weeds and diseases have thrived, however. I could go on, but---. I still love it and can't wait till next year.

Brook

Sometimes gardening can become like that. It just gets overwhelming. It is work you know and as much as we love it there comes a time when we all feel that way. I'll bet you have felt that way about other things too--I know I have.

Give it time! I'll bet by February you are planning are going to plant in spring. Once the garden bug hits it's hard to get rid of it.

I know just what you mean, it does get tiring when you have 3000 other things to do. I have raised beds for my vegetables so that is not much of a problem but I was a big daylily person, growing and selling, other things didn't let me take care of the beds like I should have and they got UGLY.
First of the month I mowed down a huge daylily bed and am turning it back to grass. It looks so much better to me now and a lot less work. I still have the other huge bed but that is all spiders so am saving it but every once in a while I look at it and think about mowing down the last 100 daylilies.

Yeah, I know where you're coming from there

I don't quite hate gardening yet,
but I sure do hate all the darned little biting insects that attack me as I garden

BTW, does anyone happen to know the symptoms for malaria?
(Yes, I know it's wildly unlikely)

I get like this sometimes. I know I have plenty to do, but it just doesn't seem worthwhile to get out and weed, thin, trim, etc. It does help if I get things done in small batches, mix them up with indoor chores or pure fun, and remind myself that the garden doesn't have to be perfect.

Also, when I do get around to doing things, like weed-whacking between rows the other day, I can look around and say, "Well, that sucked, but it looks great." Sometimes you just have to get over the hump ... or decide not to for a few days or a couple of weeks, and not beat yourself up over it. Or scale back your ambitions, decide to just do the one or two most important things, and chuck the rest for now.

The most demoralizing for me is when I say on Sunday, "I'm going to get that fall planting done on Tuesday." Then Tuesday rolls around, the planting doesn't get done, and then I say to myself, "Well, it didn't get done Tuesday, Tuesday's gone, so now it will get done ... never!" That's when it's time for an ice cream cone, a pitcher of iced tea, and a change of scenery.

I don't hate gardening; but, it's the "waiting time". Nothings ready and I have major projects that I just can't get around to starting. Of course, there are the cherries and apples to harvest and process -- they seem more of a chore to be dealt with than a bounty.

Deni,

Hope that it is temporary. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said burned out. It has been a bit warm here this year, but just remember last year. We may have another cool one next year.

When I start to feel burned out on one hobby I often spend more time on one of my other hobbies until I get over it. Or go shopping for some new item for your garden :-) The tree prices are already starting to get reduced this year.

Nam

I think talking with other friends about gardening might helps. The other day I mentioned to my husband that I thought it might all be too much work (and I don't have a large garden and I'm not doing canning) but he said I would miss it and he loves the fresh veggies. We live on a former farm and lease fields to a local farmer and DH cuts our firewood off the property but he said it needs to have a vegetable garden to honor its heritage.

I have an office job so I'm listening to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle during my commute. Maybe it would help to read or listen to the book.

Denni,

I know exactly how you feel. Last year in the 2nd week of July something came over me and I hated everything. I live on 9 acres with thousands of perrennials in beds, 5 acres of grass to mow and a 60 X 100 foot vegetable garden. There was canning to do, weeding to be done, wood to be cut, and on and on and on.

As you can imagine there was tons of work to do, I felt like I had no help and I was thoroughly disgusted. I too had a pity party. And boy, was it a party! I decided to sit in the rocking chair on the front porch with a glass of tea (I don't drink alchol) and let it all go to hxxx. Well, I sat and I sat and I sat. For days and then weeks. And it all went to hxxx. I didn't can my tomatoes, the beans dried up on the vine, I barely made it to work everyday and was just burned out on everything. I loaded up my wagon with the tomatoes and went down our road and gave boxes away to who ever would take them. I invited friends and family to pick the beans and take them home.

I cleaned up the garden in the fall and walked off from it not knowing what this year would hold. I didn't know if I would ever come up from the funk I was going through and wether I would ever want to garden again.

But you know what? I was as invigorated this spring as I have ever been. I approached my gardening with a new vigor and attitude. I determined that I was going to do what I could, and what didn't get done, didn't get done.

I definately went through a time of depression but by walking away it was therepy for me. I would sit and think about how much I love my gardening and what it means to me. I decided even though I was burnt out on gardening it is my love. It is what keeps me going.

So, please, please, please hang in there. If it helps sit on the porch with a glass of tea and let go of it this year. No harm done. Trust me. Clean it all up and rest for the rest of the year.

Above all, take care of yourself and let's see what the future holds.

Sundrops in Southern Indiana

I feel like that often, especially mid to late summer. I really, really REALLY dislike gardening in South Carolina (well, living here too sometimes but that's a bit off topic)...I would move back to PA in a heartbeat if we could...each summer we go up to visit and my relatives have gorgeous, lush green productive gardens...come back here and everything is fried and invaded by bugs...the tradeoff of slightly earlier yields does not seem worth it to me at times. We have to deal with the pickleworm, several generations of SVBs and other pests/diseases in such great numbers that I get greatly discouraged and sometimes wonder why I bother at all. Yet for some reason I keep it on.

You're not ALONE! I've thought the same thing MANY times. Its a lot of work and little things can really screw it up. I've started getting more into flowers/tropicals/etc and that is maybe where i'm headed. Get rid of some of the fruits/veggies and stick with what i like and what is easy.

Sometimes less is better.

I guess that I'm different than a lot of people in that I love growing and work on it everyday. Oh, I've had many problems as others experience, (it's not easy growing in a desert climate), but I just use it as a learning experience. I guess what discourages me the most is the wind, I hate it and it seems to blow all the time anymore. There's definitely changes that are taking place in our weather patterns around here, that's for sure. Keep plugging-away at it, denninmi you'll get back in to it.

Greg
Southern Nevada

I feel this way every August. Everything is either dried up or looking ragged. So, I let it go for a couple of weeks. Read a (non-gardening) book. Eventually, I'll start reading gardening books again, browse the gardening centers, make fall garden plans, and I've found my second wind.

It's ok to be discouraged. Gardening is hard work. Take some time off and get a new goal in mind.

I love it too like Greg. About the only times I neglected gardening was when I was 20-22 years old. That has been over 50 years ago.

Like a kid with a new toy, I just got 12 cu. yds. of sand delivered a while ago. i plan to add about that much local spaghnum peat moss to it building another large bed...mixed into the good topsoil....and toping off some other beds.

The dog days.

You know, you really don't have to garden. It's OK if you till it all under and pave it. It's not quitting; it's going on to do something else.

One thing I've discovered in my long life is that it is very easy to turn a hobby into work. You get too involved, take on too much, try to make a little money with it. Then your hobby is ruined.

Gardening is one of those things which can very easily be turned from a hobby into too much hard work. Instead of 4 tomato plants, how about these 10 new varieties I want to try? I grew too many beans, now I have to can. (No you don't. Turn them into compost).

I have a couple of rules for myself:

Grow only what my family will eat. That means I don't have to feed all my relatives and the entire neighborhood.

Grow only things that meet two criteria. They are very expensive to buy and they are much better home grown. (the exception to the rule is zucchini)

If it's cheap, I will buy instead of growing it. If the market stuff tastes just fine, I will buy instead of growing it.

There aren't enough hours in the day to home raise everything my family eats. I use my gardening hours to grow high value items. I grow fruit. I grow berries, I grow tomatoes. Stuff you can't get from the store, or stuff that doesn't taste good from the store.

Yes, what everybody else said... And,

It's the heat. It's even hot at 6:00 a.m.!
The end of summer is approaching.
The lush, green is getting mighty ragged around the edges. The tomatoes are turning brown from the bottom up and the bottom is getting mighty high.
The melons are full of worms and the beans get tough before they get long.
The flowers are getting mildew and starting to flop from the center, even though I cut them back last month. And for pete's sake how did flea beetles get into the zinnias!
I am SICK of cooking and eating squash! Ditto beans and cucumbers.

This is all normal.
I'm with sundrops. Give yourself permission to sit on the porch and let it go.
If some fresh green will help, plant a fall garden. If it won't, mow it down and cover it with newspaper and mulch, or even wait for the snow to cover it!

You're among friends here....Just think and type for awhile and let the work go. :)

I am almost laughing because I see myself in so many of these posts. I have a small garden with many containers of veggies and tomatoes. The tomatoes have done so well that the freezer is full of roasted tomato sauce/slices. I have cooked them, served them in so many ways that there are tomatoes about to rot on my counter and I don't really feel very bad about that - only that I didn't donate them to the food shelf and the garbage guy came today.

We've had a lot of dishes with tomatoes and the only one we are not tired of is the pizza with the eggplant and cherry tomatoes that I cook on Friday.

I think when we get up at the crack of dawn to harvest and water and look at the same thing day after day after day - it isn't so hard to understand that we get tired of it.

I have taken the tomato plants down one at a time and I am looking at a couple of them and thinking that those tomatoes just aren't going to ripen. OK, so what if they could. I am tired of tending them and especially since there are so few of them now, I could just let them go.

I am ready to let them all go and enjoy the rest of the summer and early fall. I need a break. I want to sit out in my back yard and not have to think about whatever might be growing or needing me. I NEED some time to enjoy life.

I started my first seedlings back in late January and by golly it is time to relax.

My hubby is a bit surprised because I love to garden - but it is time to sit back, kick back and relax and enjoy the sun, the sunset, the lake, read, write those overdue letters and make some phone calls that don't update anyone on the garden or weather.

Free at last!! ;-) ;-) ;-)

I try to cut back on the garden every year. But in spring, I'm shortsighted and plant too much.
Usually by July, when the weeds are taller than the plants, it just is all too much for me. I get very discouraged.
Fortunately, my husband loves to weed. (Can you believe that??? What's wrong with him???) haha
I have so much that goes to waste in the garden, because I'm just too tired to pick it and do anything with it.
It DOES become a burden.
So I say cut back next year, and mulch the heck out of it early in the season. And just accept that weeds are gonna happen, but some of the produce is still salvageable.
I don't know about some of you, but gardening has always sort of defined me. When I think about cutting back, or even giving it up for a season, I feel very insecure about who I am! I know that's silly. Because if something no longer gives you pleasure, then why do it?
Anyhow......next year, be brave, and try to plant less.
I don't know about your weather this summer, but here has been above 90 and extremely humid alot of the time.
Who the heck wants to work out in that??
Try not to be too discouraged.

I'm sitting here laughing as I read the above posts, by this time of the year I am what I refer to as "summered out" although I really don't like the cold weather.

This summer has been good for the growth and production of eggplants, onions, and a few tomato plants that I have in pots. The tomato bed, where my mainstay plants are looks like YUCK, very little production, and basically just getting through the summer. Its just been too hot all summer, and many plants took a beating. Yes, by February I'll be itching to get back outside and plant, but in the meantime...I'm tired!!

Alberta

All of you back east guys have had big time heat! (and humidity blegthththt), but also huge returns!
Someone said their cuke plant grew OVER the roof?!?!?
We in No Ca have had 75* TOPS for most of the summer! It should have been 85-90* most of July and Aug.
I have yet to see a full sized tomato in August! I've picked several zuks/yellow squash, some GBs (about 20) etc etc
Hopefully a "heat wave" this week!
I'm hoping/planning for a winter garden!
For ever gardening Nancy

Suddenly, I just love my garden.

I, too, am one of those people who want to redo their whole garden in April. But by June I am already slowing down, and in July I positively only want to pick. Another reason to mulch and do a drip irrigation setup: it takes away the deep summer chores (weeding and watering).

I think I can understand how having a hot hot summer could burn you out. Here in Northern CA, we have had a very pleasant summer, with not one day over the mid-80 degree mark, which is very unusual. In previous years though, I remember how heat waves would make me very tired. Maybe the heat has just worn you down?
The disappointment this season has been squirrels decimating the tomatoes. Oy! That makes me tired.
On the other hand, several other crops have been fantastic, like potatoes & peppers. My zinnia bed has almost neon colors. Wow! And I have some plans for new areas to put into practice. So, you know, if you're enjoying it, it makes it fun. If you're not enjoying it, take a break from it. You'll be back. Gardeners are optimists after all.

I do NO watering or weeding..none. I have so much mulch down (woodchips) that weeds don't come up. Its the only way to do it. The watering? this is Wisconsin. No water needed. I've had 20 inches of rain since June 1st. We get too much water it seems in the summer. Its just the heat, the shortening days and the never ending tomatoes that just won't stop coming! I just filled a huge bag of paste tomatoes to ship off to my wife's work. Those freeloaders can eat them!

I chopped 3 tomatoes plants because of this thread. Start composting the vines, bury the unripe tomatoes and lay new mulch/fertilize and be done! 20 tomato plants is way too many for me to handle (along with a zillion fruit trees/bushes/vines and 2 young kids).

Sometimes i wish i would spend more time hunting deer, since i prefer burgers and steak!

Maybe it's the 'routine work' that's getting to you? That's what bothers me this time of year.

I'm spending time trying to figure out how to lessen the routine stuff. (Weeding & watering & pest/disease control).

I just added a rear tine tiller to go with my mini tiller. I'm looking at putting in drip irrigation (or at least getting a faucet out to my garden).

Hope you get out of this funk!

Routine work in hot weather is just awful. I can totally feel your pain as my season has been a lot like that, too. I skimped on watering because of this. Luckily, we did get a fair amount of rain, so whatever harm done is negligible (except for a bunch of split tomatoes).

I will try to be practical. Try growing less varieties and larger amounts. This will decrease the number of tasks you need to perform regularly. Grow varieties that don't require a lot of care. Beans and cucumber are very forgiving and low maintenance plants. Broccoli is a pain in the butt (I wilted away in the hot sun picking worms off mine with a tweezer).

And the advice about gardening buddies is gold. Having people to discuss and compare your garden with feeds your soul and is big time motivation. Getting a hand is a lot of saved elbow juice (but offer your own elbow juice in exchange). My zucchini was a disaster this year, and my gardening buddy just around the corner has been giving me some of hers. I give her cherry tomatoes which are working awesome for me but not working at all for her. This heals a lot of gardening wounds both ways. My gardening buddy is quite old so she can't double-dig--I will give her a hand with that next spring. She will give me her overload of chives, and to me, that is pay enough (I can never have enough chives).

Also, try getting your chores done before nine in the morning. The weather is much easier on you in the morning and you get more stuff done in less time. Plus, you are more relaxed and rested in the morning, so you are stronger and more enthusiastic. Gardening in the evening is a drag!

Brook, I am clipping your post. I will read it every time I shake a fist at my garden. I guess two things can keep one going: thinking that it could still be worse and picturing the vegetable-to-be on a nice plate when you are about to eat it.

I also talk to my plants, and I talk to (or yell at) pests as well. The former seems to work, the latter gives me a hint that pests really don't speak English at all.

Yep, you sound burned out D.

I had same issue with animals. Rabbit's ate all my beans before they got started. Whole season I got one serving of beans.

Lettuces refuses to grow with the hot humid days and merciless sun.

Luckily rabbits did not eat mustard's...that is what I use for lettuces.

Anyway, I just keep going and learning best I can.

Next year will scale back some on the growing. I had to give away most of my tomatoes, peppers and ground cherries and lots of other stuff. Don't have the time to grow lots of food and pick it just to give away.

I wrote a thread here on simplicity and the garden. Got lots of replies from people that love their gardens

Well, I like gardens a little. But my main reason for a garden is to get healthy food low on poisons. If I could go to Kroger's to buy my produce as one replier mentioned, I would. But markets sell sh... for food nowadays. So I have to grow my own...not out of love...but out of necessity.

My problem with the garden is that I have many activities that I don't have time for since the garden takes up so much time. Things like, yoga, inline skating, longboarding, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, scuba, snow sports, mountain boarding, tree climbing, weight training.

...just between mediation, yoga, aerobics, weights and cooking healthy food most of the day is shot

Now I decided to mix my 3 carrot seed packs into 1 and 8 greens packs into 1. (so I don't have to juggle 8 jars of greens or 3 jars of carrots seeds.) But these simplifying areas are just small things. I got to extend simplicity to many other areas of growing food to make a dent in my time problems.

In the old days I used to write a lot about simplicity. I had a favourite saying for those not clued into what voluntary simplicity was. In a nutshell VS means...if you can't keep up...you scale back until you can keep up.

Now, only you know if your overextended D. You may just be depressed with setbacks I don't know.

But give it some 'testing' and see what feels best.

And if VS is not it, then trying adding 'more complexities' with the garden and see if that help cheer you up?

Good luck in finding the answer and thanks for all the help you have offered to us lost gardeners.

"When the sun rises I go to work,
When the sun goes down, I take my rest,
I dig the well from which I drink,
I farm the soil that yields my food,
I share creation, Kings can do no more."

Ancient Chinese, 2500 BC

Go ahead and bulldoz it! It's not your livelihood, it's something you do for enjoyment. If you're not enjoying it, get of it! There's always next year. Do what you enjoy.

So many responses show that what you are experiencing is pretty common. A few things come to mind that may help.
[1] Give yourself permission to just quite, and REALLY mean it. Sometimes that's all that's needed.
[2] Burn out can also come from vitamine deficiency. Most of us tend to be careless in this regard. Maybe a few vitamine tabs will rejuvinate your enthusism.
[3] The famed gardener, Ruth Stout, used to garden in the nude. If you try it, the subsequent legal hassles will make your present disaffection seem mild. :]

I've tried that livening things up by gardening in the nude, Barb!

But, the only part of the garden that was well-tended after awhile was the corn patch!

Sunburn too! Living thru sunburn can be real distracting . . .

Steve

Sorry if all these optimists have spoiled your pity party. I'll join you, so you do not feel like the Lone Ranger.

Animals and heat could not be as bad as my rainfall pattern. I had two feet of rain between ice-out, and my normal planting date. I got nothing planted until mid-June or later. Could never till in last year's corn stalks, or till enough to rake up raised rows.

Everything was planted a full month and a half later than normal, and very little will ripen or produce. My tomato seedlings were 3 ft. tall when I planted them out. Peppers were 16" tall.

Then, it has been 100F or higher almost every day since Mid June.

Nothing will produce much this summer. Most were planted too late, the rest have been cooked. At least the animals won't touch it. It has burned up. Got part of a corn crop, tomatoes won't set fruit. Might have some decent sweet peppers if I don't get an early freeze.

I also would like my garden cleared off, so I can start preparing it for next year. This year was just wasted effort.