Ianna, that's what lawn chairs are for. Relax, sit and enjoy your garden as it is. When the mood strikes you'll be at it again. I got bummed with the flowers for two years because of drought. Didn't last long. Now I'm a planting fool!

I do sometimes in Spring because of the chores that need to be done. Seems by the time I cross everything off my list, the flowers have bloomed and I didn't get the chance to delight in them. So like girlgroupgirl said, relax when you have the chance and the ideas will come.

They are giving you good advice which I need to follow!

If I don't get the rest of the blasted seeds planted, who cares. When I get behind I get frazzled and frustrated and very tired, so I know how you feel. Mine isn't really boredom just trying to do too much with early spring weather that didn't cooperate.

I do a little bit each day but I am going to relax and not beat myself up if I fail at getting it all done!

Read a good book, drink a cool beverage of choice and enjoy what you do have. There will always be next year.

I know the feeling you speak of. Like GGG, I got kind of burnt out because of the drought here in Ga. I'm SO glad it is apparently over. Of course everyone is different, but what inspires me is to take a couple of hours and go to a really good nursery/garden center and just browse. Also a good gardening magazine does it for me.
Vicki

Don't worry. I was ill one gardening season and my garden plants just waited for me. Just remember to water if you can.

Libby

I actually started a garden "blog" at blogspot a few weeks ago. It has been a real pleasure and lets me express in writing exactly how I am feeling about my gardens and flowers and where I am or "am not" in my gardening process. I also read several of the wonderful garden blogs lots of the posters on GardenWeb have and that encourages me and also gives me a real reason to just reflect on my own plants and how I feel about them at any given time. I will be able to look back next year or this fall and read and see photos of what was going on with me this summer. I really find it helpful when I am feeling over burdened or mildly bored or stressed. Everything seems to take on a lighter tone when you write it down and then re -read it a few days later.

For me, gardening is a creative release. So, when I feel burned out, I usually design another bed! :) Just the thought of planning and designing what I can 'see' in my mind as beautiful lifts my spirits. Of course, that involves a lot of 'research' - reading gardening books, looking at other people's yard to see what I like, browsing around to see what grows well here, etc.
Then - if the beds 'have' to be weeded, or whatever, I will do that first before starting somthing new. But, I find I can do it with a cheerful heart knowing that I will soon be putting in another little place of beauty and joy. :)

Sometimes it also helps to come up with an alternate "ego" - a hobby that takes you in a different direction. I'd rather be in the garden than to sew or read most of the time, but variety is a good thing. I love to make children's costumes - easy sewing, no pressure for fit, and the under 6's love to play in them all year. You can sew a sweatshirt for a child and a matching one for a loved stuffed animal or doll also (or a matching costume).

It could be that your percolating some new ideas in the back of your mind. Maybe everything looks boring to you because somewhere in your subconscious you are looking for a change. I say go ahead and don't like your garden. Think whatever evil thoughts you want to about it. Ask yourself what you might like instead. Maybe your just plain ready for a big sweeping change.
And if that idea is just too overwhelming or ridiculous to consider... then grab a cool drink, a good book and enjoy the summer like a sane person.

Everyone here has said something that rings true about my experience. I do have something percolating but nothing has popped up so far. I am very much a tinkerer and so cannot sit still and do nothing. I also have a day job and long commute back and forth adding to my exhaustion and burnt out feeling. Perhaps as joydveenc suggested I should take up another hobby for the meantime. I'll seriously think about that and see what else I could do. I'm into art and love to scout around for used or reclaimed things I can craft into some form of garden art.

Thanks everyone. I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way.

I get frustrated because there is so much I want to do but I get tired so easily, and so many other chores ...
A couple of years ago I had low-iron anemia, and although I've got my blood count up, I think my iron stores are still low. I think that's why I'm easily wiped out. But gardening even in little bursts and stops helps me get stronger.
I do get re-inspired when I visit someone else's garden, or one of the beautiful public gardens.

Gardening burn out?
Only my body!

I am worn slap out!

~Annie

Anyone who is a gardener has a creative bent. So another outlet for that creativity is good. When I get tired of having my behind in the air out in the garden, I usually start something inside the house, for I, too, cannot sit still and do nothing. Get that closet cleaned out, get that room painted, build "just one more trellis", blah, blah, blah. I have learned woodworking and love it as much as gardening.

But I also gained perspective from my grown daughters. They tell me I have become a "lollygagger" in the garden, as opposed to the slavedriver they all knew and loved ;-) when they were growing up. My husband says I have finally learned that "it's the journey, not the destination". Little do all of them know that my mind is willing, but it's my body that won't cooperate anymore.

But most of all, let's all just enjoy what we have worked so hard to create.

Peace! -- Marcy

Marcy,

How aptly put. It is the journey that I'm attached to and not the destination. I was happiest digging out a new garden bed, carrying heavy loads of soil and manure and digging in new plants than I am now just watching my garden grow. I guess the idea that I'm almost at the end of that journey is somewhat depressing. It makes me want to do things all over again... hahaha.. but I'm sure my husband & my 7 year old daughter will have a fit if I do that.

Speaking about woodworking... how'd you start out? I would love to build things with my hands and maybe I can get into this as a hobby.

Ianna

I have gardening slump days too. I think it is that we are physically just tired and aren't aware of it. I will walk out into the garden to work, but I just stand there - I just don't FEEL like doing anything, so I just stand there for the longest time. There is so much that needs my attention, but I just don't feel like messing with it for some reason. Often, that means I need to rest. My mind is shutting me down because I refuse to listen to my worn out body.

I can get physically and /or mentally exhausted from one thing or another. We lived in a stress-filled world today. I have to take time to rest from my labors and cares and do something that is pleasing and not so physically or emotionally stressful. I have many other interests, so I take the time to rest up - the garden will be there waiting for me.

And the first thing I know, I am back at it again, digging away and loving every gritty minute of it.

~Annie

Here it has been a hurry up and wait game. We've had frost, or threat of, most nights - including tonight. There is such a small window between safe planting and very hot. I need to remember to enjoy what I'm doing and that's its not about a finished product. I'm sure your "fever" will come back around soon.

Oh, yes. Last year after attending my son's wedding reception in his father's southern California garden I came back to my struggling flowerbeds with a sense of absolute hopelessness. It didn't help that that CA garden used to be mine.

Here in late July in South Carolina with temperatures routinely reaching 105-110 and my white sand "soil" unable to cling to any moisture, you can only imagine what a contrast I saw. It made no difference to know that the CA garden is maintained by a crew of gardeners while mine limps along with the time I can spend on weekends between housework and other obligations. Logic had nothing to do with it. I was simply so discouraged that I not only lost my gardening vibe I'd have to say I really became depressed.

That lasted on through the late summer and fall. I did nothing more in the garden. Throughout the winter when I would have been starting seeds...nothing! Since gardening is really the only thing I do "for fun" I was beginning to really worry about what would become of me if I couldn't take pleasure in that anymore.

What turned the tide was the garden itself. This spring the perennials simply outdid themselves. So many other plants reseeded themselves in places I would never have thought to put them. It is almost as if I, too, have a crew of invisible gardeners helping out (by the light of the moon, no doubt). Seeing how hard my dear old garden was trying lifted my spirits like nothing else.

You have good advice from the others for your situation. I'll just be hoping that the garden nymphs with be good to you, too.

I wouldn't say that I have gardening burn out but I do tire quicker (65 this July) and I am mentally and emotionally tired - have had my mom under hospice care in my home for 16months now so my gardening is done around her schedule and current health status and we have had many scares since the beginning of the year. My greatest relaxation is being in the garden but my mind is always in the house wondering how she is doing - it is a catch 22 but Mom will always come first - the gardens will wait or be rejuvinated when the time comes. The time I do spend inside I always have a garden book or magazine within arms length and I share my garden dreams with her since she gave me my love for gardening. Now that I have a lap top I take it into her room and share with her many of the GardenWeb gardens plus pictures from my gardens that she can't see from her window ......

Lynne

I'm often dissatisfied with how my garden looks...especially now, when the big spring show (old roses, irises) is over and nothing much is really happening. I look out there and think "This is supposed to be flowery and beautiful and it's just one big disappointment!" There's all the clean-up and deadheading to do now and it sometimes seems not worth it.
But then I go buy a new plant and it makes me hopeful again. ;-)

Thanks everyone. You've been very helpful. This is akin to self exploration but with a gardening twist to it - it's almost spiritual ha?.

I started to feel somewhat better yesterday. I was walking along a path while on a lunch break and chanced upon a wild garden planted beside a century old brick building. Overgrown weeds growing among invasive perennials.. Still within this mess there were treasures, a beautful 2 toned bearded iris and a giant angelica. Although this area was generally messy, there was a WOW factor. I'm thinking of approaching the owner possibly next week to see if I can purchase a corm of the iris. I think this plant could become a central focus plant in that unfinished bed I'd mentioned earlier.

Ianna

Ianna --

Your story of the overgrown garden with the iris and angelica reminded me of my favorite lecture to myself whenever I am feeling out-of-sorts about anything: "Bloom where you are planted, Marcy, bloom where you are planted."

My woodworking started because of the workshop full of power tools gathering dust. I finally realized I had much more interest in it than did my husband, who loves to golf. I made him show me the basics of working with all the power tools, bought woodworking magazines with easy projects that interested me and off I went. Now I don't even have to try to tell anyone what is in my head, I can do it myself. Very empowering, if I may say so ;-) I encourage you to try it, if you like working with your hands. The "guys" at the lumberyard have even gotten used to me!

Marcy

I am also recently suffering a burn out, and I know what caused it. I went to a local homes garden tour of 6 homes. I came home and looked around and became depressed. The BIG difference was money. (isn't it always?) Each place looked like a crew of ten and a landscaper came through and took care of everything. A friend and I discussed how disappointed we were in no creativity, or origionality or personality in any of the yards. I see so many more beautiful flowers and yards on this web, than I did that day. For me, I need to focus again on just entertaining myself, what my garden means to me, and my own sense of accomplishment.

As always... no money and great ideas :),

Pat

We are all our own toughest critics. WE notice what others would never catch. WE know what the plan looked like, on paper, in our mind....no one else. THEY see what is, what bloomed, what worked. THEY don't see what we think didn't work, what didn't grow, what didn't flower, or what was the wrong colour.

We need to learn to stop beating ourselves up on this. Bluesunflower, I'm with you part of the way - "then grab a cool drink," and sit down. Close your eyes. Relax. Walk away from it. Go on a garden tour. Then view your garden like it was someone else's.

Nancy. - or, take a hot, fragrant bath, or have a massage.

Marcy, Interestingly, my husband is a golf fanatic and he does have some woodworking tools which I am afraid to touch. But I would like to see what I could with woodwork as well. I'll give it a try.

Pat,Many participants on the garden tour spend ample of hours tidying up their yards and perhaps would hire crews to do much of the work. So yes these are expensive yards to maintain. Unfortunately that leads to a sterilized look to many yards (too HGTV style landscaping). I kind of see why you'd feel all burnt out. Cottage gardening is the antithesis of most landscape gardening style. It's hodgepodge style gardening versus neat and clean. My style is for the hodgepodge look which is why I am into cottage gardening and natural gardening style. So perhaps instead of feeling down about this, choose garden tours that specialize in cottage gardening or eclectic style gardening.