Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

It's OK.........Really!

A comment on a Facebook group which I contribute to started me thinking.  It was a question about what veggies you always have trouble growing, so I admitted that I can’t seem to grow garlic. A lady came back and said if I couldn’t grow garlic she felt much better about not being able to grow garlic either. That made me wonder – are we, the hardy band of brothers and sisters who grow our own food, being too hard on ourselves?

From my own point of view I can also remember watching Gardening Australia and the veggie growing guru Peter Cundall. He had a row of cauliflowers and while most were large and lush (would you expect anything less?) there were a couple towards one end of the row which were stunted and not thriving. In a similar manner to the lady above I thought that if that could happen to Peter Cundall I could forgive myself when it happened to me. But why should we need permission to fail? Why does seeing someone more experienced than I am not obtain maximum yield from their efforts make me feel better about myself?

Certainly I have been known to shred myself (figuratively) if I am unable to provide most of the produce for at least our dinner (and hopefully lunch as well!). Putting too much pressure on myself to produce like this tends to suck the fun out of things. And it is supposed to be fun! Let’s face it, growing food has always been a bit of a dodgy business because even with the best will and knowledge in the world there is still so much you cannot control.

Another issue was brought to my attention when we were podding over a friends place the other day. While enthusing about what he had created in his quite large back yard, and how productive it all was he gave me the classic line – “when you look at the back yard you see what I have achieved, when I look I only see what needs to be done!”. Other people see roses when they look at what we have done, we just see thorns. I suspect this is a common thing and the generator of much unnecessary frustration.

So with all this negativity bouncing around, what are we going to do about it? Here are a few suggestions that I am using -

  1. Grow a variety of foodstuffs and accept that in any one year some will do well, and some won’t.
  2. Don’t always keep your nose to the grindstone and shoulder to the wheel, stand up and take a breath, and look back at where you have been and celebrate how far you have come.
  3. Recognise that any food that you grow is beneficial environmentally and economically, and was worth the effort.
  4. Any meal containing even one ingredient which has been home produced is going to be magical.

Above all, when things go wrong like the chooks get out and clear fell the veggie patch or a horde of caterpillars move in and shred the brassicas, remember that such things have happened to all of us at one time or another. And that’s OK…………..Really!

 

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