I give up

[zazen999]

I like thta, I like that a lot.

I cast a chuffin big shadow I do - so watch out bugs!

I like it too....I think Monty used to say that as well...even if you can't do any actual work - just walking round your plot every day or two is essential to keep the bugs and weeds away.

[ginger ninger]

Don't give up, your missing out on so much, this is not just a gardening site, its somewhere you to come when your feeling down, the folk on here will pick you up no end, there my virtual shoulder I like to lean on when my OH looks at me as if I have 2 heads, there funny, mad, witty and above all we don't take ourselves too serious. And the bug's...stamp on em, it's soooo therapeutic.

[lottie dolly]

Well I had this idea to grow veg and fruit this year, I get it every year, but this year I picked up my books I got a few years ago, looked at the huge garden I have as I read an article by carol klein and thought "ok lets get too it", I dug up the garden and wished I had got a rotavator instead of a branded spade, sat down then went to the garden centre where I purchased 2 pear trees, 1 apple tree ( next door has two so pollination was not a concern, and a marjories seedling plum, I threw them in the ground then sat back down with a cup of tea and read GYO ( all my back issues ) a few other mags, and a book or so, I then realised I was in for a hiding to nothing with every pest and disease I read about, I mean lets face it theres more of them than me, and so I give up. It was nice knowing you all. I quit!.

Incidentally if any of you lot are from the magazine I have a real bugbear with you guys, I like looking at piccies in the mag, I like to spot what I think I have, when I see a pic of something interesting I look down, and guess what.....NO caption or description of what I am looking at, I mean come on you al m,ay know what it is in the pic, but many newbies have no idea what their looking at. So can you please put descriptions of that pea or bean or such at the bottom of the piccie..........

momo.

hi momo33,dont' give up,shall we start again,you are in the right section to post a hello and introduce yourself,it's nice when new people do that,then you get a warm welcome that gives you smile,there is always someone to give help and advice,on most things,have a good look around the forum and see for youself,and why not visit the chatty/natter cafe,it's about to get a new name,you will find it at the top of the opening page,or the jokes thread and have a giggle along with the rest of us,

[Incy]

Don't give up. There may be loads of bugs and diseases but if you think about it, loads of people have apples, pears or plum trees in the garden and most get no attention at all and still do fine. We have an apple tree in ours which must have been there for years. As far as we can tell it's never been pruned and it's certainly never been netted, treated etc.. and yet most years we get bumper crops off it.
There is always hope and as others have said, the vine is much more than just a gardening forum, it's a really fun place to hang out with lots of great people.

[coreopsis]

I'll join the majority-don't give up,you can't "learn" gardening from just the magazines,sometimes they offer some advice but at the end of the day it's up to you which way you choose.As for the pictures-ask anybody if their garden produce resembles much all this shiny fruit or veg pictured in the mag.I don't think so.Everybody has their success and failures(as for growing) but don't let the failures to discourage you.Treat them like a challenge-it pays off

[Snadger]

Time for the nations favourite poem! Always brings out the Gazza in me!


IF

The poem

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

—Rudyard Kipling

[HayleyB]

Gawdon Bennett Snadger you DO poetry, wow what a man, but sorry not a fan of Gazza

[piskieinboots]

has it worked? is (s)he still with us?

[Flummery]

Surely a big chap (or chapess) like you isn't going to let a few minute pests and diseases overcome you?
You get good years and bad years for everything.
Not everything happens to every plant every year.
Sometimes, I find that if you don't know about something, it doesn't happen!
Don't try and learn too much at once. I'm a great believer in the power of a good dose of ignorance.
Mainly, have faith in yourself and DON'T PANIC!

[Polly Fouracre]

The thing with a garden, or anything else, is to start small, a bit at a time otherwise you can be overwhelmed. Get a bit of your garden very productive, then cultivate a bit more and a bit more until you desperately need twice as much as you have. Good luck!!

[weekendwellies]

Well, what can you say?
Perhaps if you are put off so easily then gardening isn't for you after all.
I am relatively new to it too, and there have been ups and downs.
Back ache, brassicas eaten by ... something!, sense of depression at never being able to clear my badly overgrown allotment, but then I dig up some spuds, or find a marrow that wasn't even a courgette 5 minutes before, or have wonderfully tasty salad, and all the bad stuff is forgotten instantly.
Give it a little longer, try some other bits and bobs that will give you a quicker crop than fruit trees, and I think you may find that you get hooked like I have been.

[zazen999]

I think what we are trying to say is................

[momo33]

yup I'm still here, live in newbury area, 40ish, too good looking for you lot though, ooh eek erm , yeah I aint really givving up, I just wanted to see how many funny replies it got. now I am really annoyd at them seed packs, it doesnt tell you anywhere on them you have to put them in soil or water and weed them, libertys of them seed producers! i tell you. wonder if you can get a pack of gardeners the kind you pur water on and they grow then do it all for you as you relax with a cup of tea....

[smallblueplanet]

Troll.


.........

[Snadger]

Think I'll take the 5th!