The 100% factor

[Silentrunning]

Most of my adult life I have tried to give 100% in all that I do. I guess I am atoning for my very misspent youth. I have always been disappointed when I have not received perfect results. In the last few years I have had to temper my expectations thanks to gardening. Gardening is one of the few endeavors where you can do absolutely everything right and still come up with less than satisfactory results. As I plant my seeds for my spring garden this becomes painfully obvious. My tomato seeds came through with flying colors - 100% germination. My peppers less than 50%. Summer squash came in at 100%, red cabbage only 60%. I know the animals, lack of rain and dozens of other factors will work against my crops. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth the humiliation. It is very humbling to figure how far below 100% my success factor is.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Ok cowboy, I am here to drop some KungFu Monk on you. What you have done at 1.oo did not come back because while the world is perfectly balanced you are obviously not. This is simply a lack of understanding. While the world does not require understanding, because IT IS, you do, and it's a buttload of work to get it figured. I sincerely hope nobody has said this to you before because it is my sincere hope you always have something important to occupy your mind.

 

[alp]

Ok cowboy

Excuse me, I have the patent to that name!

Gardening, just like any other thing, is a convergent result of a number of diverse factors - seed quality, soil, water, temperature, sunshine, timing, or even terroir, apart from being results of trial and errors. You have to look at the stuff sold at shops to realise that to be that perfect, you need a lot of technology, controls and calibrations in a lot of things. I never strive for 100%. I am happy just get to see plants mature and smile at me. I don't even care about how many flowers I have. As long as I can keep the plants going, I am happy.

 

[Becky]

Sometimes there are things that are outside your control, and that's fine. You can still control how you deal with the situation, so when things go wrong don't view it as a failure, view it as an opportunity to learn. After all, we learn more from our mistakes than our successes

 

[alp]

100% has something to do with OCD. People like David Beckham like to perform to 100% perfection and have control over their every action. I am pretty sure tennis player like Federer, Agassi, or sports personalities all tend to want to be 100% and might be OCD perfectionists. I wonder if all the snooker players are OCD sufferers/perfectionists!

 

[Tjohn]

Look at it this way.... if you got anything to eat from even one of your plants, that is a 100% result!

 

[Sean Regan]

I've always worked on the basis of. "If at first you don't succeed, give up and do something else."
Life's too short to worry about it.

 

[marlingardener]

Even if your plants don't perform as you wanted or expected, you got out into the sunshine, got to dig in the dirt, and perhaps harvest a vegetable or make a bouquet from your flowers.
I settle for what I get, am grateful. There is more to gardening than a success rate!

 

[Sean Regan]

There's surprises in gardening, well there is for me. Sometimes something comes up that I don't remember planting, usually bulbs.