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The value of sharing
[ 2 minute read ]
Opinion
Sometimes I feel like I am Goldilocks in 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', except I almost never seem to find the porridge that is 'just right'. Too much sun for my tomato plants and too dry for the leaves and flowers. S'alright if you have your own water source but no, I had to carry buckets of water from my bathroom to the end of the garden. Of course, I could have used a dehumidifier to collect water from 30% humidity air and an electric pump to spray a fine mist over the plants; I mean there was enough sun to power them from solar panels. I don't have any solar panels.
Now, just because I didn't buy a bowser to keep water in, it rains a lot; too much. The warm weather and the frequency of rain will likely allow tomato-blight to set in before long.
Oscar Wilde said, 'A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.' or something like that. At this time, I fail to see the value of a wet, mostly clay, garden, if I can't store the water. I am so out of touch with both the old and the modern world. Grow your own should be cheaper than buying the same and I know well that my tomato plants are a financial liability and not an asset, so I can't even monetise them. As a hobby, it seems to be an unrewarding one that usually ends with disappointment (See? the price of everything and the value of nothing.) I am fairly good at using spreadsheets. I could have counted the litres of water and I know the financial cost I pay for it. I could count the picked tomatoes too. However, I feel that I don't want to see the result; the financial cost of each tomato I manage to pick before they rot on the vine.
I have given a selection, from four of the varieties I grow, to Sally, my next door neighbour. So, I have been able to thank her for giving me free eggs by my own hand and labour. I suppose that has some value. Of course it does. One of the best moments in recent days has been collecting the four varieties in the same time frame so I could share them with Sally. She now has a bigger selection than I, because one of the varieties is an heritage one that is not grown commercially and the seeds are not readily available, and I neglected it a bit. Fortunately, it is so 'unhusbanded' that it is not fragile to being dug up, and the 2025 plant continued to grow on my bedroom windowsill over the winter, and produced more plants from careful layering. Success! And the best of it is I managed to give an unusual gift that was produced with my own effort and with no outside interference or assistance.
I know the value of effort and sharing.