2024-12-30
tags: none
Words: 497 (2 minutes to read)
(This is entry 59 of #100DaysToOffload)
I find that often, when I undertake to do something, I choose to do it in a way without excess or waste, so I perceive. Yet, when I actually do it at that point, it turns out that what I have done is insufficient somehow, or is disappointing.
Let me take a gardening example. At the allotment, instead of going out and buying more wood (which I would consider sort of wasteful, in a sense) I instead chose to try to find whatever scraps I could. However, this leads to my disappointment and the allotment being in a subpar condition: the wood I do have is largely heavily rotted or falling apart, harbouring snails etc., and many borders do not have any wood at all because I couldn't find any to put there. In the end, the allotment ends up considerably worse off for my trying to not do too much.
What prompted this, was me thinking about what I want to put on the paths. I have some black stuff (not plastic, but sort of a biodegradable plastic) and spent a fair bit of money two years ago covering it with bark. The layer of bark is not perfect (I can't spend huge fortunes to get it to the so thick everywhere), and at places the grass is now, after two years, coming through quite strongly. I am not sure fully where the problem is: maybe I didn't lay a thick enough membrane, maybe the material isn't very good, maybe I didn't cover it well enough, maybe also bark does mulch down pretty quickly that I didn't consider. So, anyways, this year I'm going to have to think about my paths - I am not really sure what I want to lay on them. I do have two bags of seashell in the allotment shed, and am thinking of laying this over a piece of the path that is currently just dirt (and grows a lot of grass, so I have to maintain a bit). I'm thinking though: if I just weed down the path and then cover it with the bags of shell, is that enough? Will I not end up with a similar problem a year down the line, when the grass is just growing through all the shell?
I feel as if the approach I normally take to things is the smallest amount I can get away with, which works to an extent, but leads to often disappointing, austere, results. Others instead choose a if I'm doing it, let's do it properly approach, which I think works a lot better in terms of making things look nice, and impressive. It would bring about more pride in one's work, and probably make things a lot easier in the long run.
I wonder if I need to reconsider my way of going about things: stop being so austere, and do things fully, all the way, instead of just so it works? It would be a big shift for me, though.
Food for thought.