SHOULD I GIVE UP?

Am I the only one disappointed with their yard and gardens this year?  I know some areas have had much more rain than us, so perhaps your properties look a lot better than mine - but I really feel like I am beating my head upon a brick wall this year.

Nothings is growing... things that I transplanted that I had grown indoors by early seeding are just about the same size as when I put them in the garden.  Things that I direct sewed into the garden are spotty - some things - like carrots - I have sewn 3 times and still not a sprout.  Other things like beans, maybe half came up, and the things that did come up, are just not progressing.

Once again I have an entire garden filled with portulaca, and I have actually taken the tiller to the garden and tilled all the open spaces.  I have ants everywhere, I have cutworms everywhere, spiders killing my cherry tree and my birch tree, a neighbours cat using my beds as his personal toilet,  dead grass, and straight line winds that have broken most of the tall perennials down in my shed bed.

I have birds that live in my strawberry patch, and some that have set up shop in my Saskatoon tree!

Oh and I forgot, worse of all - I have very few pollinators!

Yes - I am royally fed up.  I am about ready to take the tiller to the whole yard and be done with it.

BUT

Then I come across something like these little beauties...

Beauty in spite of the drought, ants, spiders, wind and lack of bees, choking weeds...  How can I give up, when they haven't?

I can water everything to curb the effects of the drought - but treated water is not the best, and I have a lot of property to water - not sure it's really worth the expense.

I can attract pollinators ( another blog coming up about that)

I can try and kill ants, and I have killed a lot - but you just get one hill down and another forms in another spot.

I can pulls weeds, and I have been doing that every day, but where to start when they are everywhere.  I also could mulch, and that is something I want to do - but without vegetation growing, not much mulch is produced.

I delight in hacking cutworms to bits - if I dig one up - I go into terminator mode.

I could do the same with the neighbours cat - but it is someones pet after all... I have nothing against cats - I like them - just not pooping in MY yard!

I can't do anything about damaging straight line winds, except bawl when I have to cut back plants that should bloom for another 4 weeks or so.

The birds - well to tell the truth, it cracks me up when I go outside and see a head pop up out of the middle of my strawberry patch - and then disappear again, because they are not quite done!  The cheeks!

We netted the Saskatoon bush but the birds  flew up from the bottom and went inside anyway.

I love my birds and I don't really care if they get some fruit - I don't have enough from either source to do anything with anyhow....

My biggest problem is not any of these things.  If I could be outside all day to stick with these tasks, I would gladly be outside all day and get them all done.  But I can't do that with the extreeme heat we have had for the past 6 weeks.   I just can't tolerate the heat, so I work in the early morning, and late evening... or on a breezy day.  But it's not enough.

SO

Should I give up?

You see - I come from a very long line of very stubborn people (on both sides of my family).  At times like this I am very thankful for that fact.

And - if those little beauties up there aren't gonna give up - then I'm not going to either.