Is it just me or does anyone else feel under pressure for their allotment or garden to look permanently Instagram ready from every angle? We all know this is completely un-realistic in reality but still feel strive to make it look that way or at least tell ourselves it should.
There is 100’s of different filters now available across Instagram and a multitude of apps. They can make you glow, remove spots and smooth every line off your face if you really want to go to the extreme lengths. Apps that make your garden look like it’s a perfect Summer’s day and your dead grass look luscious and green. They can even make you have butterflies flying around your face.
But can they remove the weeds, wilted flowers and bolted lettuce? No!
So what do we do? We stop and be realistic! Forget the close up shots of the last remaining crops and flowers; post the weeds and the true absolute shambles that it really is sometimes. Ok, don’t forget the close-ups, but show the other side too, the side that makes other people feel like they are normal. The side that shows real life gets ahead of us all sometimes.
A number of recent events in my life really got me thinking about this subject and the pressure we all put on ourselves. Not just with how our allotments look but in all matter of every day things.
A conversation with allotment blogger and friend, Richard from Sharpen your Spades; where we both admitted that our plots have certainly seen better days and aren’t exactly looking, let’s say pretty! But do we take photos and include them in blogs and on Instagram posts? No. Why not?!
Secondly, Natalie aka Tulips and Terracotta, came to visit No.27 for the first time at the weekend. She is another fantastic gardening blogger by the way, specialising in container gardening. To me though, she is now a friend, a fab one too.
Before she arrived though, how many times did I feel the need to tell her…it’s an absolute mess?! Too many! Why did I rush up there the day before to try make it look just a little better before she came? Maybe…just because I care or was it the fact that I haven’t posted any shots of the complete plot recently and was apprehensive? Both probably in all honesty.
As soon as I thought about all this, I slapped myself, it’s ridiculous! I started this blog in the hope to inspire, to be that someone who the newbie gardener with no idea could actually relate to and keep things simple! Not the ‘Miss I know everything, look at my fancy pants plot’ kinda lady! That will never be me by the way.
So from today, I will make sure you see warts, weeds and all! The reality of an everyday allotment.
But I’m not doing it on my own…you have to do it as well! So get involved by posting your real view on my Facebook page, or on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #MyRealView.
I will re-tweet all posts and let’s get everyone showing the reality; the good, the bad and just plain ugly. Every corner of the plot, whatever the season or number of weeds.
Are you brave enough?
![IMG_6386[3511]](https://i0.wp.com/lifeatno27.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/img_63863511.jpg?w=264&h=348&ssl=1 "IMG_6386[3511]")
![IMG_6672[3513]](https://i0.wp.com/lifeatno27.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/img_66723513.jpg?w=348&h=348&crop=1&ssl=1 "IMG_6672[3513]")
This makes me feel so much better! We haven’t done much winter prep yet, although I have tidied up quite a few bits. I have avoided photos for the reasons you mentioned!
This makes me feel better too, thank you! I’m a bit vain, and I will admit to making my plot look idealic on social media, and yes I do feel the pressure – which is self generated. I remember asking one of the old boys one day ‘does this look alright?’ and he angrily, ‘Yes, it’s only a bloody allotment!’.. which kind of says it all really. But! In defence of all that, if the idealic photos and pristine plots gets others interested, particularly the vain mellineals – then why not? 🙂
Great idea and for me no problem at all. I love looking at absolutely pristine gardens but however fabulous they might look, the amount of work that takes isn’t really worth it, and I simply haven’t got the time anyway. Gardening doesn’t have to be that much work, for most of us it needs to be a bit more relaxed. I’m happy for my garden to be a bit rough around the edges, have a few weeds, and be a bit wild in parts. There are benefits to the soil and to wildlife by letting nature take its course, with just enough input from us gardeners to manipulate it into increasing the visual appeal and preventing any one thing becoming too dominant etc. The allotment on the other hand is another story! There it’s totally about how much there is to eat and what it tastes like, and I’m not really interested in what it looks like, as is apparent from the pictures already in the Grow Your Own section on my own blog! – I’ll post some new ones soon for #MyRealView. Good on you for letting everyone know it’s ok to be relaxed about how your plot looks, whatever you’re growing.
This is a great post! I often find myself feeling embarrassed of my allotment because there are some parts that I just haven’t got a handle on yet and are constantly weedy, your right I wouldn’t post pictures of these bits purely because I worry what other people would think. There are so many people who post perfect pics and I wonder why my plot doesn’t look like theirs. So I often have to remind myself that my allotment is for me and not for others and the reason I go there is because I enjoy being outside and getting my hands dirty and secretly I love digging weeds out (I find it therapeutic). I’ve started posting more photos recently of the ‘work in progress’ and not just the perfect end product, keepin’ it real!
Your instagram and blog are great by the way 🙂
The joy of allotments is that you never have a perfect plot, at least that’s what I tell myself because otherwise I’d be fretting about the state of mine!
Here here ! As much as I like looking at stunning garden and allotment photos, seeing someone’s real plot is so much more interesting- you can tell a lot about a person by their garden. I don’t trust men with dyed hair or women who wear too much makeup- why would I be any different with overly contrived, composed and filtered gardens? #MyRealView