A few thoughts on how gardening is helping me take care of my mental health. It’s a journey. It’s a process. I’m not a doctor and this is not professional advice. I’m a fellow human who likes to grow things and this is my experience.
Gardening is teaching me how to balance the past, the present and the future.
One of the ways gardening contributes to my mental health is the way in which “gardener me” manages to tread the fine line between living in the present and planning for the future, while just reflecting (not regretting) on the past.
The month of September is the perfect example of this philosophy. I’m still harvesting my summer crop, while I’m putting seeds in the ground for a fall crop and ordering bulbs for spring.
When I’m puttering around in the garden, I keep a mental list of what worked well, what didn’t and things I’m going to try doing differently next year. Gardening teaches me to let go of what I can’t control. To let go of perfection. To practice being grateful for what I do get, while planning and hoping for more, for better, for the future.
Gardening is teaching me persistence.
Gardening is teaching me how to be consistent. Consistently consistent, if that makes sense. Say I want something (a certain crop). I sow the seeds, but for different reasons, the seeds don’t sprout. Or they do, and slugs get to them first. Or mildew. Or black fungus. Or drought.
Should I just give up and leave the soil bare just because I failed? This mindset wouldn’t even get me a lettuce leaf to throw in my salad.
What I do, instead, is adapt and try again. Trying again is key. I can’t expect results if I just take a woe-is-me approach through the growing season. But adapting is also key. (The secret sauce to the first key, if you will.)
Not sowing spinach in the middle of a heatwave again. Covering my brassica seedlings much earlier to protect them. Changing what I grow and where I grow it. Gardening teaches persistence.
Gardening is teaching me that it’s ok to take your time.
My nasturtiums usually grow and bloom in June and July. But because of the drought this year, they waited and waited before fully putting in serious growth. Once the rains came back, the plants burst into growth and flowers. When conditions aren’t right, it’s ok to bide your time.
Gardening is teaching me to accept the metaphorical seasons.
I don’t know about you, but I have the bad habit of beating myself up when I’m trying to slow down. When I need to rest and unwind. When I need to just process emotions. But in life, just like in gardening, there are slow seasons and vibrant seasons. Seasons of rest and seasons of growth. And seasons just to store up energy, to ponder, to plan for what’s next and reflect on what has been. Planning tends to get unrealistic when there’s no time to reflect on the “why” not just on the “how”.
And on a lighter note, have you ever seen a daffodil bulb beating itself up for huddling underground and not blooming in the fall. I think not!
Gardening is helping me remember and punctuate my life.
In an article for one of my clients, I actually used the phrase “three gardens later” to refer to gardens that I have planted over the past decade. In three different locations. In three different cities.
And it dawned on me that I might be measuring my life in gardens. That while time blurs and expands and contracts, I may be able to tell you where I was and what I was doing and what I was planning and what I was daydreaming about based on which garden I was tending.
Its role as an aide-memoire is one of the many unexpected perks of gardening.
I started all the plants you see in this post from seeds that I bought from small businesses and farms. Here are a few suggestions, if you want to start plants from seeds too:
Wild mallow seeds from Backyard Impressions
Oregano seeds from Cool Beans N Sprouts
Purple Perrilla (Shiso) from Summer Garden
Nasturtium jewel mix seeds from New Hill Farms
Yellow pear cherry tomato seeds from Sweet Yards
Valerian seeds from Southern Seed Exchange
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