Gardening And Grounding

[LC23]

I've been thinking about this a lot since it's the time of year for me that I begin phasing out all my summer crops and getting the winter ones started. And I've been needing to put up a few more posts here so that I can put URLs in my posts on day.

I started gardening a couple years ago. It was before I started my current therapy, but even before I did that (which is when I got diagnosed with PTSD for the first time), I could feel how it was helping me - it's something real, offline, working with the earth, getting my hands dirty, not being stuck in my head and my emotions.

It's physically demanding - digging, moving wheelbarrows full of wood chips and fertilizer and soil, uprooting plants, breaking up hard ground to prepare it for seeding - which is good, because that burns off a lot of my excess anxiety and depression. It's hard to worry about all the little and big things when I'm in my garden - away from the TVs and radios and computers and phones, working with my hands, learning how to turn soil, sunlight, and water into food.

It's also a wonderful thing I can share with others, and helps build those genuine connections that are very helpful for those of us recovering from trauma. People love getting a little bag of homegrown produce (and once the garden gets going, there's usually plenty to share). And also, since I don't work a conventional job, gardening is a way to literally put food on the table for me and Mr. LC23 during those times when paychecks are few and far between.

Most of this summer I have been neck-deep in tomatoes, including a lot of heirloom varieites, plus peppers, corn, and squash. Now I am looking forward to the cool season crops - lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, onions, carrots, leeks. Plus I grow herbs and a few flowers.

The psychological benefits of eating delicious, fresh, homegrown food made with far fewer pesticides and chemicals than a lot of what we get at the store have definitely buoyed my spirits since I began gardening. It gives me something that my mind and body and spirit can all appreciate, something that I grew from seed or starter plant and nurtured all the way to my plate. It's one of the most literally grounding experiences I've had in recent years, and I've heard some really good things about people using gardening as a way to help people with PTSD re-connect to something vital and positive. Sure, sometimes gardening also means slogging through some very physical work, especially once a garden gets overrun or neglected. But I find the act of caring for the garden ends up being very much like the act of caring for one's own self.

Anyone here find that a vegetable garden can be an ally to combat PTSD and depression? Tell me about your garden patch and what you like to grow.

 

[Philippa]

YAY!

YES!

I just started planting seeds yesterday and a few days ago. So far, I've got organic basil, organic dill, organic sage and thyme, and some tommy toe cherry tomatoes.

I intend to get some lettuce and cauliflowers, pumpkins and radishes going, as well as rocket. And some more varieties of tomatoes, maybe leeks and berries of some kind would be awesome. I kind of want to experiment with some more exotic fruits this time round.

I'm lucky to have moved into a bungalow which is self-contained and is on the property of a woman who is right into sustainable living, and eco-friendliness, so we are on the same wavelength. She has her vegie patch going, which is adequate space to plant lots of things.

She has raspberries and blackberries going already, plus a cherry tree, and has said I can just take some space outside my place, which is opposite her patch, but the sketchiness is with the sun at the moment, so I am looking at asking her if I can maybe share some of her patch instead, as it gets the best sun?

We have chooks which I look after a lot, and am allowed to take as many free free-range eggs as I can manage, and the water mains are all hooked up to the grey water system, so every bath I take, the water ends up in the garden. We have solar panels, so the bills aren't that much (haven't had to pay bills yet, but they're comin'.)

I also bought some bio-dynamic micro organism formula invented by Rudolph Steiner many years ago, to make the soil even more fertile and 'dynamic', so I can't wait to see how much of a difference this makes to the growth of these things? It didn't cost much, and it's worth the wacky ritual it takes to activate it, so, it will be interesting.

But yeah, I'm a big believer in gardening for stress reduction and healing, grounding and just all round positive action to take towards economical sustainability, and it just tastes better when it's your own produce. There is a sense of pride that you put so much of your own energy and effort into it.

I love gardening.

 

[Hashi]

I'm so not a nature person and I would never put my hands in soil without protective gloves - there are worms in there, for heaven's sake ;) - but I find gardening very grounding, for different reasons.

Anything tactile is grounding for me, and gardening is very tactile, even with the gloves. I love the physicality of it, and I especially like cutting back, pruning and clearing. It's cathartic. I also love things to look attractive, and my garden is filled with flowers. I'm amazed that things grow and bud and blossom. That's not much thanks to me because I don't nurture my garden - it's every plant for itself - but I do put things in there and they have a chance if they want to take it. I kind of like the fact that most manage despite my lack of care - I like their life force and determination.

So this isn't really what you were posting about - sorry. But I get other things out of it, and love gardening very much. It's also how I got to meet all my neighbours, because they stop and talk to me when I'm doing the garden. In my street, my house is identified as "the one with the flowers". I like coming home to it.

 

[Philippa]

Glorious WORMS!:D

 

[LC23]

Hashi, I think it's totally fine - and I think it's very relevant. We all experience it a little differently. Just because I started this convo one way doesn't mean I'm not happy to hear other kinds of experiences. The important thing is that we have that tactile and cathartic and life-affirming experience that gardening in its many different forms brings. It's very helpful for our overall well-being. And it is literally an organic process - what works for me won't work the same for others, and what I do this year will probably be different than what I do next year.

I too am impressed by the tenacity of life. Some plants that seem to not thrive and maybe appear to die will, when conditions change, come back with a vengeance. Or outside of my garden, I will see a lone weed growing out of a crack in a road overpass - of all the inhospitable places one could try to decide to live, they decided "I'm gonna live here, or die trying." It doesn't ever give up, so why should I?

Ever since I became a gardener, worms are my friends. Along with ladybugs and bees.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I used to love being outside in my garden when we still had our house. We planted so many plants there. It was wonderful to see them come back after a cold winter year after year. I would spend all day outside. I would rather be outside than inside. Probably why I have cabin fever. I do not miss gardening anymore. I just do not have the motivation or the energy. But reading about gardening makes me miss it.

My life has changed so much. I had a gazillion houseplants and spent alot of time making terrariums. I had them everywhere. I would make them in interesting wine bottles. I used to give them away as gifts. I had a basket with all the tools i needed to make a terrarium.

I had a flower garden. It was so pretty my yard. We had it so there was always something blooming. But there was alot of maintence. Shrubs needing to be trimmed and ivy that needed to be trimmed. We had mosquitos so we had to use the bug spray.

I always hated raking the leaves in the fall. We had alot of oak trees around us. I had the yard all kept up all by myself for a very long time. But we had to sell the house. Now we live in a mobile home. I left all of my houseplants behind. I just do not have the energy to garden anymore. But there is something so good about gardening. It makes you feel good and you get a good sense of accomplishment. Thanks for making this topic. I was getting nostalgic.

 

[Philippa]

I'm a bit annoyed that one of the boys in the house (probably) knocked over the seeds I had planted, with their basketball. I'm hoping it wasn't a deliberate bit of boy mischief?;)

One of the boys is quite rude to me at times, but it's hard to tell because they do like to play with their basketball in that general area...it's just funny that all my pots got knocked over and all their mothers didn't, and they were in the very same area?

Grrr. Now I have to start again.

 

[Froggie]

Gardening is my way to ground and it is so therapeutic. In spring, when I'm getting the soil ready, my daughter's sons and me go chasing worms that might be in danger of being run over by cars and bring them to my garden. Guess I'm a sort of a wormy foster mother :roflmao: !

I have a medium size lot in our community garden and it is amongst the rules and regulations that we use eco friendly products which is just great. Everyone tries out different tricks and we get a kick visiting one another's gardens. We're like a gang a moms with our new borns, it's funny to see that. When one has a bad year with their garden the others are more than empathetic.

Last year when I had my emergency operation for my colon cancer, I was out of whack for almost 6 weeks. I was in hospital for 2 weeks and then 1 week at my daughter's place. I was freaking out about my garden ... thinking OHHHHHH MY GOD THE WEEDS. When one of the gardeners helped me walk to the garden, I did freak out - it was clean and taken care of. The other gardeners had shared their time to weed out my garden while I was gone :inlove:. I was so grateful.

Even if my garden didn't go well this year, for me it was a proof that I wasn't ready for my death bed.

 

[LC23]

I just got a dwarf Meyer lemon tree for my balcony container garden. So when life gives me lemons I can make the sweetest, bestest, tastiest lemonade on the damn planet.

In related news, I also discovered that for quite a bit more there are 'cocktail' fruit trees that have multiple kinds of fruit grafted onto one tree. So you might have a 4-in-1 tree that started as a Valencia orange but also has branches of lemon, lime, and grapefruit, or lemon, lime, and mandarin orange, or what have you. Very cool, especially for people with limited tree-planting space.

 

[Philippa]

I've heard of those. Not sure how I feel about them, but I can see how they would be handy.

 

[Meadowsweet]

I find it difficult to work out what needs doing in the garden. But I enjoy mowing and little regular jobs in the garden.

My biggest problem is that in the front garden people walk past and look at you, and I'm prepared when I leave my house, to face people. But when I'm on my own, at home, I'm in my own space and I feel threatened by strangers seeing that me.

I've just come in from the garden now, because the person over the road started speaking to me, asking about my life. I understand that she is being neighborly. But it scares the shit out of me. I hate it.

I go over what I've said, making sure I've not revealed too much...I imagine being gossiped about, start wondering why she's asking me all these questions.

And the other side of my brain knows it's just my brain being stupid and ill and paranoid.

Sorry, I just needed to let off steam. I'll try and go out again now and take it out on some brambles with a big pair of shears or something :D

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I do not think you are being paranoid. Gossipers do that sort of thing. I think you are being very wise taking good care of yourself. Sorry you have to deal with her. One of my pet peeves is gossipers.

I think you are doing good. I am proud of you for taking such good care of yourself. I hate gossipers. It is a way to be angry at people without having to take responsibility for it. I learned that in a anger management class.

I hope you can keep it surface with her. Be strong. You can do it. Big hugs.