Health and Psychology

Gardening is probably genetic in my family.  Every single member of my biological family gardens.  My adoptive family hired gardeners.  I was the only person that really liked plants and wanted to grow them.  So I thought gardening was something most people didn't do. My adoptive father had studied medicine made from plants when he was in school.  Once I moved out he gave me all his old textbooks on plant medicine.

I start a garden twice a year, usually in the spring and fall.  I'm photosensitive, so I try to garden either at dawn or dusk to limit my exposure to sunlight.  Gardening makes me happy.  I grow fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers.  In it's present configuration my garden consists of four 12 foot by 12 foor plots arranged inside a fenced square with gates at the middle of each side of the square and a large cross for a pathway between the plots.  Around each gate is an arbor growing beans, peas, grapes or flowers.

This season I'm growing cucumbers, squash, peppers, melons, asperagus, tomatos, blueberries, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, potatoes, corn, garlic, leeks, shallots, chard, onions, lettuce, bok choy, snow peas, beans, basil, cilantro, rosemary, dill, thyme, mint, feverfew, borage, sage, parsley, tomatillos, chives, spinach, artichokes, beets, chervil, sweet peas, poppies, baby's breath, sweet william and sunflowers. I've been called a plant horder.  If I find a new or interesting plant it goes somewhere in the garden.

The crops always seem like they will produce too much, but we manage and have some to share with gardening relatives and people who just like the plants.  In May or June my niece will come over to harvest blackberries.  I have 75 feet of them along a wall.  I never planted them.  My next door neighbor did and they migrated under the wall to my house.  They return every year.  I'm hoping the tree that blew into the garden a few years ago and took root will finally bear fruit this year. 

I think gardening keeps me healthy and improves my mood.  It certainly gives me something to look forward to.  I get to feel I'm accomplishing something.I can keep up on the weeds only early in the season.  I can never seem to keep up on the slugs, so I just overplant and what survives the slug fest is what's hearty enough to make it through the changing temperatures from freezing early in the spring to 120 degrees in mid-summer.  My garden is in the high desert in California.  We get seasons.  I added lights this year.  They illuminate the four corners of the plots and the front walkway to the garden.  Each plot has a ceramic bunny statue. 

By summer the garden will be in full bloom.  All four plots will be full of plants.  The cucumbers, squash, beans, peas, and some of the melons are grown on trellises vertically.  It makes it easier to harvest and keeps the bugs at bay to a degree.

In fall I start a cool season garden, mainly of lettuces or cool plants that require a short growing season.  In winter with the first hard frost, almost everything dies back and remains waiting for the return of spring.  I take down all the trellises put up for the vertical crops and turn the soil.  I get the seed catelogues in winter and read through them waiting for the next spring planting season.