Of gardens, life and depression

I have mentioned previously my battle with depression. In the (not) words of Yoda, “a part of life, it is, hmm?” In my case, a garden is one of the best things I can do to make my life better. My last garden was a spring garden, two years ago. Between working out of town and depression, I did not plant one last year (and foolishly deprived myself of the anti-depressant benefits I get from working a garden). So, this year’s spring garden required a fair bit of work.

While I neglected to take pictures of the initial ground/weed clearing, I eventually wound up with this picture:

Not pretty, but it was better than the weeds that had been there, before.

I had decided I wanted to try raised beds, this year. I priced treated lumber, but Lowes and Home Depot are both inordinately proud of their treated lumber. Instead, I opted for untreated lumber. I had some in my garage. The rest I bought from Lowes, who happily took my money!

I opted for 4′ x 10′ beds to reduce the amount of sawing I’d need to do.

This one is typical of what I built using 2″ x 10″ x 10′ lumber. The two pieces of scrap on the diagonal are there to make it more rigid for moving. I took them off once I had the various beds in place.

I had to make several beds.

Feel free to ignore the mess in the background!

Then, the beds had to be placed. It took awhile, but doing it by myself meant I could only blame one person if it turned out wrong. Besides, it’s my project, anyway!

Woo-hoo! They are placed. Now, all I need are seedlings to plant…

Above, we have a sampling of said seedlings. There were more, plus the plants I sowed directly as seeds.

Not everything happened in the garden itself, though.

These bloomed early on. Pretty, yes?

Eventually, things started to grow.

Potatoes in a barrel (and a finger on the lens).

Plums! Now, if I can only keep the birds away from them.

There is stuff behind the tomatoes, I swear!

Like salad goodies

And green beans

There’s other stuff, too, but the pix came out worse than my green beans pic, so apparently even I have standards!

Anyway, the point of all this is really to help me look at my garden now and remember what it was when I started it. It’s a good cure for those times I’m tempted to say I don’t have the energy to work on it. Everyone is different, of course, but my experience with depression has been this: When I force myself to do the very thing I simply do not feel like doing, things get better. I have more energy, my aches and pains subside and my outlook improves. For me, the garden is a great way of doing “the thing” that makes life better. I don’t know what it will be for you, but I encourage you to find your thing. Don’t stay locked away inside your home, secluded and alone. That will not make life better. Doing the thing makes it better.

Go do the thing.