Gardening Through Hard Times

As far as our planet’s history goes, the last few weeks have been pretty tough. We’ve seen plague, political unrest and environmental disasters unlike anything seen for decades.

Personally for me and my family, this year has been difficult. My father’s passing away at the peak of the pandemic and my daughter developing Covid symptoms a week later meaning I couldn’t participate in the burial felt like a double (triple?) blow. My sister unable to travel from abroad to be with her family and us unable to console my grieving mother.

It’s been hard.

But one thing that has been a constant through all of these things has been the garden. And what a place of solace and relief it has been. On the day my father died, I spent the afternoon there, working away while my head was in a haze.

Locked down and unable to leave the house, we did laps of the garden as a family, walking fourteen miles or 252 circuits of the compound during the two weeks isolation.

Gardening is Rhythm

Gardening has a rhythm to it that is hard to describe. Never rushed, you work away at one job, then another, then another. Sometimes it feels like a time warp as the minutes and hours slip by.

The worries and griefs of this life slip away into insignificance for a while – a tangible moment of escapism. But how does this happen?

Put simply, your mind can’t focus on two things at once. If you’re giving you full attention to pruning the apple tree or tying up beans to a frame, you can worry about your life or your country’s political situation. You switch off by changing the channel of your brain.

Isn’t this what we need now more than ever – something to release us from the bombardments of social media, negativity from the mainstream media, fake news (or real news that’s been through the media bias machine)? Or simply to extricate us from family difficulties, money worries?

But how can you achieve this peace of mind? Here are three ways to make your gardening experience better for your mental health and wellbeing:

1. Sometimes – just sit and enjoy

When was the last time you sat in your garden and enjoyed it? If you aren’t doing this regularly you might be missing out. Imagine putting all that hard work in and never taking a moment to soak it all in – the sounds, sights, smells. Let your senses soak up what’s around you. Become hyper aware of your surroundings (hint: if you do this, you won’t be able to worry about things either).

2. Leave your phone in your house

I often wonder if our phones (personal mobile computers) have made our lives better or worse. Are the good aspects of being connected and informed outweighed by the way we’re both addicted to and kept tabs on by these devices.

Either way, it’s good to have a break. Leave them in the house and enjoy the space without interruption or notification. If someone needs to reach you and it’s important, they’ll leave a message of phone back.

3. Play with your kids

A garden should be a place of pleasure. And the ultimate pleasure is play. My kids are young and love to play outside. Every moment we play together is precious.

Get them to garden with you from a young age. Yes they might wreck a few plants or dig where they weren’t supposed to, but that’s a small price to pay for including them in your journey. It’s hard to be mad at the world in the presence of a smiling child who has just found a gigantic wriggly worm under some leaves.

Garden, but Grieve

One of the hardest things about loss is knowing how to grieve. Having some productive gardening to do while working through those feelings has been of immense help to me over the last couple of months. I pray the same will be the case for you.

Neil

P.S. If you liked this, you’ll enjoy my new book The Self Provisioner which is out now (Amazon)