Lived Experience Forum

[CherryBomb]

Does anyone do any gardening for mental health?

Gardening Australia is having a special show for Mental As, which is specifcally about gardening and mental health. 

Would love to hear from some gardners, or even people who just enjoy being in gardens. Would love to see some pics if anyone want to share!

@Appleblossom @Abiel @Charli @chookmojo  @Mazarita (apologies if you are not a gardener, just taking a stab in the dark).

[Appleblossom]

Definitely

My uncles who both suicided came from a great gardening family ... they used to do great bonzais as well as I found 6' dope plants in my back yard . .. I didnt know they were there til they were huge ... now they are thinking of introducing medicalising of marijuana ... I think it is interesting ... I personally got too paranoid on it and would never wnt to grow it ... but i was fond of those 2 brothers who married my biological auntie

The REEL Zen garden for me has been my Grief Garden ... thats what I call it ... just keep dividing and propagating on the extended nature strip in my court and observing about growing things and reflecting on the tolerances etc ... that cause plants to flourish or shrivel ... a lot of my plants are from my mum and are my grandmother's plants and even my dead brother's plants ... I thought I was weird ... stubbornly out there doing my thing 

then someone said that Wendy Whitely had a grief garden in Sydney ... mine isnt quite as big as hers ... I have been there and met her ... but it does good in my community .. the kids of the court play in it ... etc

[chookmojo]

I definitely garden for my overall well-being. I am just more myself when I garden. And being in contact with nature has always been a wonderful tonic for me. Soothing and uplifting at the same time. Will definitely have to catch the Gardening Mental As show. 

[MentalWealth]

Thanks CherryBomb,

Yes, forgot to mention plants (in my reply to you elsewhere). Helping 1 flowering plant grow was good.

Just the simple act of hose watering the lawn in the quiet of dawn or late evening can be soothing. Love weeding too.

[CherryBomb]

The process of gardening sounds relaxing and rewarding. It helps get you into a present frame of mind, which produces fruits (quite literally) for your efforts. 

My dad use to talk to his plants, now I do the same! They're like my babies. Anyone else relate?

[Appleblossom]

I guess it depends a bit on age and interests and accomodation ... I never thought I would ever be called a green thumb ... and yes I'll talk to any living thing ....

[chookmojo]

 Ha! When I was a kid I would spend hours talking to singing to and telling stories to my flower garden! I talk to them now too, but less 🙂

[MoonGal]

Last year I started a small veggie and herb garden using polstyrene boxes full of good quality potting mix, up on a counter so they were at waist height. As I have a physical injury that make sit dificult to bend or kneel down - this seemed like a good solution. I grew lettuce, cherry tomatoes, chives, parsley and perrenial spinach. It was great to be able to make my own salads from my own garden. I find myself feeling very peaceful tending it.

It went to wrack and ruin eventually and is sitting there now barren and empty except the parlsey which you can't hurt it with a stick (or neglect apparently!). So I am gearing up (not being in a hypo you can't rush these things...  ) to replant soon with lettuce, rocket, chives... coriander etc. 

A big plan on the drawing board is the back yard - it was demolished by 12 years of two gbig dogs, now sadly passed on, and is need of some tender loving care. Planning a purple and white themed garden with a meandering path and nice places to sit in peace.

Will share my veggie-patch once I get it going! This has been a great prompt and motivator - get out and replant and start tending again!

[chookmojo]

@MoonGal I have been working on my backyard for the last three years, we pretty much took out everything that was there apart from one Gumtree, which blew down in a storm. We Put in purple and white Happy wanderer vines on all the fences and now have a tremendous 'hedge' that stays free and year and flowers profusely in winter. I just pruned it today and for all my snipping and mountains of off cuts on the ground it hasn't even made a dent in the vines! 

 I dont have  a picture of my yard on the tablet that I am using, but this is what hardenbergia looks like.

Three years in it is really starting to come together and look good, just waiting for the trees to grow a bit, but the hedging brought much needed greenery in very quickly. Birds and bees love it too.

My vegie garden (not planted out yet I am behind schedule) consists of six orchard boxes converted into raised wicking beds. They're pretty great except I have not been able to grow good tomatoes in them in three years so that is my challenge, getting decent tomatoes. We did have one chook sown bush that was fantastic which came up in the herb garden but the damn things won't grow in the vegie garden no matter where I put them.

[MoonGal]

@chookmojo - wow, you have done a lot of work and lovely to hear of the purple and white theme too. We have one Willow Myrtle that we planted 19 years ago which is now a big matriarch of a tree, a rapacious wisteria (a white japanese not a purple) and a hedge of Cape Honey Suckle which is totally out of hand! We will keep two of the 5 cape honey suckle, despite their flowers being orange - because it is the home of the New Holand honey eaters and we love our garden birds very much. I relate to the never ending hedgeing, when I am not travelling very well, the hedges get way out of hand! Thnak goodness for hiring a tradie to come and help at that point.

Your veggie garden sounds great. I did tomatoes in a bigger round pot, not the polystyrene boxes, so i coudl water the, at a higher rate, I am just not sure that growing one or two tomatoe bushes is worth the high amount of water needed, I'm conflicted about that. Isn;t it funny how naturally seeded plants seem to thrive on neglect and anything you want to grow properly is all tender and difficult! (Like life I guess, those things in us that are wild and free get out of hand, and the things we want to cultivate take real effort. LOL!)

I have dismantled our old four burner BBQ and am rebuilding it into a veggie garden (as redemption to the animals sacrificed thereon over the years before I was vegan).

What is your favourite vegetable to grow?