I've really been working on my stress relief these past few months. One of the perks, and also downsides, of having a blog is that you guys get to read about my struggles in real time. When I'm having a rough go of it, I tend to overshare - when I'm actually updating, that is. Obviously this year has been incredibly tough so I've been sharing quite a lot.
Anyway, I've been in a much better place recently when it comes to my anxieties with COVID, burnout at work, ER in general. I thought that maybe I'd share the coping mechanisms I've been using, in case it helps anyone else.
SPOILER ALERT: THIS BLOG IS ABOUT TO BECOME A CRAZY PLANT LADY BLOG
Ya heard! Y'all, I got into gardening and plants this year. Like, I'm already a crazy cat lady so it's a little alarming knowing that I have two obsessions now, but it's 2020 so I'm not apologizing.
My mom has always been a master gardener, but pretty much the unofficial country version of one. She can grow a garden without a second though, knock out a season's worth of tomato canning in a weekend, choose the most complimentary plants for a flower bed, and have fresh cut flowers on the counter all summer long. It's amazing. She's also got the most adorable little plant hanging from her kitchen window, and I found out recently it's almost 45 years old. I didn't know plants could even live that long! I've always loved that little plant, and it was the inspiration for me deciding to buy a similar little hanging pot and start my own houseplant.
When COVID hit back in March and we went on lockdown, my husband and I started a little vegetable garden. We put in two raised beds, and later added a third. We did below average with our first season, I think - some plants thrived, some immediately died, but most others seemed to grow but not put out any usable vegetables. I absolutely loved the process of planting and tending, and then using our own homegrown stuff but it was a little disheartening how much of our garden wasn't producing. After lots of discussion with my mom, we decided that I needed way more flowers to help promote pollination. It seems that all of our plants started the process of fruiting, but since we had no pollinators everything sort of stagnated.
Fast forward a few months, and I've BECOME THE CRAZY PLANT LADY. Once I decided to get more plants, it just took off. I bought a darling little hanging pot which holds my first real houseplant - and I look at it every day and love it. But that was just the beginning! I've got a whole section devoted to plants on pinterest, a long list of pottery to buy for plants I don't own yet, and a notebook that I'm using to keep track of where I plant things, important information about each plant, and what goes wrong (or right!) so I can adjust next time. It's so, so therapeutic.
I have seedlings growing for rainbow chard currently, and I'm working on baby basil, dill, parsley, and mint to grow inside over the winter until I can transplant them outside. I just put in a flower bed with a whole bunch of easy to care for perennials that will look SO GOOD next year when they bloom. I have plans for our patio and where I'm gonna put stuff to make it a little plant oasis. My entire bathroom windowsill is full of plants, and our office windowsill will also be a plant haven once we're done renovation.
I feel so much less anxious, you guys. It's crazy how therapeutic gardening is, and I love it so much. I always thought I had a black thumb designed to kill any plant I came across, but it turns out I just needed time, a little bit of research, and the motivation. Thanks to COVID, I have all the time and motivation now, and am loving the research. My mom always jokes that everything she tries to teach me I learn about 15 years later (see cooking, time management, the importance of having lots of wine glasses, etc), and gardening is no different.
Don't be surprised to read a lot more about plants on this blog in the future, because work is really hard and overwhelming right now and I'm trying to focus more on the good things going on. I'll still share anything interesting from the ER because I do still love what I do, I just need to focus on what's making me happy currently. Also you guys would probably rather hear about plants than my other new coping mechanism: running. Way less exciting to write about, and pictures of plants look far better than post-run selfies do.
3 comments:
WOW! Your garden is so obsessively neat, not many folks use a level when initiating a garden. I have a large backyard and just dig up about 1/2 of it and hope for the best. Usually it works out pretty well, but I often wind up getting way too much of something and not enough of the other. This year it was way to many tomatoes and not enough basil and yellow squash.
I have lots of issues with plant predators and relocated about 6 ground hogs this year. Western PA had a bad drought this summer which compromised many of my crops.
My garden really took off about 10 years ago when I discovered composting. IT really is a magic ingredient.
I wish you all the success in the world with your gardening and hope that you and your husband are saying safe in these strange times. Hopefully history will not view 2019 as our last good year!
OFRN - Listen, I only have a very level garden because I have a meticulous husband who built the beds for me...I was content to throw a sort-of rectangle box on the ground, but he went on and on about "aesethetics" and "quality items" and other nonsense like that! But in all seriousness, the ground where we are is mostly clay and would have taken a TON of work. Raised beds were way easier. But we also built a compost bin, so by the springtime I should have a good amount of compost ready to go. Between that and the flowers for pollinators, it will hopefully be a good season.
Give me a few years, and it'll be like a jungle in my yard. I can't wait!
I hope you and yours are also staying safe and healthy. I'm looking forward to one day not having to say that all the time.
I know exactly what you mean...my wife is the meticulous part of the equation here, she even uses a metric ruler when dicing herbs to insure uniformity. Thank heaven she doesn't know about levels!
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