Contentment

     Tough week, right? While we puzzle out what happened at the Capitol on January 6 and what needs to be done to protect our democracy, it’s good to know that spring will come and we’ll be back out in the garden. 

They'll be back

    When I was a medical intern in 1979 working 12-hour shifts in the Emergency Department, I stole a few minutes whenever I could to visit my 10- by 10-foot plot at a community garden that lay between my apartment and the hospital. One summer evening, I remember trying to identify the feeling I was experiencing as I watered and weeded my rows of vegetables. Could it be contentment? There was so little of it in my life then that I found it hard to recognize.

    Now I get the same feeling in my backyard, wandering around in the summer dusk deadheading, harvesting vegetables, and checking on how my plants are doing. The cares of the day fade away, and I come indoors feeling relaxed and refreshed.

 

Soothing to the spirit

    Since the 1980s, researchers have confirmed that gardening benefits our health, both physically and emotionally. The first study found that surgical patients who could see trees from the windows near their hospital beds recovered faster than those who could not. That’s hardly surprising to us gardeners. Since then, gardening has been linked to improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

 

Even a view of nature is healing-photo Chalmers Butterfield

    In 2007, scientists identified a soil bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, that induces a happy, relaxed mood by increasing the serotonin level in gardeners’ brains. No wonder we feel better after a day of digging. This study fits with the hygiene hypothesis, the idea that modern life has impoverished our microbiome by keeping us away from beneficial microorganisms. You and I have a solution.

 

Gardening is good for you-photo from GreenMatters

    All this confirms my eagerness to get out into the garden as soon as possible this spring. Whether or not we’ve been vaccinated by April, we can still enjoy the new growth. This year’s project is to plant a strip at the front of a now-shady perennial bed. Last summer I made note of struggling shrubs and perennials with pink or red blooms that needed more sun. They should do better in this area, where I’ve used sheet composting to improve what used to be a piece of scraggly lawn. 

Sheet composting strip starting to decompose, summer 2019

    In March 2019, I put down layers of wood chips, blood meal, fall leaves, and composted cow manure on newspaper I’d spread on the turf grass. 

 

Making the sheet composting mound, March 2019

I added a sprinkling of my compost to introduce the organisms that would speed decomposition and topped the pile with mulch made from grass clippings to keep it neat. Those wood chips needed two years to break down.  If the weeds that sprouted there last summer are any indication, the soil should be quite fertile this spring.

A pink flowering almond needs sun-photo Nature Hills Nursery

    While I wait for the weather to warm up, I can complete my list of native plants to add to the new bed and search websites for good candidates. It beats “doom scrolling” for more depressing news.

 

Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum)-photo Prairie Nursery