Gardening for the Soul
One silver lining of the pandemic crisis has been enough time at home for my 14 year old son and I to do (finally) the labor required to convert a third of our backyard into a garden. We chose this house five years ago because it offered that potential; I’d had quite a large garden in the last house. This one also has eight thriving fruit trees! But the ground was very hardpack clay and had to be broken up and amended significantly before we could move ahead with beds and irrigation and fencing…
While my son was doing demanding work on the soil with a spading fork, I figured out how to rig a greenhouse right here in my study. At the old house, I converted two plastic storage shelves and kept them right outside the kitchen; here, my study is the warmest and sunniest room in the house, except my bedroom which doesn’t have the space. I enjoy starting my own plants, although I also enjoyed a properly protected and distanced outing to my favorite local nursery for a few more mature starts that would be ahead of my greenhouse. This contraption will serve well enough for this season, but the capacity is limited for my usual quantities.
We borrowed a power tiller from a neighbor and hauled more than five cubic yards of aged horse manure to the back. It was more manure than we needed — it was a flat fee for delivery, not really measured out — so my son rigged a fencing bin to hold the overage until we need it. Now, the beds are shaped and the irrigation is laid out; we’ll be getting plants in the ground this week!
My son’s beloved outdoor school is like everything else running virtually right now, which really isn’t a great fit for an outdoor school. The teacher asked each of them to find a nature project they could develop over the eight-week session, so my son is much more engaged with the garden than I had hoped for. It’s really wonderful.
For me, gardening is a physical activity that really engages me on a lot of levels. I’m out there three or four times a day for twenty or thirty minutes. (I’m not very fit even without a stay at home order!) So it’s terrific to be moving a lot without resenting the time spent. It doesn’t really feel like “exercise” at all.
