Spring is one of my all time favorite season. Wanna know why? Free therapy! Different meditation space! Vitamin D! There are so many reasons I love spring but the main one I want to talk about has to do with mental health.
May is Mental Health Awareness month. I love that there is a month dedicated to mental health, however, I think we need to consider keeping mental health a topic throughout the year. Everyone is different when it comes to mental health and what they do to keep it on the positive side. I wanted to share what I do, and maybe it will give you a little bit of inspiration!
One of my favorite ways to take care of my mental health is to get out in the garden. As soon as the weather allows, I start planning what I want to do in the yard. What I want to get rid of and when, plans for the raised beds, seeds or starts for the veggie garden, and what seeds I need for my medicinal garden section.
We are in a rental so I do things a little differently than someone who owns their home. All of my perennials are in pots so we can take them with us when we moved and the house already had a few raised beds. We added one raised bed and fixed the existing ones and turned that into our veggie and herb garden. There are also a few landscaped sections of our yard. We definitely got lucky in that department.
Now, you may be thinking, "I didn't get lucky in the yard department" and that is okay! I have a few ideas to share with you that might help.
If you aren't able to or don't have a place to plant directly in the ground or make raised beds, consider a container garden. A lot of plants will be just fine living in a pot. Container herb and veggie gardens are great because you can keep them close to your door for easy cooking ingredients! Planting annuals and perennials in pots is also fun because you can change up the layout!
Build some raised beds! We used old pallet wood to fix the old ones and build new ones. It only took a portion of the day to get them put together (the hard part is getting the pallets apart). You can find pallets at most big box stores that get freight shipments. Most of them just throw the pallets away. It never hurts to ask!
*If you're renting, make sure you ask permission before adding raised beds.
Once you have your rough garden space created, you can spend as much or little time out there as you need. When the weather is nice I am out in my garden every night. Sometimes I have headphones in and listen to music, and sometimes I just like the peace and quiet mixed with sounds of nature. Occasionally, we listen to the ice cream truck that parks next door.
Pulling weeds and planting seeds can be very therapeutic. Getting your hands in the earth is grounding and healing, so don't be afraid to get your hands dirty (just make sure you take off your rings before hand!).
When you are feeling gloomy and need a refresher, your garden will be there for you.