Canada: A garden heals the worried mind
A garden is refuge and solace in the face of stress and anxiety. A garden heals.
By Helen Chesnut
Times Colonist
June 27, 2020
Excerpt:
From the first days of the pandemic I’ve felt an immense gratitude — first, for living in Canada and in this province, where government officials and medical health officers make regular, unvarnished reports to us and present clear plans for addressing the situation as it changes.
Then, there is the garden. Whether it’s a landscaped acreage, an allotment plot, or a collection of potted balcony plants, a garden is refuge and solace in the face of stress and anxiety. A garden heals. The worries of the world that buzz about in our minds slip away as we delve in the soil and tend our plants
The food garden consists of five main plots. Looking toward the back fence, the thick forest of trees looms over the left hand side fence. The far right corner plot is occupied by strawberries, raspberries, a fig tree, a few potato plants and self-sown larkspur along the inner edge.
Two plots closest to the forest trees are slowly becoming almost unusable. I need to plump them generously with compost and grow only the most undemanding and fastest-growing edibles and flowers in them. The onions I’ve planted in one of these areas need several mulchings with a good compost to produce good bulbs.
Carrots, parsnips, beets, fingerling potatoes, broad beans, sugar loaf chicory and snow peas grow in another plot that is less thickly infested with tree roots than the worst ones.
