Self care by growing a garden

[Former-Member]

@Smc  @Appleblossom  to quote Dr Oliver Sacks a neurologist and author

"As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states on individual and community health is fundamental and wide-ranging. In forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases:  music and gardens."

He also says

"I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication."

and

"Clearly, nature calls to something very deep in us. Biophilia, the love of nature and living things, is an essential part of the human condition. Hortophilia, the desire to interact with, manage and tend nature, is also deeply instilled in us. The role that nature plays in health and healing becomes even more critical for people working long days in windowless offices, for those living in city neighborhoods without access to green spaces, for children in city schools or for those in institutional settings such as nursing homes. The effects of nature’s qualities on health are not only spiritual and emotional but physical and neurological. I have no doubt that they reflect deep changes in the brain’s physiology, and perhaps even its structure."

[Smc]

@Former-Member, so often I've been glad that Mum and Dad's aged care home windows look out through trees that flower in spring and have vividly coloured leaves in autumn, to hills further out dotted with gum trees...

Years ago when I had a brain tumour removed, I spent a lot of time in the garden while recovering. Good exercise, and excellent for both mood and mental organisation. Lots of little decisions like "plant or weed?", visual separation of one thing from another, depth perception, fine and gross motor control, self paced exercise, regaining sense of balance, word to object connection... all things that needed refreshing during the recovery period.

The word to object connection thing was weird. There's a part of the brain called Broca's Area which is very involved in speech, and it sits just behind where they got the tumour out. One of the consequences of that was that sometimes I knew I recognised something but couldn't find quite the right word. I remember looking at a garden critter and going through "it's not a slater... not an earwig... ummmm...."

[Appleblossom]

Agree about the healing aspect of gardens and then gardening is even one better.

@Former-Member @Smc 

For me growing up the only place I lived with a garden was 6 months with nanna and she taught me to pull out weeds completely and grandfather taught me how to mow.  It was only 6 months, so it never grew to be a habit or major interest, as mostly I grew up surrounded by a lot of concrete and public gardens ... eg inner Sydney and Housing Commission flats.  SO I had to decide to learn about it when I realised the potential was also good for plain and simple parenting .... SO from there I gradually improved, there was always "yard work" as my ex used to say. I developed my approach when I left him and took some cuttings and went from there 19 years ago. 

I did also have to get over a lot of anger about ALL the many misunderstandings and snubs and jibes I received from  people (including but not limited to my ex) who had taken their gardens and back yards for granted and kept implying I was stupid cos I did not know or immediately get something or other they were on about.  That took a while in of itself.  I was still too silent to answer back or anything, and knew that often I was even better educated than they were, so got logical and focussed on skill sets and eventually narrowed it down. In my memory the large garden in the old psych hospitals played as important a role as the few months in my grandparents garden.  Though it was good to know my grandparents land and its peculiarities and changes over the space of  50 years.  My anger "made me" allergic to roses for a while but eventually I started to realise I was shooting myself in the foot and started to enjoy the smell and their blooms and eventually planted some.  It was just that roses symbolised people having nice social acceptable conversations that I was excluded from as I had no positive associations.  A fella once gave me lots of bunches of roses ... the classic gift for the classic sheila ... ... he was a bit immature but trying in his way ... then gave me 2 standards and kept checking my gardening care ... which gave the absolute irrits ... as his gardening was only self serving .... they had lots black spot ... both of them were eventually wrecked .. one by the wind and one by a neighbour so I pulled them out .... 

oooops sorry rant over.

I planted a Chicago Peace rose ... as a symbol of forgiveness to the Americac side of the family .. lovely scent .. lil like this:

Then I planted a Gallipoli Memorial Aussie rose like this.  To ground me in my white Australian history .. cos I tend to go towards Blackfulla talk, but prob not got the genes.

Later an Appleblossom carpet rose which is the end of collection. Its only a little plot. Tried to transplant some of the Appleblossom this week which I had caused to grow roots, but think it failed .. which is fine ..cos I like the learning process of gardening. Its not about winning.

[Smc]

@Appleblossom, am glad you've been able to forgive the roses for the bad "company" they kept. 🙂 The "Peace" rose and its derivatives are some of the best for perfume.

[Former-Member]

@Smc  interesting how Dr Sacks mentioned both music and gardens as therapy for neurological recovery and how you found gardening helpful; I know music also holds a special place in your heart.

@Appleblossom  I find weeding therapeutic and enjoy getting weeds out properly, especially those with tap roots.

Being green waste collection this week I again borrowed my neighbours bin and filled it with running bamboo. Mine was already full of other prunings.

We are not ready to plant yet, as well as the need to tackle the bamboo roots there is some plumbing & fencing to be done in the area and I don't want tradesmen trampling new plants.

[Smc]

@Former-Member, the physiotherapist I was seeing after the surgery was highly in favour of me playing my violin- he reckoned it would be great to get all his patients doing likewise. I've since seen a friend who had an accidental brain injury gradually get back to piano playing, and there's so much going on neurologically, it has to be healthy. Left/right brain crossover movements are an important part of therapy, and the left/right hand co-ordination of playing either piano or violin/viola fits the bill perfectly. Plus on top of it all, there's all those wonderful healing endorphins and other positive chemicals that are encouraged by both music and gardening. 🙂

@Appleblossom, here's a pic of one of my "all in" garden beds. Hellebores down the front (transplanted from Mum's garden), two types of tulips and an Iceland Poppy in bloom, "still coming" are a couple of Aquilegias (Granny's Bonnets/Columbines), ranunculas, other poppies, sweet peas. There's also cornflowers, irises and assorted flowering perennials hiding in the crowd. Edibles... most of the background greenery is self seeded parsley. Way too much, but I'll pull it out and eat it roots and all a bit at a time. Also dill, a looseleaf lettuce plant, some garlic chives, lemon balm, a young redcurrant bush, and the twiggy teepee in the middle is actually there to protect a peach tree from the wallabies. They like chewing its bark off.

So it's all very very crowded, but as a lot of the plants are annuals, they'll finish up and leave room for the perennials to fill out.

[Former-Member]

Lovely @Smc

@Shaz51  my Mum had a few succulents in a pot. One may have been a kalanchoe (it had red bells), was quite an open plant, perhaps similar to this one.

[Smc]

@Former-Member, I think I remember my Mum having that one growing in a hanging basket. It looked lovely with the red bells hanging down. I don't know if it's among the survivors.

[Appleblossom]

Beautiful @Smc 

I forgot I was going to put out some of those herbs in the front rockery ... good to add to the list for this Bunnings trip which keeps getting delayed ... this must be why ... ha ha

I spent a little time in the State Rose Garden so that gave me a broader perspective on things.

@Former-Member 

I love having plants from my mother, grandmother and brother ... as well as the ones from the family home ...

[Former-Member]

Started a heap of veg seeds off in seed raising mix/jiffy pots.

Potted up the kangaroo paws my neighbour gave me, not sure if I can use all of them but can always give some away. Interested to see what colour/s they are.

I scattered a few packs of flower seeds in the front garden. Will be nice if a few come up.

@Shaz51 the old mower left here did not work and was going to cost $$ to repair. Mr Darcy bought a new mower and mowed both the front and back lawn today. Hoping this one lasts a bit longer than the others 😀.