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I usually don't like to get too personal, but today I am going to do just that SO WARNING, if you aren't here for that you can skip this one and I promise I won't be offended.
I had my son in May of 2018, let's just say the first few months of his life were very rough for me physically and mentally. I had lots of physical complications following his birth and definitely had a bad case of the baby blues. We were living with my mother in law in their downstairs in law quarters completely separate from their house but I still just felt trapped. I was still having side effects from delivering my son so leaving the house was difficult and I was also scared to take him out into the world honestly. Then in December of that same year my husband and I bought our house and it was a huge relief....for about a month. By the new year I had finished unpacking and decorating and settling in and those baby blues jumped right on my back again since I was no longer preoccupied with the new home.
Somewhere around this time my mom started a group chat with her sister, my aunt in Washington and her daughter (my cousin) and of course me. My family in Washington started talking about their garden plans for the coming spring and summer. My cousin seemed so excited about all of this and I just thought wow, I wish I had a hobby I was this excited about. I thought to myself don't even like vegetables that much, but what the heck it is something to do.
We have a pretty big yard that was pretty much just full of weeds so I thought I am just going to go for it. My husband bought me a set of seeds packs from Amazon that included, cherry tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, lettuce, jalapenos, and kale. Following my cousins lead I built a raised bed garden (with a lot of help from my husband and other family members, there is a separate blog post all about it) and it has been the best thing I ever did for myself and for my family.
Now what did this garden do for me? It FORCED me to go outside every single day to water these plants. It FORCED me to focus on something other than my son. It FORCED me to have goals and look forward to tomorrow.
This garden has done a complete 180 for my mental health, there is no shame in therapy or medications, but honestly this was the best medicine for me and I didn't even know it. So if you have the garden bug SHARE IT. Tell your friends, family, strangers on the street (or inter webs), you just never know who may need a new passion in their life.