Find your zen in the garden with these 4 tips

Touching dirt and feeling the sun on your skin instantly boosts your mood. The link between human health and soil health is growing clearer with every study conducted, as recently highlighted in Psychology Today. 

That’s why it’s time to stop thinking of soil as the dirt that must be avoided. Instead, it is the one organism that protects and feeds all others.

But how, and where, to start?

Four tips for a successful garden season

1. Start small, add something new every year.

Four years ago, I started building garden beds in our yard. I grew up on organic vegetable farms, and my mom always had a flower garden, and her mom always had a flower garden. So how hard could it be? It’s in my DNA, right? 

There was a garden from a previous owner, but it was overgrown, neglected and full of weeds and grass. So it was time to start digging and to get to a place where I could start fresh for a vegetable garden. 

Four years later, I am still planning another garden bed to add this season, like I’ve done every year since that first. Gardening is a step by step process, and a beautiful one at that.

But those perfect aesthetic gardens you see on Instagram? They are not the reality. 

Reality is garden beds that don’t always match, trellises sometimes made of scrap lumber. Weeds, bugs, deadheading flowers. Making sure that the garden is watered while going away to go camping (because the world does not stop just because you decided to grow a garden.)

Some plants may thrive and others not. It’s filled with dirty hands, early mornings, and probably trying to juggle our harvest into the kitchen because who actually has a cute harvest basket? 

So don’t be hard on yourself. You’ve got this, one step at a time, and if this is your first year, remind yourself that it’s your first year and it’s okay to fail, but what if you thrive?

2. Plant what you’re actually going to eat and enjoy and set yourself up for success 

For the first few years, I kept planting swiss chard. It grows well, it’s “good for you”, so why wouldn’t I plant it in my garden? 

Each year I would use it once, but then the leaf miners would start to eat away at them and I didn’t like cooking with it, or eating it. So guess what won’t be in my garden this year?

Tomatoes and basil, these companion plants go hand in hand in the garden, and in the kitchen. I plant lots of both and use them all winter long.

Each stage of growth offers a reminder that patience and care lead to real results. This sense of achievement can be a mood booster, and is much healthier than the dopamine hit from social media. So if you’re new to growing vegetables and flowers, start with things that will lead to success, not failure. 

Here are some beginner-friendly plants to try: lettuce, herbs, zucchini, peas, radishes and bush beans. 

3. Share with others and build community. 

Sharing vegetables, sharing gardening tips, bringing a vase of flowers to a friend to brighten their day, these gestures during the gardening season build bonds of community.

Last summer I got a text mid-afternoon from my neighbour across the street. “Our pear tree is full and needs picking, come by!” 

I grab a bucket, and then look around, what did I pick from my garden that I can offer? Cucumbers! So off I go with a bucket and some cucumbers across the street to pick pears. 

I arrived and another neighbour, who I hadn’t met yet, also came by.

After we had picked way more pears than we knew what to do with, we sat down and drank iced coffee, and talked for longer than we spent picking pears. 

And I was right, I went home with way too many pears, so I made pear cinnamon jam, which I still have too many jars of.

Gardening can become a social activity that connects people across generations and backgrounds.

4. Support Local.

We’ve all heard the term, support local, but how do we actually do this?

At grocery stores look for the Buy BC or Buy Alberta logos on food that you’re buying. 

Farmers Markets: guaranteed, there is a farmers market, or more than one, in your town or city, just google it, or look at community facebook pages to find dates and locations. This is a great way to support local farmers. 

Food co-ops: where I live in Grand Forks, we have the Kettle Valley Food Co-op, an online “marketplace in Grand Forks BC where local producers sell their products to local folks.” Maybe there is something similar in your area.

Farm stands: while driving through BC or Alberta, stop at a produce stand and stock up on your favourite in-season produce to use now, or store for later in the year. Peaches are something that do not grow well where I live, but I make a point of getting a few boxes of them when they are in season to freeze and can, including making peach salsa, to enjoy year round.

U-pick gardens: U-pick strawberries and blueberries are a staple to berry season in southern BC and beyond, but I hadn’t seen a u-pick garden with such a variety of veggies and flowers until last summer when I stopped at the Bowden Sunflower Maze. There they had garden beds of vegetables from zucchini to potatoes and lots in between, and even flowers to make your own bouquets. (Bowden Sunflower maze https://sunmaze.ca/upick/) 

Community Gardens: want to get your hands dirty and don’t have the space where you live? Community gardens may be a good option for you. These could be allotment gardens (individual plots for personal use) or collective gardens (members work together and share the harvest), and can improve food security, provide educational opportunities, and can become social spaces that help build a sense of community. 

Wherever you are in your gardening journey, I hope you will find yourself inspired to get growing more this season. 

Whether it's a way to save on food costs, enjoy being outside in nature or explore the world around you in new ways, the time you spend gardening and connecting to plants can bring you a profound sense of zen.

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