My mom would call my mood of the last few weeks a “funk”.  I’ve got the blues.  My feelings bruise more easily than a ripe peach.  I’m grouchy, anxious, and discontent.  Prioritizing tasks is difficult and my motivation is a little lacking.   I’ve never suffered debilitating depression and I have profound sympathy for those and the families of those that do.  But I spent an entire post-partum year with a non-trivial case of the “baby blues” and that year made me very proactive when I enter one of these funks.  I am doubly sure to take my thyroid medication, try to eat better, increase the intensity of my exercise.  And I’ve found another thing that helps…

Gardening.  Fortunately, my bluesy weeks coincided with the rainiest weeks I recall here in Maryland – perfect for weeding, dividing, digging, and planting. 

I started with a big push to dig up some ivy climbing on the rock facade by our garage.  Then I did a major weeding of every garden in the front yard.  For motivation, I promised myself that when finished, I could refresh the container arrangement on my front steps for fall.  

I forsook weeding a huge garden down by our pool area for a month and it was completely overgrown.  I ripped everything out, including all the vegetables.  We had pork and pepper fajitas for dinner last night and I think stuffed peppers will have to be on the menu for tonight, what do you think? :-)

I’m at least two years overdue on dividing daylilies.  I’ve been so nervous to try – everything made it sound like the task would be almost impossible.  But with the earth and roots so wet, these split with one strike of my spade.  I tripled the number of daylilies I own, which is great, because there always seem to be bare areas.

I had a lot of help planting my “new” daylilies.  Joshua is too young and Jack is uninterested, but Marcus is willing and increasingly able to help out.

I’ve never had to buy bulbs before – my Aunt Kathy, gardener extraordinaire, has kept me well-supplied.  But I needed a few for the mailbox garden makeover, so I shelled out the $15 for these.  I put the bulbs in the same holes that I dug for the daylilies.  You can’t cut daffodil foliage even when its old and ugly because the daffodils need the foliage to gather nutrients for the next season.  I’ve heard that the daylilies come up just as the daffodil foliage is getting ugly and cover all the daffodil mess.  I’ll tell you how it works next spring. :-)

While working on my mailbox garden’s remodel, I got out our fall friend, Mr. Scarecrow.  This is our third year with him – he needs a better name by now!  I’ve learned the hard way that he has to be zip-stripped to a stake in order to stand up to the fall showers and frosts. 

Oh how I love tiny pansies.   I’ve never put pansies in the ground this early before, but they just look so fresh and pretty and I am hoping that they’ll do even better in the spring since they have an extra long fall to establish themselves for winter.

I’m happy to report that, along with the other steps I took, and simply by the sheer grace of God, gardening has helped lift my blues.  Everything about being outside and working makes me dwell on my blessings.  I’ve been many months on bedrest, and I don’t take the ability to get up and get outside and work lightly.  Planting things that I’ll enjoy years from now is the ultimate in feeling productive and the sheer beauty of the flowers is refreshing.   I never work in my gardens without realizing anew how blessed – spoiled, really – that I am to live and love in our home.  Of course, even when I have the blues I *know* that I’m blessed… its just that gardening makes me feel it too. :-)

A burger always helps also.  :-)