The epic garden adventure

March 2020

I heard gardening is good for depression. I can’t get off of the couch. I have no motivation. The only thing I want to do is watch Netflix. I have spent weeks laying on the couch watching Netflix and now my latest binge watching event is Monty Don’s “Small Spaces, Big Dreams”. In one of the episodes, the guy is building a garden to help through his depression. Monty Don talks about his time with depression. Maybe gardening will help me. Maybe that will be the fix, make me happy. Maybe I should just redesign my whole garden. Maybe tearing down the old and rebuilding the new will help me clear out the old and start fresh on the inside.

I live in a small townhouse, just over 1100 square feet that we bought in 2009. It is three floors and pretty narrow. Although the backyard is small it is still a pretty decent size for a townhouse. The back of the yard is a hill to the back fence. The garden was up the hill. This is the garden and backyard in 2009 when we bought.

Over the years we did a lot of work to the backyard. We replaced the support boards and bricks with boulders and decorative brick. We installed a fountain that my dad had made by welding a watering can onto an antique bathtub, which we brought with us when we moved to Vancouver. We replaced the deck. We sanded the fence for a more natural color. We planted lots of perennials. The complex behind us put in a retaining wall and new fence. Here is what the garden looks like now.

It looks really great, but there are a few problems we need to figure out. We get a lot of plant mortality. The conditions are a bit harsh. It can get pretty dry and the hill has been slowly sliding down over the years so some of the plants are on an angle. The other thing we found is that previous owners had used plastic bags to sandbank the hill. We have been removing plastic and garbage for years. Maybe it is finally time to stabilize the bank and remove all of those plastic bags once and for all! I think that I would also like to plant more vegetables. To have our garden feed us. To have a garden that I could go and putter in. Maybe that is the fix. Maybe I just need to be connected to the earth more.