Scientists and medical professionals tell us that we are in for a long, cold, COVID-laden winter. In an effort to avoid exposure to this terrible disease, most of us will hunker down in our homes, avoiding contact as much as possible with anyone outside of our household. And since most of the bars, restaurants, stadiums, casinos, etc. will be shut down by state authorities, there will be few places for us to go anyway. So the next three or four months do, indeed, look quite bleak.
But there are things we can do to mitigate some of the boredom and loneliness, and one of the best is to grow and cultivate some greenery. A few well-placed houseplants can provide some color to brighten up an otherwise dull indoors and improve the blah feelings brought on by a bleak winter landscape. You can even grow some edibles – sprouts, microgreens, herbs, lettuce to provide you with some fresh and nutritious food to offset boring stews and pot roasts.
And then, when you’ve finished all of that, start thumbing through the gardening catalogs that will soon be hitting your mailbox or peruse their websites and see all the new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers that you can plant in 2021. Then get out a sketch pad and/or some graph paper and start planning out that beautiful productive garden. It may not change the winter landscape outside your window, but in your heart, snow will melt, skies will clear, and for a few minutes at least, you’ll find yourself feeling a whole lot less miserable. Yes, indeed, nothing chases away a blue mood and lightens the blackness in one’s heart like a bracing dose of green!
the garden troubadour 