Gardening Has Become My Hyperfixation

It shouldn’t be a surprise that my oldest kid was telling my sister all the things her mom “has been” over the years. I’m renowned for my ability to hyper focus on a new idea or project or job until I’m bored and ready to move on to the next thing. I’ll teach myself the ins and outs of it, and then I’m off to the next adventure when the wind changes.

In the past, I’ve even envied the kinds of people who love one thing and that’s all. They’re consistent and stable. Their life feels predictable and safe. They have a “thing” they’re known for. It sounds like a dream.

It’s also unattainable to someone like me, and let’s be honest, I’d be bored in a month.

Only in the last few years have I really started to do the healing work to accept and love my brain for what it is and what it can do. No, I have a hard time being consistent long term, but I can buckle down and get shit done when I need to. I cycle through hobbies when my mood shifts, and I can teach myself how to do just about anything.

Those are major skills, and I don’t always give myself credit for being able to learn and do all that I can.

Which brings me to my latest hobby and current hyperfixation. Technically, it’s a hobby I’m revisiting. Like an old friend you used to spend time with but fell out of touch.

Gardening, my friends, has taken over my life this week. I’m literally only resting because my body cannot be pushed any farther, and I feel like showering mosquito spray off of me three times a day instead of two is a little excessive.

I blame/thank my partner for this. He recently started his spring garden with seeds and plants and cuttings from his family’s farm, and since the start he’s sent me progress pictures and showed off all his plant babies at every opportunity. It brings him so much joy, and that shit is contagious.

Honestly, it’s been incredibly healing to be reminded how much I love gardening. I haven’t done much since my late husband’s addiction got bad, and I can’t say I was a dedicated tender of the plants before that either.

But this year circumstance and motivation hit me in this beautiful moment of serendipity. You see, we just so happen to have several fenced in gardens kept by the previous owners. My brother-in-law prepped one of them last year, so the soil was simply amazing and saved me so much time (and money). I was able to get to planting as soon as the weeds were cleared, and I found some leftover garlic he planted that’s already looking so beautiful!

Looking out from my gardening adventure today, I even spotted the perfect log for sitting and pondering.

Clearing weeds and steering clear of the poison ivy that likes to hide in the masses of Virginia creeper that love to grow all over our property made weeding the garden for planting fun with a splash of danger, but so far no skin reactions. Fingers crossed!

I also turned to Google Lens to help me identify a tree that was growing out of the side of the garden. You can see the trunk of it in the poison ivy picture above. It’s obviously a few years old, so we’re figuring out exactly what to do with it, but in the meantime, I needed to know what it was.

Not only am I just terrible at naming any tree other than the Georgia pines I love so much, but it was growing these little pods all over. My first thought was, “How can a tree grow sugar snap peas?”

It turns out that it’s an Eastern redbud tree, and we have another of the same type just about 50 feet away. In fact, it’s probably the child of that very same tree! Knowing that trees care for their nearby offspring using the network of mycelium under the ground makes me almost not want to get rid of this baby at all.

Unfortunately, it’s literally rooted at the wooden side of the garden right in front of the gate, so we really can’t let it mature.

Fun fact: while uploading pictures to this blog post, I realized they were not the vibe at all, so I taught myself how to create a new Lightroom preset. It has been dubbed “Dark and moody,” and it gives my photos that gothy tone I love. The irony of doing that in a post where I literally complain about the ability to do things like that is not lost on me.

Anyway, if you’re still reading this—and come on, who is actually reading blog posts anymore—I wrapped up this week’s episode of Adventures in My Latest Hyperfixation by starting my patio garden’s transformation.

Separate from the vegetable garden, the patio garden is outside the lower level entrance to our house. It’s also the home for our A/C units and retaining walls. Not very aesthetic as the kids say.

So, I cleared away all of the debris along the side of the house and made plans with my partner for him to build me planter boxes that will fit along the top of the retaining walls and allow me to plant things that will drape down them. As I write this, I’m thinking I may even paint a secret garden door on one of the walls for maximum whimsy.

I started creating a natural rock edge using rocks from around the property. We have several creeks with rocks that support the banks, which means that strict rules must be followed when foraging.

Rule #1: The rock cannot come from the bank of the creek or within several feet.

Rule #2: The rock must clearly be an extra rock dropped or scattered during the initial build.

Rule #3: The rock must be embedded in the ground and not simply laying around, a position which would indicate it was removed from the creek bank by a naughty child and must be returned to protect the integrity of the creek support system.

At some point, I’ll fill the new beds on either side of the patio with a layer of new top soil, mulch, and hosta babies my grandpa is generously splitting for me this weekend, being careful to leave plenty of room for access to the various utilities.

It’ll take a bit of time for them to really fill out, but I’m excited to watch them grow year after year and turn this drab basement entrance into a magical entryway filled with life and whimsy.

For now, the rain has moved in and decided to stop me from really making progress on my garden, but I’m sure all my new plants are loving it, and I’ll be back in the dirt to ride out this hyperfixation sooner than I can imagine!