Anxiety Garden!

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp I haven't even broken out the shovel yet. I think when it gets cold is when I'll start my digging and tilling - I know roto tillers are generally a no no because they fling grass and weed seeds everywhere but I think it's less of a concern in like December or January, but after the grass gets mowed I want to start prepping. 

I'm planning out a 4 foot wide by "God only knows how long it'll end up being" L shaped bed and I've considered all kinds of stuff for this. I thought about a raised bed with 2x4s, bracing, and posts but that might have to wait until I get money coming in. So cut the grass, lay down heavy cardboard to mark my space and let it marinate for a bit, and start digging and hopefully have everything ready for late March/early April. I want to stagger banana/palm/banana/palm, mostly Sabals. Some of this will be partially shaded during the day, so I'll put minors or Etonia in there along with more shade tolerant bananas. Dig a trench and fill with some native dirt/compost/perlite and mulch with whatever I can get my hands on(hopefully cedar to deter cats and ants) and try to leave enough cardboard around it to keep grass out until I can afford to raise it up and do something better.

I'm going to heat and humidify and add more lights to my grow room in an attempt to keep all the bananas hopefully growing over winter, so hopefully fingers crossed I get fruit at some point. It's a wish, but that's what I do. 

It was also suggested to me to give the Mekong giant banana its own spot, I've got Mexican papaya seeds sprouting, and I couldn't help myself and ordered some Waimanalo papaya seeds to keep in planters indefinitely and hopefully sell most of those.

Anxiety is getting the best of me and I'm already worried about overwintering stuff for next year 😑

Anyway, thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? I like the raised bed idea but cost concerns are going to keep me from getting that much lumber. If I space everything enough, this is gonna eat up a pretty good chunk of land, and honestly, I should probably wait until most of the Sabals get bigger before I plant them out, so I could start smaller for now. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Another option, Amazon has 20 foot rolls of 8" metal edging. I can start smaller with less anxiety and leave the Ensete in a pot to let it bulk up a little before 2027. Not gonna lie, my goal with the bananas is to both get fruit and get pups to sell to help Sancho's medical bills. Poor guy needs that knee surgery and his GoFundMe isn't getting much attention. 

[Harry’s Palms]

John , gardening is a very good treatment for anxiety . I too suffer from it and it sometimes gets the better of me . I retreat and go into my shell . My wife calls it my black cloud . Don’t want to talk to anyone , just to be left alone . That is not healthy but a day in the garden and the sun comes out , shining light in my dark world . I am happy to see you are so involved in your garden . It is something you can do alone and it brings you joy ….i get it. For lumber , you could take apart pallets , there are always lots of unused pallets where my shop is and nobody cares if they are taken. Check in back of industrial or shop areas . I am amazed how much lumber is used on pallets. Harry

[JohnAndSancho]

47 minutes ago, Harry’s Palms said:

John , gardening is a very good treatment for anxiety . I too suffer from it and it sometimes gets the better of me . I retreat and go into my shell . My wife calls it my black cloud . Don’t want to talk to anyone , just to be left alone . That is not healthy but a day in the garden and the sun comes out , shining light in my dark world . I am happy to see you are so involved in your garden . It is something you can do alone and it brings you joy ….i get it. For lumber , you could take apart pallets , there are always lots of unused pallets where my shop is and nobody cares if they are taken. Check in back of industrial or shop areas . I am amazed how much lumber is used on pallets. Harry

It's crazy, I see stores around here that literally have cameras to make sure nobody takes their pallets, and I will occasionally see a truck with pallets stacked 8 feet high. I'd have a hard time getting them in the car and there's one of those panoramic sunroofs so that ain't gonna work either lol. I dunno man, I'll figure out something. 

But I get it. People always thought I was weird because once I hit a certain age, I didn't wanna go out after work, I didn't want to go socialize and be normal. I just want to sit at home alone with the dog and the plants. But if you see me in public you'd think I'm a social butterfly - a friend of mine told me that I'm the life of the party, if you can get me to go.