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Growing out of my depression.
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Title:
Growing out of my depression.
Growing out of my depression.
Author:
Jessica Sipe-Polen
Jessica Sipe-Polen
Description:
In 2014 I lost my brother who was just a couple years older than me, shortly after his return from deployment in Afghanistan. From 2014-2018 I was severely depressed. I had lost my best friend and brother. During that time in 2016, my husband and I had another child together, but that pregnancy was really hard on my body and I ended up in the hospital for 3 months straight, at one point having to choose between my life and my unborn child. I chose to fight, and now we have another beautiful daughter together. But now I can't have any more kids or else I will risk my children loosing their only mother. This all was very hard on me, and I fell into an even harder deep depression. Then last summer 2017 my husband got a job promotion, but it also meant we had to leave our home town family and friends... That was really hard on me and my kids. By the end of winter 2017 my family was miserable, my 6 year old started to get depressed because she missed her family and friends, as a mom that was very hard for me. I knew I had to find a way to make our time in this different town more enjoyable.... That's where gardening came in! In the beginning of April I started some seeds with my kids, now it's just 3 months later, and everyone's emotions have improved drastically! Our kids enjoy being outside again, they enjoy helping with the garden, and we all enjoy sitting together outside with them. Just a few months ago I wouldn't think we would be happy. We live in a little townhouse at the moment though, so starting was kind of difficult, there wasn't much of any room to plant anything, and I have to keep everything off our grass (which takes up a lot of our yard space) I wanted to grow something edible, because we're tight on money. I remembered when I was a child we would go up to our friends house, and his mom had a garden with cucumbers. We would always snack on fresh cucumbers and play games together. Right at that moment I knew I had to grow cucumbers, because it was a great memory from my childhood. I planted the seeds in 5 gallon buckets and realized I don't have room for them to grow and vine out everywhere! Panic set in, was I about to get our family evicted because my plant choice??!! I had to do something fast, I researched different ways to grow cucumbers and I noticed you can grow them vertically up a trellis! I though awesome I will do a trellis. Then I realized a trellis won't work either, I had way to many plants/vines. I was sitting staring at my tomato cages, and thought... Well if a cage holds up tomatoes, then it has to work for my cucumbers! My husband collected some "scrap wood" for me, and together we made a cucumber trellis for them to vertically grow! So far we've collected 16 cucumbers off them, and we're just getting started. My kids think it's awesome seeing them grow, and how much cucumbers they produce! Our little garden, literally saved my family and brought us back together, happily! I have learned how to grow from my depression. I can't change things that have happened, and I can't bring my brother back. But I can plant things in his memory, so I plant forget-me-not's every year for him (we are Alaska-natives). Watching them grow and bloom is like him saying everything is going to be okay.
In 2014 I lost my brother who was just a couple years older than me, shortly after his return from deployment in Afghanistan. From 2014-2018 I was severely depressed. I had lost my best friend and brother. During that time in 2016, my husband and I had another child together, but that pregnancy was really hard on my body and I ended up in the hospital for 3 months straight, at one point having to choose between my life and my unborn child. I chose to fight, and now we have another beautiful daughter together. But now I can't have any more kids or else I will risk my children loosing their only mother. This all was very hard on me, and I fell into an even harder deep depression. Then last summer 2017 my husband got a job promotion, but it also meant we had to leave our home town family and friends... That was really hard on me and my kids. By the end of winter 2017 my family was miserable, my 6 year old started to get depressed because she missed her family and friends, as a mom that was very hard for me. I knew I had to find a way to make our time in this different town more enjoyable.... That's where gardening came in! In the beginning of April I started some seeds with my kids, now it's just 3 months later, and everyone's emotions have improved drastically! Our kids enjoy being outside again, they enjoy helping with the garden, and we all enjoy sitting together outside with them. Just a few months ago I wouldn't think we would be happy. We live in a little townhouse at the moment though, so starting was kind of difficult, there wasn't much of any room to plant anything, and I have to keep everything off our grass (which takes up a lot of our yard space) I wanted to grow something edible, because we're tight on money. I remembered when I was a child we would go up to our friends house, and his mom had a garden with cucumbers. We would always snack on fresh cucumbers and play games together. Right at that moment I knew I had to grow cucumbers, because it was a great memory from my childhood. I planted the seeds in 5 gallon buckets and realized I don't have room for them to grow and vine out everywhere! Panic set in, was I about to get our family evicted because my plant choice??!! I had to do something fast, I researched different ways to grow cucumbers and I noticed you can grow them vertically up a trellis! I though awesome I will do a trellis. Then I realized a trellis won't work either, I had way to many plants/vines. I was sitting staring at my tomato cages, and thought... Well if a cage holds up tomatoes, then it has to work for my cucumbers! My husband collected some "scrap wood" for me, and together we made a cucumber trellis for them to vertically grow! So far we've collected 16 cucumbers off them, and we're just getting started. My kids think it's awesome seeing them grow, and how much cucumbers they produce! Our little garden, literally saved my family and brought us back together, happily! I have learned how to grow from my depression. I can't change things that have happened, and I can't bring my brother back. But I can plant things in his memory, so I plant forget-me-not's every year for him (we are Alaska-natives). Watching them grow and bloom is like him saying everything is going to be okay.
Description:
In 2014 I lost my brother who was just a couple years older than me, shortly after his return from deployment in Afghanistan. From 2014-2018 I was severely depressed. I had lost my best friend and brother. During that time in 2016, my husband and I had another child together, but that pregnancy was really hard on my body and I ended up in the hospital for 3 months straight, at one point having to choose between my life and my unborn child. I chose to fight, and now we have another beautiful daughter together. But now I can't have any more kids or else I will risk my children loosing their only mother. This all was very hard on me, and I fell into an even harder deep depression. Then last summer 2017 my husband got a job promotion, but it also meant we had to leave our home town family and friends... That was really hard on me and my kids. By the end of winter 2017 my family was miserable, my 6 year old started to get depressed because she missed her family and friends, as a mom that was very hard for me. I knew I had to find a way to make our time in this different town more enjoyable.... That's where gardening came in! In the beginning of April I started some seeds with my kids, now it's just 3 months later, and everyone's emotions have improved drastically! Our kids enjoy being outside again, they enjoy helping with the garden, and we all enjoy sitting together outside with them. Just a few months ago I wouldn't think we would be happy. We live in a little townhouse at the moment though, so starting was kind of difficult, there wasn't much of any room to plant anything, and I have to keep everything off our grass (which takes up a lot of our yard space) I wanted to grow something edible, because we're tight on money. I remembered when I was a child we would go up to our friends house, and his mom had a garden with cucumbers. We would always snack on fresh cucumbers and play games together. Right at that moment I knew I had to grow cucumbers, because it was a great memory from my childhood. I planted the seeds in 5 gallon buckets and realized I don't have room for them to grow and vine out everywhere! Panic set in, was I about to get our family evicted because my plant choice??!! I had to do something fast, I researched different ways to grow cucumbers and I noticed you can grow them vertically up a trellis! I though awesome I will do a trellis. Then I realized a trellis won't work either, I had way to many plants/vines. I was sitting staring at my tomato cages, and thought... Well if a cage holds up tomatoes, then it has to work for my cucumbers! My husband collected some "scrap wood" for me, and together we made a cucumber trellis for them to vertically grow! So far we've collected 16 cucumbers off them, and we're just getting started. My kids think it's awesome seeing them grow, and how much cucumbers they produce! Our little garden, literally saved my family and brought us back together, happily! I have learned how to grow from my depression. I can't change things that have happened, and I can't bring my brother back. But I can plant things in his memory, so I plant forget-me-not's every year for him (we are Alaska-natives). Watching them grow and bloom is like him saying everything is going to be okay.
In 2014 I lost my brother who was just a couple years older than me, shortly after his return from deployment in Afghanistan. From 2014-2018 I was severely depressed. I had lost my best friend and brother. During that time in 2016, my husband and I had another child together, but that pregnancy was really hard on my body and I ended up in the hospital for 3 months straight, at one point having to choose between my life and my unborn child. I chose to fight, and now we have another beautiful daughter together. But now I can't have any more kids or else I will risk my children loosing their only mother. This all was very hard on me, and I fell into an even harder deep depression. Then last summer 2017 my husband got a job promotion, but it also meant we had to leave our home town family and friends... That was really hard on me and my kids. By the end of winter 2017 my family was miserable, my 6 year old started to get depressed because she missed her family and friends, as a mom that was very hard for me. I knew I had to find a way to make our time in this different town more enjoyable.... That's where gardening came in! In the beginning of April I started some seeds with my kids, now it's just 3 months later, and everyone's emotions have improved drastically! Our kids enjoy being outside again, they enjoy helping with the garden, and we all enjoy sitting together outside with them. Just a few months ago I wouldn't think we would be happy. We live in a little townhouse at the moment though, so starting was kind of difficult, there wasn't much of any room to plant anything, and I have to keep everything off our grass (which takes up a lot of our yard space) I wanted to grow something edible, because we're tight on money. I remembered when I was a child we would go up to our friends house, and his mom had a garden with cucumbers. We would always snack on fresh cucumbers and play games together. Right at that moment I knew I had to grow cucumbers, because it was a great memory from my childhood. I planted the seeds in 5 gallon buckets and realized I don't have room for them to grow and vine out everywhere! Panic set in, was I about to get our family evicted because my plant choice??!! I had to do something fast, I researched different ways to grow cucumbers and I noticed you can grow them vertically up a trellis! I though awesome I will do a trellis. Then I realized a trellis won't work either, I had way to many plants/vines. I was sitting staring at my tomato cages, and thought... Well if a cage holds up tomatoes, then it has to work for my cucumbers! My husband collected some "scrap wood" for me, and together we made a cucumber trellis for them to vertically grow! So far we've collected 16 cucumbers off them, and we're just getting started. My kids think it's awesome seeing them grow, and how much cucumbers they produce! Our little garden, literally saved my family and brought us back together, happily! I have learned how to grow from my depression. I can't change things that have happened, and I can't bring my brother back. But I can plant things in his memory, so I plant forget-me-not's every year for him (we are Alaska-natives). Watching them grow and bloom is like him saying everything is going to be okay.