Growing food with neurodivergence or a chronic illness
Growing food with neurodivergence or a chronic illness can be really tough. In some cases, you might be crashing or having a flare up for a month and totally miss a sowing window. In other cases, you might feel like you have a million things to do and you totally forget to sow the seeds or water your seedlings. Other times, it might be that ADHD / ASD overwhelm of where to start or what you need to get sowing means you just don’t feel able to do it. Don’t worry – I can guide you through how to get started today, right now! Let’s start with some frequently asked questions about growing food…
Surely, I can’t sow seeds in summer? Isn’t that a spring thing?
If you haven’t grown food before or have started your growing season late, you may be thinking you’ll need to wait until next year now. But this really isn’t the case! There are a number of seeds that you can continue to sow through the summer and many of these can be sown in pots and positioned in shadier areas of the garden! Here are just some of the seeds that you can sow over the summer months:
June and July
Lettuce
Cabbage
Spinach beet
Beetroot
Carrot
June to August
Lambs’ lettuce
Rocket
June to September
Mixed Salad leaves
Radish
Indoors all year round
Cress
What do I need? How I can I afford to do this if I am on benefits?
I know being on benefits can be difficult and can make it that bit harder to get started. You might be anxious that you will be wasting your money or you won’t be good at growing. The thing is, food is so expensive at the moment that now is the time to invest in that little bit that you need to get started.
There isn’t much you need to get started. Other than the seeds you want to grow and a bag of multi-purpose compost, you only need a tray to sow the seeds in initially. A margarine tub, eggbox, mushroom tray or anything that is a similar size will work. Later, if you don’t any ground area to plant out the seedlings into, you will need 30cm pots or a window box, like this one to allow your crops to thrive.
Carrots: best sown direct into a bucket of multipurpose compost (30cm diameter roughly) as they need the height of the pot to develop long orange carrots!
Cabbage: I would only sow if you have an area to plant the seedlings out into the ground.
You honestly don’t even need a garden to grow - cress and mixed salad leaves can be grown indoors on a sunny windowsill or table. Cress is a very easy, budget crop that can make a sandwich or dinner that bit healthier and you just need a sheet of kitchen roll and margarine tub (no soil at all) to grow them!
What about sun and all those other important elements?
So this is fairly important! You need to be able to provide your crops with sun but salads do prefer shadier areas so they don’t wilt, so don’t worry too much if you don’t think you have the sunniest garden. The important thing is to try and remember no one can be an expert instantly!
Daily watering is good for your plants and keep the soil free of weeds (which should be less of a problem if you are growing inside or in pots) to ensure it has the best chance of survival.
Ok, but how do I sow the seeds?
Every crop is different, so you need to read the packet to see how deep and how far apart to sow them, but it isn’t an exact science. So don’t panic if you sow too close together or too far apart! Remember: in nature seeds just fall on the ground and sprout, so you don’t need to be exact!
How does this help with my chronic illness or neurodiversity?
It can bring some calm and some mindfulness to your day, as well as provide you with healthy, organic food to eat - which has been linked to improving ADHD symptoms! It can reduce your food bills (in turn, reducing stress) and it can also grow your confidence as there is something very special about being able to grow your own food. You just need to remember to water, weed and harvest it! If you are suffering from depression or anxiety, this might help provide you with some sort of routine to your day, too. I find it helps reduce my stress levels, keeps me calm and helps to focus my mind by doing watering and sowing as a mindful activity. It can be a form of self-care if you let it.
What if I need more guidance and support?
If you need further help, there are plenty of gardening or allotment groups or forums to get stuck into and ask the burning questions.
If you want to further incorporate nature into your life to help manage your neurodiversity or chronic illness, you can take a look at my packages and book a discovery call to find out more about Earth Coaching Discovery Call!
If you enjoyed this post, sign up for the mailing list here. Good luck with your growing and please get in touch to tell me how you are getting on.
