gardening

How to Make and Manage a Garden with Eczema (Part 2)

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Welcome back to part two of my journey on finally working on my front and back yard while suffering from eczema on my hands and feet.

I’m sorry for the long delay, COVID-19 has caused many delays and I will try to plan out content more efficiently.

As I mentioned in my last post, gardening for me is not as easy as it seems due to my garden beds needing consistent management. However, I was super excited to start an herb garden and I realized it was time to tackle the monster that is my garden beds.

Again, my eczema never fully goes away, so this is a continuing challenge for me, but I’m not going to let my eczema stop my goal of having an herb garden this summer, and neither should you, which is why I wanted to create this mini-series!

I bought my herbs from my local garden center and started on my back yard garden beds. I followed the same protocols I did for the front yard. If you haven’t read part one you can catch up here.

I recommend taking your time weeding if you have eczema. It’s okay if it even takes a few days. It is better to prioritize your body and condition over some pesky weeds.

Here is what by back beds looked like before I weeded:

After about three days of work here is the result:

On day three, I was able to plant my herbs. I water them appropriately every other day and I’m about to do my second harvest soon!

Here is a picture of my herb garden starting out:

I planted chives, parsley, basil, chamomile, lavender, thyme, honeydew sage, yellow sage and rosemary together in the bed. I planed my mint separately because I heard it grows very fast, and I’m glad I did because after two days it started spreading!

Next year I will plant my chamomile in a separate container with a tomato stand (it gets very bushy)!

After my gardening experience this year, I think I’m ready to start planning to do a vegetable and herb garden for next year.

Let me know in the comments if you want me to share tips about how I dry/store my herbs! Make sure to follow my blog for more content related to mental health, eczema and fitness.

How to Make and Manage a Garden with Eczema (Part 1)

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With the COVID-19 outbreak being so impactful on my life, it has been difficult finding the will to write anything. Heck, it’s been hard to DO anything except bingeing Netflix and Hulu and eat comfort food.

However, my husband and I looked at our yard this past weekend and it really needed some love, so we decided to finally get out of the house and into the sunshine to work on our lawn and prep for a garden!

This wasn’t an easy task because when we bought the house the previous owners gave up keeping up with the yard, especially the garden beds. I tried to tackle it last summer, but it was too much to handle, especially since I was just diagnosed with eczema a few months prior.

Eczema never fully goes away, so this is still a big problem for me, but I’m not going to let my eczema stop my goal of having an herb garden this summer, and neither should you!

So you can stay up-to-date with this experience, I decided to make a multi-part series about my journey of creating and managing a garden with my eczema .

This first part will be about what you may need, what I do to prep my hands and feet before I start and the transformation of my front lawn, so later this spring I can plant some pretty flowers!

Here is what my garden looked like when I started:

What you will need is a…

  1. A good lotion- Make sure you have a lotion that works well for you. We don’t want your hands or body to dry out!
  2. A set of sturdy gloves- This will protect your dry hands from the dirt and hopefully cause less irritation. However, if you feel like your hands are getting too sweaty, take them off!! This could cause inflammation!
  3. A water bottle- Drink at least 12-24 oz of water before you start. This will help prevent you from sweating less and prevent inflammation.

Here is what I did about 30 minutes before I started working…

  1. I washed my hands and feet very well
  2. I lotion them (I’ve been using Eucerin’s Eczema Relief lotion and it’s been working out pretty good!)
  3. I immediately put socks on my feet directly after lotioning
  4. I drank 24 oz of water

I will say, these steps seems super obvious, but really they can be easy to forget and it made a huge difference. My eczema never got irritated or triggered and it honestly felt good to get some work done without my hands burning or red!

Here is what my garden looked like when I finished:

I’m so proud of my results! Please stay safe and healthy during this pandemic and try to find the joy in the small things.

Follow my blog so you can see how I continue to maintain and manage my yard and how I began my herb garden.