A YT channel mentioned gardeners can get depressed in the winter when they can’t grow. Do you get seasonal depression when you can’t grow? Do you think it is due to lack of sunlight or lack of ability to garden?
3 Likes
Off-season here is spent planning for next year and looking at print catalogues, so, no depression.
7 Likes
i have 3 potted trees and citrus indoors as well as smaller pots with herbs. when its cold outside it warms me seeing the mineola and satsuma with ripening fruit though my south facing windows.
4 Likes
i think everyone does, but i get through it by doing a lot of fruit exploring. southern hemisphere ships lots of tropicals up here in the winter 
8 Likes
No depression, just bored during the winter months since I am not outdoors looking at and taking care of my fruit trees and plants.
7 Likes
Over the late fall, winter and early spring months… I grow leaf lettuces in a hot bed.
So.. I never really stop growing something.
We eat some great salads over over that timeframe and I supply my daughter and sister too.
Incadescent lights get it thru the worst of winter… and it does very well in the Feb-May timeframe… before getting too buggy.
Over most of November, December… I mowed the edge of my fields with a bagging mower.. collecting a mix of chopped up leaves and grass.. and mulched all my fruit trees, blueberries, blackberries, etc with that.
I have done some more of that during the month of Feb. I have a big pile of shredded leaves and grass .. just ready for mulching other beds and adding more to fruit trees.
Over the fall and winter.. you do have the Holidays.. to help get you thru without getting too depressed or bored. Some good family time.
And Fall is some good fishing weather… And all fall and winter is good for squirrel and deer hunting.. turkeys in the spring, morels..
Over the winter months.. lots of scion wood trading happening here. That keeps me busy thru Dec, Jan, Feb..
You could root figs and other things over the winter months. I have done that a few times.
We have other things that keep us busy over winter too… Family, granddaughter, Church.. my ministry of reconciliation (as Paul calls it). 7 men reconciled last Friday night at a local drug rehab center.. where I teach and share the Gospel.
Seems like there is always something to do.
TNHunter
11 Likes
Sorry to get technical. But seasonal depression is very much a real thing and its tied closely to Vitamin D3 levels.
Virtually everyone in the developed world conically low on Vitamin D. Its defined in ng/ml and below 30 is considered deficient. These numbers where chose by testing the general population and making assumptions as to what’s normal in the population. These numbers have just been dropping so they reevaluated normal.
Researches now believe the body will do everything it can to keep you at at least 30ng/mL which is what was previously considered good. If you fall below that you are serious deficient.
45 ng/mL is the point the body has enough Vitamin D to satisfy every function, and 100 ng/mL should be goal.
Previous research in the late 90 early 2000’s warned that Vitamin D can cause hyper calcium in blood and lead to fractures the opposite of the strong bones message.
This was before all the research into Vitamin K2 had been performed. Vitamin D3 does increase blood calcium. Vitamin K2 creates proteins ( Matrix Gla and Osteocalcijn) to put calcium in the places its needed. There has not been a documented case of hypercalcemia when K2 and D3 are taken together.
I have been getting my D levels tested regularly and its been a struggle to keep them up and get them above 45 ng/mL
The standard restoration advice of 10,000ui once a week is just not good enough. Now that I up to date on the latest research and lack of evidence of harm especially when combined with K3.
I am not taking 50,000ui Daily of D3+ K2. Costs a whooping $21 for 72 days worth at that dose
Its also imperative to take a magnesium supplement. The body can not turn D3 into its active forms with our Magnesium and it can not make Matrix GLA from K2 with out magnesium. There is not fixed requirement. You take as much as you can tolerate in which ever form you like. Magnesium glycinate is often recommend because it doesn’t cause gastric issues and help with sleep.
The body self limits its self to 100ng/mL but my personal goal is 150 maybe more. From what I understand some actual remodeling can occure at that levels such as the reabsorption and remodeling of bone spurs.
All and all I do feel much better this winter with high doses.
8 Likes
Thank you for sharing this with us. I am glad to have discovered magnesium glycinate as well.
Is the Vitamin D level testing that you have been doing one that is done at home with a kit? Is it one that you have to send off for analysis or is it one that is done in the office of a medical practitioner of some sort?
1 Like
I get a stupid number of blood tests every three months because insurance covers it. With out insurance I searched and you can get it done as low as $37 -150.
I think it’s worth getting done once so your spouse does not accuse you of being a nut job.
But after that dont for see a need to retest for at least a year or stoping the high dose d as long as it includes k.
Asking go for the test simply because you want to know is what everyone should do. If insurance rejects it you can choose to do it your self but you don’t know until you try.
I have other stories to tell about simple vitamins testing but that’s another long paragraph and I’m on my phone right now.
3 Likes
I’m sure that they are good ones worth sharing.
Years ago I had asked my general physician about having a hormone panel done to see if there was something off that was causing my sleeping issues. I was not a fan of the way that he dismissed it as a useless test on the basis of everyone’s numbers being different. There have to be norms that have been observed, even if there is some statistical variance.
1 Like
On my first year of gardening, I felt super down and disappointed when the first killing frost came and killed off all my cucurbits. I thought, “It’s over,” and my shoulders drooped. I spent the next six months waiting until it was time to plant cucurbits again.
Over the course of that winter, I binge-read tons of books about gardening, and binge-watched tons of YouTube videos. I learned that there is such a thing as cover crops. I learned that some of them are edible. Then I learned that there is such a thing as winter crops. When my second fall of gardening came around, I started sowing peas and kale and fava beans to grow through the winter. They grew! And I have never had a time when there was nothing growing in my garden since then.
So yes, I did get seasonal depression about not being able to grow things through the winter . . . which is why I’ve never let it happen again. 
5 Likes
I do, though not in a formal diagnosis sort of way. I have tried to remedy it through red light therapy, growing things indoors, and getting outside into any winter sun that makes itself available. I live in one of the cloudiest places in the US so this can be difficult. The greenhouse we built has really helped this year, just being around green growing things. I do also supplement with D3/K2, have for years.
1 Like
i icefish when its not too cold. gets me out in the sun and fresh air plus fresh fish to eat. heading out later to catch the afternoon bite for some white perch.
4 Likes
I get regular blood testing for vitamins through privatemd the actual testing is either done Quest or labcorp
Same testing the doctors office use
They have periodic sales and coupons and also around Christmas time .They are the cheapest they do not expire and I stock up and use them the next year.
1 Like
My biggest challenge in the winter is lack of sunlight, not lack of gardening to do. I have a lot of other outdoor hobbies that keep me happy, but you can’t really do any of them on a weekday when it’s only light from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. There’s also the fact that it’s constantly overcast in the northwest in the wintertime, so what daylight we do get is pretty dim. December and January are just rough months. I really enjoy the late winter weeks from mid-February to mid-March when there’s still snowy winter things to do, but the days are bright.
3 Likes
Wow… impressive work.
Not me. I used to feel a huge sense of relief when my 20x40’ vegetable garden finally froze in the autumn. That meant about 5 month’s rest from weeding, harvesting and canning! When (after some 40 years) the squirrels took over all the harvesting, I put up a 9x12’ greenhouse, and now grow year-round on a smaller scale. Shoveling a path through the snow to the greenhouse door is rewarded with puttering in warm soil, surrounded by sunshine and greenery. Not to mention homegrown tomatoes year-round.
6 Likes
@joy I don’t want to derail the thread, but could you briefly tell me more about your year round tomatoes? I didn’t get a chance to start any this year due to illness, but was going to do micro dwarf tomatoes since I’ve successfully grown them indoors prior to having a heated greenhouse. I also thought about trialing dwarf varieties since I figured it would be easier to stick them under my grow lights than am indeterminate if needed. Any big tips or cultivar recommendations?
I haven’t even heard of “micro dwarf” tomatoes - I’m sorry! Mine grow all the way to the ceiling and try to climb out the roof vents. I get my tomato seeds from Johnny’s - any that they label as good for greenhouse growing are reliably so, in terms of being disease-resistant and thriving in greenhouse conditions. My favorite variety so far, for flavor, is “Hot Streak.”
3 Likes
Thank you for the tips! I’m guessing you probably get a lot more winter sun than we do, but it does encourage me to at least try a couple of indeterminates next winter.
Micro dwarf tomatoes are tiny plants, maybe a foot or so tall, that usually put out no bigger than large cherry size tomatoes. They can usually tolerate being grown in as small as a one gallon pot. They worked very well when all I had was a small bathroom shelving unit to grow things inside. Good enough for salad over winter.
2 Likes