Coronavirus Chronicles: Gardening provides antidote to quarantine anxiety

Robyn Rice with her greenhouse and gardening gear. (Photo by Alan Rice)

Staying home wIth an active 3 1/2-year-old boy, and having exhausted the usual entertainments in a pandemic such as virtual playdates and Cosmic Kids yoga classes, what’s a family to do when there’s still plenty of energy to burn?

“My husband, Alan, and I got a legit bouncy house for our son Abraham. We put it in the basement when it’s raining and the backyard when it’s not,” said Robyn Rice of Mountlake Terrace, who plans to use the equipment for events once this is all over.

Those events will surely have something to do with gardening. As lead volunteer with the Ballinger Organic Garden (BOG) at Ballinger Park, and a monthly contributor of a gardening column in MLTNews, Rice is currently up to her ears in seeds. And she’s giving them away.

“In March I had a seed swap, and got a ton of seeds leftover,” she said “I was going to have another seed swap in April but then everything was cancelled.”

Now she’s left with boxes and boxes of seeds. “I’ve got lots of flowers. There’s kale, different kinds of tomatoes and squash, zucchini, herbs, lots of cabbage.”

The fish biologist, who is currently working from home, has taken on the labor-intensive challenge of sorting, packaging and labeling the hodge-podge of seeds. People message her via BOG email or the BOG Facebook page to let her know what they’d like to have, and she leaves orders outside her home for pickup

“I ask them what they want and how much. Some want just one variety of seeds to try and others want some of everything to start their first garden.”

Watching spring shoots germinate just might be the perfect antidote to the isolation and uncertainty everyone is experiencing right now, she said.

“It’s a mental distraction, to garden,” Rice said, and for some, it may be a necessity. “There are people growing food right now. You can grow your own salad and I can help with that.”

Rice has been overwhelmed by the response to her seed giveaway. “I’ve been really rewarded for doing it. When I call people and tell them, your seeds are ready, they are so thankful. It’s a great community connection, especially now. It fills up my bucket.”

— By Connie McDougall

This article is part of an ongoing series exploring the impact of coronavirus on the life, work and health of Edmonds residents. If you or someone you know has a story to tell, please email us at info@mltnews.com.

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