Bonus Cutting: My ADHD Garden

Hey, sluts! Our conversation from the last episode went a little long. We talked about gardening with chronic pain and why gardening can help you fight depression. So Jonathan and I decided to turn our ADHD discussion into its own little mini episode. So we'll talk about the problems you might run into gardening with ADHD, the things in your brain that make it hard, but also why it works. And some tips on keeping things straight when your brain is going in a thousand different directions. Make sure you subscribe and follow, give us all the stars that they have, write a little review. Anything you do to engage helps boost our podcast and make it more visible for others so that we can keep doing this and growing the podcast more successfully than our gardens. As we talk about pain and mood and our bodies and gardening, one thing I I talked about on this podcast is having ADHD. There's a kind of struggle with gardening with ADHD. It can be beneficial, but it can also be difficult.

In what ways?

ADHD is connected to dopamine. And rather than it just being a condition where like you can't pay attention and you're running around, kind of maybe the classic way we think of ADHD, like little kids who don't pay attention and are messy. There's also the fact that ADHD brains tend to have less consistent dopamine signaling, especially when it comes to like executive function, like planning things, starting tasks, or paying attention.

Right.

So it's not that people with ADHD have low dopamine all the time, but they have less reliable reward signaling for like low stimulation tasks. So you've heard me starting new things, but then like forgetting the last thing. Oh, I harvested all this stuff and I'm going to make tinctures, but then I like leave it out and start a new project. That's kind of a—

Classic ADHD symptom.

Exactly. Yeah. Things that are new kind of give you that dopamine hit. And so low stimulation tasks, you have less— you have more trouble starting or sustaining your attention on. But that can also help with gardening in some ways because it can drive your ADHD brain by giving you kind of that immediate feedback when you plant and water and prune and then you see the change. Like it's a visible, tangible change versus like meditating. You don't see that anything's different and you have to kind of like wait for those subtle cues.

And you have to like stick to it to be able to see a change.

Exactly. Yeah. There's a lot of novelty and variety with gardening. And I think this is why I don't mind when a plant dies, 'cause I get to go buy a new one. There's different plants you can learn about, textures. There's like new inputs into your brain, which kind of stimulate dopamine. There's always more shopping to do.

That's addiction.

Yeah, well, which is also connected to dopamine.

Oh yeah.

So you can also hyperfocus, like maybe starting a plant podcast 'cause you like gardening. When something's engaging, Problem solving in your garden, you can really get into deep focus states or deep dive. And I find that that's kind of why I also don't like being interrupted when I'm gardening because I'm kind of in a deep state of focus. So it's like, let me hyperfocus.

Yeah. And that's also where you have to be careful of still being able to change your position and stuff like that if you have some pain, right? Because sometimes when you're in that hyperfocus, hyperfocused state, like you're not remembering that, you know, you have to— I mean, sometimes you're not even remembering that you have to pee.

Yeah.

But like, you're not remembering that you need to like change your position and, and like, you know, that you might actually—

Drink water.

Feel pain later. Yeah. Like drink water.

Yeah, for sure. I think that can happen a lot. Also like reward stacking where you get these like small wins and that can kind of give you some like positive reinforcement signals in your brain.

Yeah.

Instead of the delayed payoff. Which I think gardening is something you have to wait for results, but there are also the mini wins.

That's true. It's like a lot of it is your state of mind, I guess, or the way that you think about it. You can reframe it in a way where you're not actually waiting for the peas, you actually want the sprouts. And sometimes actually you can eat— maybe even eating different parts of the plant in different stages could be a good way to see the rewards throughout the year, right? Like eating some of the bean sprouts, the different elements of it. Even at the end, you might be able to like harvest the roots.

Yeah, or like the hosta shoots that you ate in our last episode.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But this same dopamine system can make parts of gardening harder, like low-reward maintenance tasks feel invisible. I have a lot of trouble with this, like weeding, planning, and labeling, or even routine watering don't give you that immediate payoff, so your motivation for those drop fast. And I'm sure it's like that for everyone.

It's funny because the other day I did a lot of weeding. I was thinking about it, I was like, it's so sad satisfying to pull up like some weeds, you know, like when you get the whole root system that you lift out of the ground. I was like, this is so rewarding and it's not even, you know, providing me anything.

I feel like for me, weeding is like a hyperfocused state where it's like I'm going to weed this area and that's all I'm doing. And I get like kind of tuned into that, like, and then when it's done, you're like, yay. But it's definitely not something I do casually, little by little, which Would be more helpful. But I also have trouble with, like, routine watering, and planning the gardening can be really overwhelming. And I think I've talked about this, like, planning when I should plant certain things and when they will bloom or harvest, and making sure it's all, like— it can feel really overwhelming to have so many things happening at the same time and having to plan that out. And I always think I don't have to label things I don't remember, but I never remember. So if your dopamine isn't triggered, it's like an ADHD brain, the task can feel almost like physically hard to start, even if it's a simple one. So your brain might have you like jump to more novel or interesting stimuli mid-task, like another project, moving to another part of the garden.

Or looking up every individual unknown plant using an app. Like PlantNet or PlantSnap?

Exactly. Yeah. I have to write a Post-it note of what I'm doing out in the garden ahead of time because I will veer off and end up doing something so different. I have to remember like, no, I just came out here to like prune the roses and water, not put out mulch and— or start a new rock border. The overdrive also gives you like a big crash. So The strong dopamine engagement can lead to intense sessions that are followed by exhaustion or just avoiding it. So people with ADHD can enjoy gardening, but it can make it harder to sustain without some like structured adaptations. Some issues that people with ADHD might also have is like task initiation. Like starting can feel so overwhelming because there's just so much to do and your brain can't even like put together like what it has to Yeah, like analysis paralysis garden edition, where you're like thinking too much about where to start and it just overwhelms you so much you can't start. Yeah, and you just go to bed. And that's where for me, like having that Post-it note or whatever that just kind of is a brief list works for me, but it doesn't work for other people. I know there's other people where like writing a list actually overwhelms them more because they write down every single thing that could ever need to be done versus like, these are the 3 things I'm doing today. Task switching can overload the brain because there's like many little tasks like weeding, watering, pruning, planting. And when your brain jumps between them quickly, you have like half-finished work everywhere. There's also time blindness. People with ADHD often have time blindness, which can make them like late often or hyperfocus for hours and not realize how long they've been out there. Maybe, yeah, not switching positions and their bodies are exhausted and they lose track of time. They can also miss like the stuff they're supposed to do because they didn't realize they were supposed to water if you don't have like a timer set or harvesting. So people with ADHD often like run their lives on what they're interested in rather than like routines, and plants need that predictable care.

Hmm.

I mentioned working memory before. When I was tested for ADHD, I had the biggest Deficit in working memory. And that's like forgetting what you just planted or where you sowed seeds.

Hmm.

What needs harvesting. It can really cause a lot of like neglect, confusion in your garden layout. You're really distractible in outdoor environments. The visual stimuli of like birds and animals and different plants can steal your attention. And yeah, mental fatigue, you know, and follow-through is difficult. And a big one that I struggle with is object permanence.

Okay.

Like if you can't see it, it doesn't exist.

Right.

I know I have that with like clothing. Like I have to have all my clothing visible or I don't know that it's an option. That can also happen with gardening. Things that are further away maybe don't exist as much. That's why I created that little edible greens garden bed closer to my kitchen because I found that we weren't eating the vegetables that were grown further in the back garden because neither Nathan or I felt like they existed when it was time to start cooking. And then finally I'm out, I'm out there gardening. I'm like, oh yeah, we have all these peppers, like, oops, or tomatoes. And it's only when I'm outside gardening do I know they're there.

It's interesting because I remember we talked about permaculture and the zoning, you know, like the different zones of permaculture. If object permanence is something that you struggle with, then you could incorporate that into your kind of zoning of your garden.

That's a perfect example. And that's an example of why ADHD is kind of difficult to understand or diagnose or to know if you have it. Or some people say like, oh, I'm a little ADHD, because I feel like all of us can struggle with these things. It can be like you're stressed at your job, so yeah, you have less object permanence in your brain because your cortisol levels are up. You might not have diagnosable ADHD, but all of us kind of can struggle with these. Or if you've been on your phone a lot, suddenly your attention span is shorter, but you might not have ADHD.

Right.

But some helpful things, the permaculture would definitely help with object permanence, containers instead of beds that are far away.

Well, with containers, you can also move them based on when they would need to be harvested.

Yeah, right.

Like if they're in small enough containers, then you can kind of be like, oh, well, I'll put this closer because it'll be easier for me to remember that they're there for me to harvest.

Mm-hmm. Exactly. You know, giving yourself simple one-task, like entry points to gardening, like I will just water or I'll just pull weeds for 10 minutes and giving yourself a time limit. It can help with being overwhelmed.

Yeah.

And trying not to remember everything, like using labels, using photos, phone notes can help you with your garden.

Keeping a journal, I guess, you know, where you like, you might make like a little sketch of where you put something or even like what something reacted well to the previous year.

I know I started my little journal where I was planning everything and Sometimes that task can feel overwhelming, like getting back to it and making sure I update it correctly. So keeping it real simple and casual, like Post-it notes and phone notes, can make it a little less stressful. And making things part of your routine, like linking the habits, like after you have your coffee, you check your plants, in your evening walk, you water, helps with consistency. For me, like working on the garden after work, keeps it consistent. For me, like connecting it with it's my time alone to unwind keeps me doing it consistently. Definitely having— I don't know if you have one of these, like I have a little garden belt that has everything I'll need, including Post-it notes, a Sharpie, my gloves, a shovel, or like, yeah, it has like everything. So I don't end up getting far away from my greenhouse shed and not having like a Sharpie to write down a label or whatever it is. Do you have something like that?

Yeah, I have a bag, a tote bag that I bring with me to the community garden and it has containers for putting some of my harvest in. It has like my secateurs, like labels and markers and whatever. Like if I remember that I have to do something like, oh, it's time to put like the net over the hascaps, then I'll easily just like grab the net and put it in that bag so that the next time that I go to the garden, I like know that I need to do that. Or when I realize I have to do that, I like can pull it out and easily do it because like being far from home, I mean far from home, it's like a 7-minute walk.

That's annoying though.

For me, it's like a big block, you know, where I'm like, oh, like, I know I have to do this, but like, oh, it's at home, so I'm not going to do it. And then I just like probably never end up doing it. So I have that kind of like go bag.

For me, the belt helps a lot because if, say, I'm out by my vegetable bed and I need to write a label to remember that I like planted a tomato or something, if I have to go back to my shed to grab the Sharpie, I'm going to see something else. And I'm going to start working on something else. So like keeping everything right there on me keeps me like from losing my momentum.

Right.

And then of course, we've talked about this, or have we talked about body doubling? This is like a big thing.

Yeah, like I know about body doubling. I might have talked about it, but I'm not like, not on this podcast, I think.

Yeah. So that would be like gardening with someone else or having someone nearby that's just doing their own thing helps you sustain focus and reduce your task avoidance. So if you You have like a friend that you're calling and you're like, come over on Saturday and we're going to garden at 11. It helps do that.

It helps keep you accountable, I guess, to like what you want to do.

Yeah, exactly. I use Nathan. Well, poor Nathan. It's like, okay, we're gardening. You do all the stuff I don't want to do. Let's go.

Like literally you use Nathan. Oh my gosh. I like how you said it in that way instead of being like, Nathan's my body double or I invite Nathan. You're like, I use Nathan. He loves it. Like he's an object.

He loves it. He does his own interesting projects out in the garden as well. But yeah, keeping the setup easy helps you start. And that's why, yeah, purchasing the raised bed that's near the kitchen, I didn't know where to put it exactly, but I knew I needed that because I knew that was the way we would actually eat the lettuce is if it was closer. So it's not the most beautiful thing to have out on the patio. It lowers the entry barrier for gardening.

Yeah.

Yeah, I hope everyone—

So you're not like, oh, I won't do a salad The salad's so far away.

Or even—

I don't know if—

Well, it's not even that it's—

I mean, for me, it's like sometimes it's like on the roof or a 7-minute walk.

I could see that, but I think for me, it's like I don't even know that I have lettuce. Like, it never crosses my mind that there's lettuce. Like, I'll be in the fridge like, oh, we don't have any lettuce, and keep going on. And it's like, wait.

That's like the object permanence thing, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And also, for me, like cooking with someone else, like Nathan also needs to know that we have like lettuce and peas and whatever. is ready. So, if you are listening to this and you relate, get tested for ADHD. It's fun. It's fun to get tested. The test was fun. I did go—

Yeah, okay.

Well, I don't know if it's the same everywhere, psychologist, and go in and do a couple tests. But there's no like blood test or anything, so it is experience-based. For me, it's that I never stop wondering where my headphones are. The doctor's like, yeah, you need, you need medication. Thanks for listening. Bye, sluts.