Last week, my friend and fellow gardener, Carolyn Evans, told me in an email, “Your columns are especially welcomed during this abnormal time. New information and the comfort of a weekly session of normality.” I appreciate Carolyn’s kind words, and want her to know that they are a comfort to me. 2020 has been a long, strange, difficult year so far for all of us. Funny jokes and photo memes abound on social media. This morning I shared a photo of a banana, smelt, and fried egg pizza with the caption, “If 2020 was a pizza…” Funny, not funny. The point is that we have to do what we can to remain positive in the face of the serious and life threatening events that bombard us each day from the newspaper, TV, and computer screen.

For some, remaining sane might mean posting memes on Facebook, but that activity provides only marginal and temporary relief from stress and the blues. Many of us have spent the spring and summer planting and tending flower and vegetable gardens. In fact, garden...