Dig In: Getting Outside, Growing Things & the Mental Health Magic of Getting Your Hands Dirty

Welcome to The Dry Life- Alcohol -Free Lifestyle, Marriage Growth In Sobriety, the podcast where one real couple gets honest about sobriety, personal growth, and everything in between. Join us — a husband and wife duo — as we share our sobriety journey, including the raw ups and downs, the unexpected benefits of alcohol-free living, and the lifelong learning that has transformed our lives and our marriage. Whether you’re sober curious, newly sober, or years into your recovery journey, this podcast is your reminder that life after alcohol can be full, rich, and deeply rewarding. Each week we dive into real conversations about sober living, self-development, mindset shifts, and the daily commitment it takes to keep growing. If you’re looking for a sobriety podcast that goes beyond just quitting drinking and explores what it truly means to thrive, you’re in the right place.

Happy May, friends! This week Nate and Megan are keeping it real and lighthearted with a conversation about one of Nate’s favorite spring rituals — getting outside and digging in the dirt. Nate spent the weekend weeding, mulching, and planting marigolds, and apparently loved every second of it. Megan? Not so much of a gardener, but she’s a great sport about it.
They swap childhood stories — Megan’s backyard forest with a three-tiered sandbox where turtles laid eggs, Nate’s grandfather who spent his entire retirement doing free landscaping for widows in his neighborhood — and get into the surprising ways that being outside and working with the earth just makes you feel better. There’s some real talk about earthing/grounding, the workout you don’t realize you’re getting, and why Nate is now in a friendly rivalry with the neighborhood lawn champion.
They also revisit their absolutely disastrous vegetable garden attempt from last year (one tomato, one pepper, one borrowed cucumber — okay, it was a celery), dream about a future organic garden out west, debate lavender seeds, and wonder aloud what on earth kohlrabi actually is.
It’s a fun, unscripted one — the kind of episode that feels like sitting on a porch with your friends on a warm May afternoon.
In this episode:
•Why getting your hands in the dirt might actually be good for your nervous system
•The surprising physical workout of yard work
•Nate’s grandfather and his legacy of free neighborhood landscaping
•Grandma Luella, a farm in Hayfield, and Megan’s one-year Colorado garden glory
•The Great Tomato Disaster of last year
•Homemade weed killer (vinegar + salt + water) and keeping it pet-safe for Spike
•Kohlrabi: what even is it?
•Dreams of a future out west with a little organic garden
Connect with us: Have gardening tips for Nate? Growing advice, dandelion solutions, or just want to tell us what kohlrabi tastes like? Send us a message — we’d love to hear from you!

dry life podcast, alcohol free lifestyle, sober living, getting outside, nature and mental health, gardening therapy, yard work benefits, earthing grounding, outdoor wellness, spring gardening, Minnesota spring, nervous system regulation, mental health outdoors, nature therapy, sober fun, sobriety lifestyle, family stories, gardening beginners, homemade weed killer, kohlrabi, marigolds, organic gardening, outdoor workout, husband wife podcast​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey folks. Happy May. This is Nate. I'm here with.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hi, I'm Megan, his wife. And I don't know what we're talking about today.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

I do.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Yeah, I thought um maybe our uh topic today could be maybe getting outside and digging in the dirt. Because that's what I did this weekend. A lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

A lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

And uh I was waiting for Megan to ask me if I was trying to avoid her because I was outside most of the time, but she didn't.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

No, I was enjoying my solace.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah. So here in uh Minnesota, we I don't know, we've had a few good days. Um in enough good days to where you know things are starting to bloom and things are starting to come out.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Especially the weeds, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah. So yeah, we um I was out weeding and putting down new mulch and planting some flowers, and I really enjoy I I forget how much I enjoy being outside and doing that kind of stuff. Um and uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

I that makes one of us.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, I I mean you don't have to have a green thumb to do it, you know. Um but it's something that I really enjoy, and I you know, I'm just thinking others are doing it and enjoying it, or maybe some folks are have thought about it, and you know, there's not much to it. Um last year I tried to get a garden going, yeah, and that was a complete disaster. Um and basically, I mean it there are a lot of factors, but just the fact that we don't have we've got a lot of trees which we love, but um it doesn't allow the sun to come through and not not so good for gardens, but I learned a lot.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

And uh you learned a lot, and you learned that you are not gonna have a garden this year. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yes, I learned I learned enough to avoid that. Um but what what's when you were growing up, did you did you guys have a garden or yeah, um not like vegetables.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I think we had like flower gardens. And but we had a lot of like bushes and like rocks. So yeah. I don't I think I remember one garden bed, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Um and in our backyard it was all trees, like forest, so there was nothing going on back there except for our three-tiered sandbox.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Oh fancy.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

It uh the turtles would lay their eggs in there.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah, that was kind of kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Did the little turtles get out?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I don't I don't rem all I remember is just seeing eggs in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Oh yarn.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

So let me ask you this. Yeah. Do you feel grounded when I'm doing this? No, right now. Because you had um you had your hands in the dirt. You were in the touching the earth, and when you have contact with the earth, I think electrolon electrolons. Electrons. Um about elect like your energy is like more you can ground a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Well, I think there's a something organic, something.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Um you seem like in a better mood.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, well, and the other the other trick to this is some people go for a run, some people run on a treadmill, some people do stair climbs, and those things don't interest me. But man, do I get a workout doing this kind of stuff outside? I and I don't even think about it, yeah. Um, yeah, and I think it's um I would say it's kind of in my blood because on both sides, on my mom's side and my dad's side, there were definitely people that were into flowers, were into gardens, were into landscaping, and um I think I got that gene. So um I don't comp I don't um claim to be any good at it, it just I really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Well the yard looks very nice.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I'll attest to that. We have Catalina Island, which is like a landscape island on our yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Why do we call it that?

SPEAKER_00 5:12

We call it that because when our cats get out, they go there.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah, they hide in the bushes and and that looks really nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

And then you have our green blanket that doesn't look very nice yet, but what are those things called? Because they really work.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Do you guys seed blankets that come in rolls?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

They look super ugly for like a couple weeks, but then they work really well to grow grass, so yeah. We're proponents of the seed blanket.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah, my um my dad's dad, my grandfather, was he when he retired, he lived in like a townhouse community, and he and his buddy would spend the entire summer doing landscaping and stuff for people around the neighborhood. And I don't know if they charge anything really. I mean they maybe maybe the people got the supplies and stuff, but they uh sun up to sundown. I mean they where was that? That was in Plymouth in Cimarron Palace that community. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Isn't don't they have like a HOA that does that?

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Not back then. Oh I mean, he and his buddy Mike would just um I I just remember him saying that yeah, the some of the old widows would like to pay us, and we we wouldn't take their money, we'd just do it. Oh yeah. So um, and then my dad, my dad was is uh he's got an HOA now that takes care of it, but before he was very much into that kind of thing too.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

So yeah, not so much in my family. I mean my we had plants, like tons of plants in the house.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

And they seem to stay alive more so than I can keep ours alive. But um yeah, I think it's good. I really enjoyed just I just was able to look out the window and see that you were there.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah. I hadn't passed out or something, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah, but Spike and I did some things. We went to the dog park and we went on a walk.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

So yeah, I think I think it's a nature thing too, of course. Um dig it in the dirt and I come I I don't think I've seen as many worms as I have today in the time that we've lived here. But man, they're awesome. You pull out a dandelion, there's normally a worm like right at the bottom of the root.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Like, is it killing it?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Or no, it's like eating eating the stuff that the plant is giving off.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

I was wondering why you think they're awesome.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, because I mean they just they they really manage the soil and and stuff, and I was able to use some of my composting.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

You have compost?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Well, from a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

And it's really good now. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean this um I think I think a lot of it has to do with um, you know, the climate here.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Did you put dirt up in my office?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I haven't yet, but I will.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, that I asked him a couple weeks ago, so now it's on record because I have yeah, I have something like holding it up. There, that squirrel is now in one of your pots. I can see him. He's gonna eat your flower.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

That's the son of a gun.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Yeah, he's thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

That's my brand new marigolds.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Oh, yeah, and you've got some merigolds. So I um had quite a flourishing garden in Colorado, of all places. Oh, they did it one year, lots of sun, yeah, and it was like a big area, but I mostly and I don't even know why, but like the most of my garden was cold rabi. Do you know what that is? I didn't even know what it was. And like we got sick of it pretty fast. I still don't really know what it is. Kolrabi.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

It's like a what does it look like?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

I don't even know. An alien, it's like a green thing. Oh, yeah, it's like a leek meets a broccoli, meets a cauliflower, meets a squash. If anybody out there knows about this, please send us a message that we're like must be the easiest damn thing to it's like the hosta of vegetables. Yeah, yeah, it just grew a lot. And I think I had a lot of like beans and yeah, I don't know how yeah, it must have just been that I had a lot of sun because we didn't I don't think we had any trees right in the yard where I did it.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

But is your family does your family have farmers in the well my grandma was a Johnson and she lived on a farm.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

In Hay no.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Hayfield. Hayfield, yeah. Well, you have to live on a farm in Hayfield. I don't even know where that is. Yeah, you sound like Rose from the Golden Girls. She was a Johnson and lived on the farm.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

She actually looked like Betty Wade. She was so cute, my grandma.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Grandma Luella, R. I. P.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, I have I have farmers in my lineage. And man, you know, that I think I'd really enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

When we when we live out, when we move out west, maybe we can have a little organic. Well, it's all gonna be organic, but if we can have a little garden.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, that would be nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

So is that all we wanted to talk about today? What else could we do? Did it help you?

SPEAKER_01 11:34

You know, I talked about the uh I talked about the physical nature of doing that kind of stuff, but mentally it's it's nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah, you're like me coming out of the cold plunge. You yeah, you got a pep in your step, you're except I'm not wearing a bikini. No. But you um Anyway, just let that sit for a second. I'm picturing you in a bikini.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Yeah, doing garden work.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah. Uh now I lost my train of thought. I can imagine I'm thinking banana hammock. Oh god. Sorry, people.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Um yeah, but I mean the mental health aspect is I mean usually he walks around here just I don't skip, but no, he just drags his feet and yeah. Well, I gotta, I gotta, you know, I'm making a run for we've got a neighbor who's been the I think the the the lawn champion of the neighborhood for the past 15 years. Yeah, oh my god consistently, and so I I gotta at least give her a run for her money.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Yeah, but we have dandelions. Yeah. How do we they do not have one?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

She smiled at me today. Oh my god. Like a little nod to I like what you're doing over there. Good. Yeah, dandelions. I know. Yeah. That's we gotta take care of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

The next thing. What do you do? Spray them, but we don't want spike to get no.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

There's like some I made some homemade weed killer with vinegar salt water, which isn't as as effective as the nasty stuff, but yeah, what it does is it just um it dries out the plant and it just gets it dehydrated in it. But um, I'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Yeah, that's your next task, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

So yeah, or why don't you write to us and tell us how you guys get outside if you dig in the dirt and if you have any tips for Nate on gardening? I'm sure he would love it.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

I would love it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Maybe we should just start with like a tomato plant or something.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

We did. It didn't even work.

unknown 14:06

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

What was that movie we saw recently? What was the title?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

I don't know. Things are oh it was a TV show. Oh very bad. No, girl, now I can't think of it. Very bad things are gonna happen, or something very bad is going to happen.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah, that that was a tomato growing season for us last year. Although we got one. Yeah, we got one, we got a pepper. We got a pepper. Okay, and then the nice lady next door gave us a cucumber that did well. Okay, I mean celery, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

You know what I always say? I aim to be the most improved. So we only have to go up from here.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah. But you have to keep improving.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah. So I mean, I like how many things did you plant? And like nothing came up.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Except for one tomato and one pepper.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

So I think I think there's there's a chance you could do better. With some tips from our listeners.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yes. All right.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Maybe we could do an herb garden.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

We yeah. Yeah. We could do that.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah. That would be fun.

unknown 15:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

I was very tempted to get some lavender today.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Oh, how would that work?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Well, they come in seeds. Yeah. Lavender seeds. I know where would you put it? I don't know. I don't know. But of course, they're they're um I'm always late to the game with this stuff, but what they like you to do here in Minnesota is start growing this stuff inside.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Bef you know, and then once it starts to get once the ground gets warm enough, then it's got a head start. So if we planted lavender now, it might be ready by Christmas. Which would be fun. But it'd be dead.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah. So hey, um, why did you pick marigolds?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

They just spoke to me. Oh, I mean, literally, the plants like spoke to me.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Okay. I thought maybe there was a maybe there's a core memory.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

There, no.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Okay. Alright, friends. I think we've done enough damage this week.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Yeah. Are you gonna say, well, that was good. Like you always did I say that? Yeah, you're always like, well, that was that was a good conversation.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Well, I'm not gonna say it this time. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

All right. Yeah. Have a great week, guys. Get outside, dig in the dirt, walk in the green grass barefooted.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

And stay away from the thistles and the dog poop. Yeah. All right. Bye for now.

unknown 17:08

Bye.