MIDDLEBORO — After 18 years, Dan Lyons has come back to the plot he once cultivated in Middleboro to keep his Parkinson’s disease symptoms at bay, and to find connection in the soil he once shared with his wife.

Lyons, 77, and a Carver resident, grows a little bit of everything in his 20 by 10 foot plot at Soule Homestead Education Center. He first dug into the earth there in 2001, with his wife Betty Lyons. After she died from breast cancer in 2007, he moved to Florida, where he lived for 18 years before returning to the South Coast last August. He said one of the biggest reasons for moving back was gardening at the homestead.

“I'm obsessed about this place, I can’t deny it. I come here all the time,” Lyons said. “I put a lot of time into it. It is a passion of mine, and I think of my wife down here. It's the best time ever. She’s my inspiration.”

Lyons’ cultivation of sugar-snap peas, cucumbers, acorn squash, ornamental flowers or “to-die-for” tomatoes not only connects him with his wife, but also serves as a healthy way to manage the symptoms he experiences from Parkinson's disease.

He received his diagnosis about 15 years ago and takes medication three times a day, and stays active to mitigate his symptoms. He has lost his sense of smell, experiences spine problems and is beginning to feel his memory and physical movement slow, he said.

Following a doctor’s visit last August, he said he was further driven to work in the garden as an important “escape” from everyday life.

“I mentioned how obsessed I am about this place. [My doctor] said to absolutely continue,” he said. “It can be a mental thing also, and I get tremors occasionally so I come here and this keeps me going.”

Lyons said he gardens as much as he can — at least four times per week. When at the garden, he said his stress goes away and although it’s tough work, it feels good to be physically and mentally active.

“I mean, I'm not dying, but there's no cure. I'm trying to slow the progression, so I come here,” Lyons said.

Unlike his other other healthy activities like swimming or practicing tai chi — gardening fills his diet with organic produce, and it gets him outside around nature.

“Well you know, this is all organic, and there’s no chemicals. You don't know that from the produce in the store, and — it's just very peaceful,” he said.

Kelly MacDonald Weeks, the director of Soule Homestead, said Lyon’s enthusiasm is contagious. On the hottest of summer days, she gives him friendly reminders to drink enough water and not work himself too hard.

“He pushes himself, for good or for bad, to do the thing that he loves because it makes him happy. It's hard. He gets tired. He sweats up a storm. We get dirty, right? But, he really loves it,” MacDonald Weeks said.

“There's the cliche about keeping you young, but I do think there's something to moving your body, even if it doesn't feel like it's traditional exercise,” she added.

Lyons not only tends to his own plot, but gives a helping-hand to other gardeners at the homestead, which houses 25 community plots.

“It's a space that Dan has re-found because he already loved it,” MacDonald Weeks said. “It just makes him really happy. He literally jumped off the plane, and came here.”

Lyons donates his extra crops to the Carver Council on Aging. Recently, he said his crop of sugar snap-peas filled about 12 gallon-sized-bags — all of which went to the center. Much of the extra produce that is cultivated by gardeners like Lyons is donated to local food pantries.

He said he’s been disappointed with recent federal actions that limit SNAP food assistance to seniors, and he enjoys donating and taking action to help those he sees in need.

“I come here to just forget about things. I’m basically kind of obsessed about giving to the seniors,” Lyons said. “I'm just doing what I gotta do to feel good. You gotta give back.”

Doctor’s orders aside, Lyons always knew gardening brought him satisfaction. Whether it was tending to his gardens in the dead of night, equipped with a headlamp — back when he worked long hours as a full-time truck driver — or now that he’s retired, he’s not going to stop his work in the gardens anytime soon.

“I’m an Irishman. It keeps me out of the bar,” Lyons said with a smile.

Community garden plots are owned by the individuals that rent the plots. To learn more about the wait-list for renting a garden plot and visiting the homestead, go to the Soule Homestead Education Center website.