Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[CapricornFarm]

A minister's wife once told me, "what don't hurt, don't work." She was about ten years younger than my 64 years at the time, I was in my mid thirties.......now I know what she was talking about.

Like mentioned but others, I too have the back problems, knee problems, foot problems, joint problems, blah blah blah. I will be seeing a rheumatologist in the future for suspected RA or some other rheumatic type of arthritis but besides the problems I have with kneeling for too long or standing for too long...oh, don't forget, bending too much, I am loosing fine motor function in both hands making using gardening tools a bit of a pain.

This coming spring, I am downsizing the number of plants I plant in my garden. DH is great at helping me but I will probably just be planting potatoes, onions and various squash. and then mulching the devil out of every thing to control weeds so I don't have to do so much hoeing.

This year I went to planters for my annual flowers and tubers like cannas and elephant ears, and will continue that trend this next spring. I am also moving my strawberries to a barrel planter but will let extras root in a small ground bed around the barrel planter.

My big challenge will be in adapting my smaller gardening tools to my hands. I'm thinking pool noodles cut in sections split and glued to my tool handles. It should help me grip them better and with less discomfort. I know they make built up implements for RA suffers. Guess it's time to apply some of what I've learned for my own use.

Yes pool noodles sound like a good idea to make handles easy to grip. My poor MIL has fingers that lock so she has to use her other hand to pry them open.
I have also seen where people use pallets to make raised beds. Looks very interesting. And cheap.

 

[CapricornFarm]

The guy that we used to fix our gravel driveway came today and leveled out the loads of topsoil and pushed stumps over the bank. Not a fan of dumping like that but not my circus.
It does look much better, nice topsoil too!

 

[chickmom3941]

Great idea for a thread, Cap! This is one I can certainly relate to, having osteoarthritis in both knees, back problems, as well as arthritis in my hands, and as microchick so eloquently stated - blah, blah, blah. I fondly remember spending hours on my knees in the garden in younger days. Lately, gardening has become very difficult, and Hubs and I saw a raised garden in a magazine that we are modeling ours after. I will try to find the pic and post at a later date, when I'm not so tired. Ours will be made out of large concrete blocks so that we can sit on them to tend the plants, rather than trying to get on our knees to weed, etc. It is partially finished, though we had hoped to complete it before winter. Now we're shooting for very early spring, since we can't do much planting outside till around May 15th here in MN. We also have two greenhouses, and everything in there is raised up and easy to reach.

Just a warning to anyone going the straw bale route - I read an article pointing out that it's very important to make sure the bales you use for them are not full of pesticides. Obviously, those would not be healthy to use for growing veggies in.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I always sit on a stool to weed but i used to use a little garden seat with wheels. Mine got left in FL. Saw one in Home Depot with a seat like a tractor. It is reduced in price. I resisted twice but with my knees being bad after a fall, i am thinking i will go for it.

 

[microchick]

Beautifully done @oldhenlikesdogs. What type of wood did you use to for the walls of your raised beds? And did you just use top soil to fill them?

@CapricornFarm, if you have a ravine, have the guys shove the stumps and slash into the ravine if it is doable. Several years ago we had brush specialists come in and cut back the timber that was overhanging our house. They took the slash and stumps (we wanted the tops and trunks for firewood) and piled it at the base of a ravine where we were having problems with erosion. It made a remarkable difference in the runoff.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Great idea for a thread, Cap! This is one I can certainly relate to, having osteoarthritis in both knees, back problems, as well as arthritis in my hands, and as microchick so eloquently stated - blah, blah, blah. I fondly remember spending hours on my knees in the garden in younger days. Lately, gardening has become very difficult, and Hubs and I saw a raised garden in a magazine that we are modeling ours after. I will try to find the pic and post at a later date, when I'm not so tired. Ours will be made out of large concrete blocks so that we can sit on them to tend the plants, rather than trying to get on our knees to weed, etc. It is partially finished, though we had hoped to complete it before winter. Now we're shooting for very early spring, since we can't do much planting outside till around May 15th here in MN. We also have two greenhouses, and everything in there is raised up and easy to reach.

Just a warning to anyone going the straw bale route - I read an article pointing out that it's very important to make sure the bales you use for them are not full of pesticides. Obviously, those would not be healthy to use for growing veggies in.

Not my idea for the thread, someone on another gardening thread suggested it so i went ahead and did it. But i do like the concept. I can't remember who it was, went back and looked but couldn't find the post. Thanks to whoever it was!

 

[CapricornFarm]

Beautifully done @oldhenlikesdogs. What type of wood did you use to for the walls of your raised beds? And did you just use top soil to fill them?

@CapricornFarm, if you have a ravine, have the guys shove the stumps and slash into the ravine if it is doable. Several years ago we had brush specialists come in and cut back the timber that was overhanging our house. They took the slash and stumps (we wanted the tops and trunks for firewood) and piled it at the base of a ravine where we were having problems with erosion. It made a remarkable difference in the runoff.

As soon as i saw bare wood i thought, that wood needs to be painted. I am a fanatic about painting everything.
We don't have any ravines that i know of. But we had what i called Goldenrod Gulch and we did dump a lot of tree debris there along with used shavings etc. Plants grew up and erosion stopped. Thanks for mentioning it!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Beautifully done @oldhenlikesdogs. What type of wood did you use to for the walls of your raised beds? And did you just use top soil to fill them?

@CapricornFarm, if you have a ravine, have the guys shove the stumps and slash into the ravine if it is doable. Several years ago we had brush specialists come in and cut back the timber that was overhanging our house. They took the slash and stumps (we wanted the tops and trunks for firewood) and piled it at the base of a ravine where we were having problems with erosion. It made a remarkable difference in the runoff.

It's pressure treated lumber, should last for years. They are set on the ground, not in, so they ride out our frost freeze cycle in the spring without worrying about anything heaving.

Before we built the boxes I practiced no till gardening, and I free formed my raised beds. We add grass clippings through the summer as mulch and in the fall leaves, clippings and manure. Over the course of more than a decade we made lots of extra soil by feeding the worms, so the boxes were filled mostly with that soil.

We got some city compost from the local compost site to top them off. My garden has always been very productive, and I practice intensive gardening, planting close together, and multiple crops through the season.

I actually enjoyed weeding last year, so simple.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Not my idea for the thread, someone on another gardening thread suggested it so i went ahead and did it. But i do like the concept. I can't remember who it was, went back and looked but couldn't find the post. Thanks to whoever it was!

It was @lazy gardener

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

A view of my vegetable garden area. The rest of my boxes are at the end of the line.



I have a secondary area where I grow asparagus, blueberries, pumpkin and squash. Last year I tried my tomatoes over there and they all blighted, so much for rotating crops. The red are my Cozy Kotes, they help me get my tomatoes in up to a month earlier.