We have freecycle here.
Computers,paint,cardboard, batteries.You name it.
Where to get reasonable planters
Hobby Lobby has their half price sale going on right now. It was going on last week as well so it may be wrapping up soon. As of today it was still in effect.
ge1836:
>> We need a thread for gardeners with age and arthritis issues and pass along tips on how we manage garden jobs.
DG has a whole forum:
Accessible Gardening Discussion Forum
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/disabled/all/
I was surprised how many of us are along in years. But many of the people who post in "Accessible Gardening" have real health issues, and are doing what it takes - whatever it takes - to continue gardening.
Brave souls!
Corey
Corey, you are right. It is not easy for me to get around in my yard now. I celebrated my 85th birthday last week by going to see my Dr. whose office is 6 hours away. The Dr. who did the complicated total revision of my left hip joint, which was the third surgery on that joint. I am lucky that my youngest son who lives 5 hours distant, has been able to make the so far 5 trips to come and get me and take me to the Dr. The surgery was March 14. I am now again able to walk without use of walker or cane, but slowly and carefully.
So I still feed my many birds, and do as much gardening as I can. A neighbor fellow works for me doing the heavy work that I can't do, but only works 4 or 5 hours a day, a couple of days a week. He walked a couple of old apple bins that have been sitting on my place but out side of the fence, walked them into my enclosed yard, and we made them into raised beds. They are 4 x 4 x 2feet high. so very easy to take care of without me having to bend over and cause my severe arthiritic back to hurt.
I am doing square foot planting in them. I put small stakes in around the edges and used baler twine to mark the square foot spaces. Each bin is16 squares, so I can grow lots of veggies and a few flowers in each bin,. We got the bins filled and ready for planting May 23, and I have eaten quite bit of different salad greens already.
Donna
Corey! I found the forum.Thanks for shining the light nthere.
Donna - I applaud your gardening spirit and your surgeon's work! You are the spirit of gardening and I wish you many happy hours tending to your plants.
Donna, you inspire me, I hope I'm gardening at you age! If I were closer, I'd come help out.
>> left hip joint, which was the third surgery on that joint ... I am now again able to walk without use of walker or cane, but slowly and carefully.
>> So I still feed my many birds, and do as much gardening as I can. A neighbor fellow works for me doing the heavy work that I can't do,
>> raised beds. They are 4 x 4 x 2feet high. so very easy to take care of without me having to bend over
That's great, it sounds like you're coping wonderfully. I hope the recovery is continuing. It feels so much better when things are "getting better", even if it is frustratingly slow.
One thing they taught me while I had a temporary condition: you have to get the "most bang for your buck". Think hard about what is most important to you, what you really get the most pleasure form. Then think realistically about how much of what types of phsyical activity "cost" your body the most, and how you can do the things you like best in ways that stress your body the least.
Then make the hard choices, and don't anything that uses up your physical abilities unless YOU really care about them. Watch out for thoughts like "I really should ..." or "I always used to ..." or "I'm embarassed about having to .." . When the body changes, our behavior has to change. Real maturity and strength and courage mean facing facts so you can do what's most important.
Then "cheat"! Be really ceative about finding ways to do what you want while minimizing the impact. A 2-foot-tall raised bed is a great example! Changing the layout of you kitchen or putting a swivel chair somewhere, or adding a thick stiff cushion to some chair might save you a few steps or some of the stress in sit-to-stand. Getting a "reaching stick", or keeping one in each room, will save you some effort that you can tyhen "spend" on an extra 10 minutes tending flowers.
Sorry to preach. I hope your hip gets so much better, soon, that you don't need to worry about things like that.
Corey
Great input Corey.
I have been trying to figure out to install a hook in the sky so I can hang a rope on it. That is all I need and I could keep my balance and also get up off the ground. Best to all of you. Sharon.
Thanks Corey for your inspiration. I am really enjoying my apple bin planters, and eating lots of fresh organic greens.
Donna
Corey, sounds like the voice of experience. Great advice. I moved into a senior home a year and a half ago, and last year I only had three pots. This year I've graduated to seven containers, some big, some smaller. You know what? Now that I'm allowed only what I've got, I find it's just enough to keep me happy and not enough to make me tired. Was looking at shoulder surgery, and seven containers is way better than the 45 or 50 I had before. I only need two big watering cans of water rather than six or eight! A lot easier on my shoulder. And I asked my son if he could help me this year. He did all the heavy stuff, and I sat and watched. I did the fun stuff! Whatever it takes...
Judith
Thanks very much. I was overwhelemed when my abilities decreased, and I had TOO big a yard. Now I'm getting some strength back, have a much smaller yard, and am much happier.
>> figure out to install a hook in the sky so I can hang a rope on it. That is all I need and I could keep my balance and also get up off the ground.
Yeah! The closest thing I've seen is like a little padded kneeler, with steel handles for climbing back up. Only two problems: I want to garden, not pray, and also it looks a little light-weight to handle 280 pounds.
Another scheme is to always have something sturdy and stable within easy crawling distance - or reaching distance. Like a very stable chair or solid concrete planter. Then I can kind of crawl up onto it, like a slug crawling into a pot.
When they invent personal-size anti-gravity "suspensors" like they had in the movie version of Dune, I'm in the market!
Corey
I can sit and garden, on the ground, for hours at a time but getting up is often a chore. That kneeling thing didn't work for me or my husband. It doesn't allow for freedom of arm movement to each side.
In the last few years my back aches terribly after deadheading, especially low plants. I've given away hundreds of daylilies to lessen the grief.
I've really come to enjoy gardens that tend themselves, like this one. I need more of them!
All I can think of is: a long, long pair of shears so you don;t need to lean over.
I built one raised bed above and to the side of a deep trench. Originally the trench was for drainage, but the pleasure of planting and picking without bending now has me wondering how I can dig deep slit trenches around as many beds as possible.
Not just a raised bed: a sunken pathway.
"Fortunately", the clay is so hard that it supports a straight up-and-down wall as if it were concrete.
I wonder what it looks like from the next yard: a guy walking around, seemingly buried waist deep in the ground.
Corey
That does paint an amusing picture, Corey!
I just deadhead less frequently than in former years when I was more insane. If I'm going to be photographing flowers I always deadhead first. Photos look so awful with dead flowers in them.
Yes, this year the deadheading is killing my back. I used to have a garden seat I could use, but now the old knees make it hard to get up from the seat. Bummer. I bought a bunch of petunias this year because I just loved the new ones I found. I forgot they had to be deadheaded (grandifloras), and now if I don't do it every day they look crappy.
This may not do much for you, but I get some help by putting a really thick, hard foam cushion onto any garden chair I use often. (A big block of packing foam from work, it doesn't compress much.)
That raises my butt around 5" and make sit much easier to get up again.
Your milage may vary.
If you drag the chair around, tie the cushion down.
Corey
Wish I still had it! That's a great idea.
This year because of my surgery of Mar. 14, I wasn't able to do much gardening. So volunteers have been a great garden help. Cheat grass is my worst problem. Trying to get rid of it. It is pulled up and put in my burn s STOVE. It really is a heating stove my husband built many years ago. Has filter pipes, screens, etc. so not butning scraps can escape to start a fire. After the cheat grass is dry it burns easily.
I am eating well out of my applebin raised beds. It is amazing how much can be grown in the two bins--16 1 foot squares, in each bin. I am just about living on the wonderful different green, and very little bending , as the bins are 24" high.
Donna
That sounds like a workable system, Donna. Wish the management here would let us use raised beds. Our pots will have to do, and all we can grow is flowers. Fortunately we have a dining room with fabulous chef for one meal a day.
Michael's has some flower pots--no drainage, so better as a decorative sleeve...60% off. They had been on sale, so 6" ceramic earth tone striped glazed pots were $1.13.
They are too heavy to move, but mortar or glue together 4 paving concrete stones into a square box (8x16" or 12x12")
Corey
You can drill a hole in the bottom with a diamond drill. Mother Winter