Accessible gardening

[RebelRidin]

Tracy I am so sorry to hear of your injury. I hope you get some relief soon.

I have seen some elevated table boxes for salad greens and herbs. They had drip irrigation installed. The ones I saw were set for wheel chair access and sized so the person could reach past center from each side.

[Father'sDaughter]

Tracy, so sorry to hear about you injuries. I remember when a neighbor was having difficulties with her ankles, her kids bought her a rolling garden seat so she could still work on her garden beds - http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...2219_200422219

If you do a search, you'll also find it at other places like Amazon and Sears.

If the ground around your beds is firm enough for it to easily roll around on, maybe it'll help you still do some maintenance without having to stand, stoop or kneel. I've even seen some sites that sell a mini cart you can attach to it.

[lakelady]

Tracy, I'm so sorry to hear about your injuries, that's terrible. I can't imagine how painful this is for you physically, but emotionally to have to worry about how you will do things. Folks have mentioned container gardening on tables, that's a good idea.

If you are going to get mobility products, and you can do some weight bearing, a rollator would be a good thing to get. Like a walker with wheels, and a seat, and many have little pouches in the back you could also put things in. If you cannot do any weight bearing, two very good power chairs are the jazzy by Pride, or any of the Invacare power wheelchairs. Both brands can be ordered with heavy duty wheels so you can use them outdoors in the yard. Also both are excellent products with good reliable track records. If you cannot do any weight bearing, the power chair is good indoors and out, while a scooter is really only for outdoor use. I would also suggest that you not order these products online, but get them from a small reputable dealer in the area who will also provide service, if there any issues later on. You can rent these products too at many places if it is only temporary. I don't know if you are on medicare yet, but there is a lot going on in the next few months with changes in reimbursement, and contracting, so a lot of dealers are going to be closing their doors. Best place for recommendations on local dealers is in the rehab facilities.

I wish you all the best of luck with your health, and getting through all of this.

[baileyj]

I have been thinking about this all day since I read this post. I am so sorry this has happened and have been trying to think of ideas...

A few things...the garden seat works well, but you need to use your knees to move it around and I don't think it has a brake.

I do 90% of my gardening in earthboxes...I have 42 and about 25 other self watering planters, most on an automatic watering system. I grow cukes, beans, tomatoes really almost anything. You can grow 3-5 peppers in each earthbox or 2 full size tomatoes...once set up (perhaps by the DH) especially if you use the watering system....very easy on the body.

I have arthritis in my back, shoulders and hands so most of my issue is lifting and lugging things but I do have issues with weeding and bending.
I use a bench and 2 buckets to refresh my boxes each season so I do not have to drag or lift much--it could be done easily in a wheelchair if you have accessible aisles or paths.

Last November I broke my ankle and had the "no weight bearing" order for 8 weeks...I used a knee walker which enabled me to work---I don't think you could use this...there is a fair amount of pressure on the knee and you need to weight bear on the other leg. It is really meant for ankles, not knees or hips.
Our season here was over so the only thing delayed for me was planting Garlic and shallots.

It sounds like a lot of your tomatoes are in already....DripWorks has a good irrigation system if you need one...l

This may be the season you supervise from the bench....
Best of luck, I hope this resolves quickly for you....obviously you are a very active person with a lot of drive and energy and I am sure you will overcome this temporary setback...

Judi

[rwsacto]

Tracy,

Sorry to hear of your diving accident. Your experience is one of the reasons I don't dive deep any more. If it is deeper than 60 ft, I don't need to see it.

Others have given good ideas about the accessable garden. When I was immobilized with a ruptured achilles I used a couple different extension grabbers to get things done. I think a few extension garden tools could be constructed to make things easier. Examples would be a trowel and hoe on long handles (I think Corona makes some). An extension grabber, small extension fruit basket (strainer on a stick) and extension clippers or scissors would also be usefull.

If some areas are relatively smooth (patio), heavy things can be mounted on wheels or on a cart.

Hope this helps, (until someone makes a gardening robot)

Rick

[bughunter99]

I'm sorry Tracy.

This year I am doing two things to avoid having to kneel in the garden so much. First I've increased my self watering containers. Mine are huge, 37 gallons. Their height makes access and watering very easy. Second, I'm trying straw bale gardening. I'm doing this because I need to give my usual planting area a break from tomatoes and this is a way to do it without changing locations. It has the added benefit of soil enhancement and cheap and immediate elevation of the planting area.

Stacy

I plan on doing what Stacy suggests over time. While I currently have no physical problems, I am getting up in years and must plan for the future. It isn't a question of "will gardening become more difficult for me?". It is only "when will it happen?.

My plan is the large containers on stands which will make them more accessible with timed drip irrigation. I feel I could service everything while on a garden scooter. My goal would be to grow and plant the seedlings. From that point, most of the needs of the garden could be filled automatically.

My wife was telling our daughter last week we are getting older and our kids should be planning on doing some things for themselves like raising a garden. Our daughter asked me to help her build some raised beds at her home this fall and teach her how to grow stuff. I'm looking forward to doing it.

Our kids have been spending more time with us learning stuff you can't just leave in a last will and testament. I am completing the construction of a large chicken coop/run. My wife won't let me climb on top to install the roof, so our daughter and SIL installed the roof yesterday and did the elevated painting.

I'm beginning to think the answer to "how to accomplish the same tasks in the future" is "pass it on to the next generation".

Ted

[Dak]

Ted, I like the way you think!

[aclum]

Hi Again Tracy,

Although I have 3 - 2x6 elevated "salad tables" on our patio, most of my garden consists of raised beds just 6" tall and I've had no problems using them for most of my veggies. I do trellis as much as possible, and will be trellising several types of beans, melons, squash and cukes as well as the tomatoes this year. I can lean from the wheelchair to plant things and do some weeding. I have no problems with things like the peppers, bush beans, eggplant, etc. in the 6" tall beds.

I have a few 12" beds that work well for things like herbs, garlic, and shallots plus a couple of 22" high beds - one dedicated to asparagus - for things that need to be maintained or harvested at ground level - like lettuce and beets, etc.

I do think that if you can make your garden wheelchair accessible and set up automated watering, you should be able to manage things pretty well. As others have mentioned, you can use alot of specialized tools to help out - those long friskars pole trimmers, various grabbers for disabled people (there's one with suction type shaped grabbers at the end that I've used to change lightbulbs and which I bet would work for tomatoes), the fruit picking wire basket things on poles, things like the corona trowel with a longer handle adjustment, etc. A recent useful thing I've found is one of those light bulb replacement tools on a long extension pole. I've used cable ties to attach a tree pruning blade to the end and have used it for fruit tree trimming. To string the trellis for my tomatoes atop the 8' tall (approx) top bars, I used a double snap bolt thingy at the end of my string for weight and something to grab onto, and a fishing pole with a pegboard hook taped to the end to loop the string over the top bar. If I need to dig a hole, I use a short handled shovel and a 4# sledge hammer on the footrests to "dig" the blade into the ground. For setting up tall posts, I first pound a shorter length of emt into the ground (while sitting in the wheelchair) and then, for the longer upright, I'll have a different diameter pipe that I just slip over or into the pipe in the ground.

I think that with your husband to help out on occasion, you could accomplish most of what you need to do, and could maybe avoid the expense of setting up a new container garden.

I just use a regular side wheel manual wheelchair with the footrests removed and get around in the garden mostly by just "paddling" my feet along. (My paths are all 3' wide BTW). I also have a rollator and have found it to be sort of tippy and the seat's pretty uncomfortable. Also, the seat is higher than my wheelchair seat so it's not as easy for me to lean down to soil level to weed, etc. A power wheelchair seems great, but I'm not sure how well you'd be able to lean to one side or the other, etc. You might want to just try some out at the store before you actually need one.

If you're going to be wheelchair bound for a while and want to do some cooking easily and safely, I recommend getting a portable burner you can put at a convenient height on a table. I wrote a post about this in the 2 cents forum (think the title was something like "for Carolyn on cooking and baking").

I'll attach a few photos of my "wheelchair accessible garden" so you can see how I have things set up. As you can see, I'm really into trellising this year!

Anyway, I hope you get good news from the Dr. and have a speedy recovery!!

Anne

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

Some of the posters over on Earthbox have over 100 boxes. I have some too, not that many, I am up to about 15 now. You can purchase watering systems which automates the watering, the weak link of the carefree system. In warm climates, like mine (and yours) I need to fill up the resevoirs twice daily for thirsty plants like tomatos.

They are a bit of work to set up but you can stand them on stands or picnic tables and make them easier to access. They are certainly easier on my body to maintain!

Perhaps ironically, I found the Earthboxes/EarthTainers to be more work to maintain in the ongoing sense than are my more typical raised bed gardens. True, during the growing season the Tainers are far more accessible, easy to access, etc. But then, during the growing season, one doesn't need to bend as much -- not for the usual things like watering, pruning (once you snip those lower branches), etc. The thing that makes the EarthTainers so difficult is that I find you must pull out the soil (say into a wheelbarrow) and turn it over, remove roots, amend it, then replace in layers...and this each new season. So, for me, that's some real back breaking work. Once I have a raised bed situated, I can walk around the sides with a regular shovel and turn the dirt over, and it just seems to go faster/easier than the Tainers. I guess it's all trade-offs.

I wish you the best with your recovery and gardens. Hopefully this challenge will result in a finer garden for future seasons.
-naysen

[Mlm1]

Tracy, I am sorry. That sounds terrible. I hope you can get the pain controlled and hopefully any needed procedures are successful and get you back to normal quickly. It looks like a lot of good advice on this thread to help with the gardening. Good luck,
Marla

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by z_willus_d

Perhaps ironically, I found the Earthboxes/EarthTainers to be more work to maintain in the ongoing sense than are my more typical raised bed gardens. True, during the growing season the Tainers are far more accessible, easy to access, etc. But then, during the growing season, one doesn't need to bend as much -- not for the usual things like watering, pruning (once you snip those lower branches), etc. The thing that makes the EarthTainers so difficult is that I find you must pull out the soil (say into a wheelbarrow) and turn it over, remove roots, amend it, then replace in layers...and this each new season. So, for me, that's some real back breaking work. Once I have a raised bed situated, I can walk around the sides with a regular shovel and turn the dirt over, and it just seems to go faster/easier than the Tainers. I guess it's all trade-offs.

I wish you the best with your recovery and gardens. Hopefully this challenge will result in a finer garden for future seasons.
-naysen

I was just telling my husband the very same thing and with my arthritis getting worse and a bad knee it is getting harder for me to prep the boxes. I have two 4x4 square foot garden beds and have found that it is much easier to make a mix, fill the bed and use compost when repkanting like mel says. I told my husband I want more of these beds and a drip or soaker hose system in the beds. I think this would be a far better solution for someone in a wheelchair.

I was wanting to expand my garden using Larry Hall's rain gutter gardening system but told my husband it is still the same lifting when I want to reset the garden. I think I a rethinking my garden expansion again and in the meantime I will enjoy what I can still do right now.

[Redbaron]

Tracy,
Good luck in your recovery.

Why not just try lazy gardening like Ruth Stout?

[dice]

Milk crate garden:
http://www.improvisedlife.com/wp-con...ate-farm-2.jpg

(Being on top of a building makes vehicle-accessible paths between
rows built-in, big advantage if you are gardening from a wheelchair
or similar.)

Stock tank garden:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mchc7h0lRE...0/_DSC2720.JPG

Another: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_A_mjNdnMD_...nk+gardens.jpg

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by RebelRidin

Tracy I am so sorry to hear of your injury. I hope you get some relief soon.

I have seen some elevated table boxes for salad greens and herbs. They had drip irrigation installed. The ones I saw were set for wheel chair access and sized so the person could reach past center from each side.

When it comes time to grow salad greens again, I think I'll try straw bales. I could even stack one on top of another.