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Accessible Gardening: Why do you garden, despite physical challenges? , 3 by nancynursez637

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In reply to: Why do you garden, despite physical challenges?

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nancynursez637 wrote:
I have a rather severe spinal deformity that ended my career about 15 years ago. For the first 5 years, I was very confined with an unstable inoperable spine, and did little more gardening than potting up a few things just outside the kitchen door.

As time went on, I found myself thinking of things that I could do to be able to do just a little more gardening. I now use 3 different lengths of tools, depending on pain and stiffness, I determine which one to use today. I have all raised beds, got some help building them, then found an old tractor with a front end loader that I used to fill the beds once built. I grow lots of things that are perennial, so they come back each year. (rhubarb, asparagus, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries,

I can sit on the edge of the bed to weed if necessary but for the most part use Ruth Stout's No Work Gardening ideas to control weeds, (mulch) and some of my own. I plant in beds that are broadcast seeded instead of rows. This way things like green bush beans come up and shade the soil so weeds do not get started. Likewise I grow bush peas which will grow up and lean on each other so no staking. Again no weeds. When it comes to vines, I grow sugar snaps along the critter fence and they require no staking at all, they just attach themselves to the fence.

Because I cannot run a tiller, or turn all of the beds, I add lots of organic material to the beds in the fall and add worms. In the spring I use a broadfork I made my self from off the shelf materials and loosen the soil but do not turn it. I use a battery operated scooter or a spare old lawn mower with a cart to move things back and forth from the garden and to harvest for the Saturday Markets.