Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners #18

Ugh. What a mess. Seems like they check my TSH and TH every time I turn around. Kind of a big deal to miss that!

Do you find you are angry about your mistreatment? When I was first diagnosed wiith MS, I learned that a neurologist had suspected MS several years earlier but hadn't told me. I was FURIOUS. I had a chalkboard in my apartment and I had a list of all the people I was angry at. I don't mean ordinary angry; I mean terrified - insomniac -unable to understand or maybe accept the diagnosis. Of course it wasn't anybody's fault. It's not like anything would have been different if I had known sooner, and back then I don't think they even had the technology to diagnose it. And I had a lot of rage back then.

Carrie, I want you to know that I am hearing every single thing you tell me about your own situation. I'm not sure yet what is the best way to respond to it, but I am glad you are writing about it and I AM listening. I am pretty sure that IRL friends are out there, chair or no, but I do see how that is a difficult challenge-- those people out there ought to be proactive about it, so it's not all up to your energy to make it happen.

The reference ranges for TSH have changed over the years. (What numbers are you getting BTW?) A lot of people are diagnosed nowadays who had slipped thru the cracks. Also more is known, now, about a particular type that is autoimmune, which is what mine is, and patient education is HUGE now, on the web, via a patient who chose to use HER healing journey to educate others.

With the older lab values, and since "fat people lie," the more weight I gained, the less I was believed when I explained (over and over), that I'd had a mysterious virus in 3rd grade and then suddenly the weight piled on. There were many bad experiences in that cycle of "medical care," and yes I was and still can be angry, but I choose not to put my attention there unless I am in a co-counseling session.

How the Dx started to be heard was a confluence of several blessings.

1. I was able to make a flip-book of my annual photograph, birth thru age 50. It's very clear, looked at in sequence instead of spoken verbally, that there is an underweight, active child who, suddenly, in her 4th grade picture, isn't.
2. I showed them to a doc who happened, herself, to be a thyroid patient and coincidentally a superb diagnostician.
3. I'd gotten hold of some thyroid meds from my then-primary doc, who said my labs were actually showing a "tiny" thyroid dysfunction. After I got some thryoid education I gradually upped that dose on my own authority up until the surgery he had authorized, which TBTG allowed some degree of healing as well as surviving the physical stress of the surgery itself. In the nursing home with the complications, their routine TSH testing and my request for a higher dose resulted in getting increasingly better treatment-- authorized by the great diagnostician/yhyroid doc I had switched to... while the previous prescriber remained solely as the after-surgery-care doc. I reduced his role, and saw the thyroid genius often, until all the insurance from the surgery was settled, which was a REAL mess.

I've been too busy surviving and learning how to operate this unfamiliar body, to give much attention to the anger. I try not to think too often of the life I lost, that was meant to be lived in a different body; I'm too grateful for NOW to go there except in sessions. I've cut off the one remaining family member who is still too lost in "not getting it" to be part of the new life I am making.

When I had that weight cut off, though, I did think of it as returning to the medical profession, symbolically, what they had grown, sort of also with the image of having chewed my own way out of a trap meant to kill me.

~S~

Susan, the rage and fury I was talking about was nearly 30 years ago, I don't really think I would have done much differently nor would my outcome be all that different. I probably sounded like I was paralyzed by anger and rage, but I am really fine. I used to be glad I had MS, in some kind of twisted way. I certainly like the person-with-MS that I have become more than I like the person-without-MS. But I was 25 and now I am almost 54. If I still liked my 25-y-o self better, I'd be in trouble.

I hear what you're saying about giving your extra weight back to the medical profession. And I hear something else which you didn't say: it stinks how we all become experts on our own conditions. If I were going to use the extra 20% of my brain for something new, I would rather be able to remember history, read things and then remember them, be a better wife and mother, know how to ice skate without falling down, know how to do wiring and plumbing. Instead, I am a half expert on MS. I don't know enough to treat myself, or to do away with the neurologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists etc. etc., I know enough to fret a lot.

YEAH!!!

♥

On fone. (Typing in fone sucks.)

Carrie, re: "...I probably sounded like I was paralyzed by anger and rage..."

Nope, I didn't hear that. I heard stuck at home and the rational, basic need for face-time with friends.

My friend has had a nicely slow, somewhat even progression of his MS, especially since the beginning of a weekly injection program. His tradeoff for fewer exacerbations is the weekly, flu-like malaise in reaction to the injection. Are you on that program? He credits MS with saving him from the lifestyle he had been leading, and teaching him patience he needed badly. That patience was able to lead him to care for a brain-injured adult child at home until he was unable to lift her whenever she fell at the rural cabin they shared most of the year; his patience with her complete absence of short-term memory was truly astounding. Another person I know (not well) has an MS variant (different initials, can't get old of it at the moment). Her concern has been a possible treatment that involves danger to her brain.

What they both have in common with you is the extreme sensitivity to heat. They also share in common a hesitancy in asking for help-- they are both the "rugged individualist" type by nature.

What I was never able to try with either of them was cool-water aquatics, tho I think it is a promising approach to consider. The water is so supportive; but I don't live close enough to either to take them to the pool I was using when I suggested it.

~S~

Because I am not paralyzed by anger and rage, but by MS. Does your friend take Avonex, or Copaxone?. It sounds like Avonex. I was taking Avonex when I got pneumonia and influenza in 2001. Almost died.Then I took Copaxone, and I couldn't tell the difference between taking it and not taking it. Ultimately I stopped. The only thing that has ever seemed to make a tiny difference is Cytoxan, which is a chemotherapy. That really did almost kill me. I am happy to be wrong, and I like my new neurologist, which is REALLY important.

Avonex sounds right.

~S~
(Fone)

Hello everyone! I’m sorry Amargia’s people have been MIA for such a long time. A small group of wealthy individuals have decided they want the land and they are playing hardball to get it. Saving Amargia Gardens seemed an impossible task. We have been concentrating on simply keeping this land out of the hands of people who, in our opinion, are environmentally irresponsible and care nothing for the community. There has recently been a little light at the end of the tunnel. Amargia’s guardian angel must have a wicked sense of humor. One of the wealthy people in question was convicted of stealing over ten million dollars from his clients and this, of course, has cast suspicion on his business associates. The solid, respectable reputations of all these individuals are crumbling fast. It might be enough to save a much changed version of Amargia Gardens.
An attorney we can afford is considering taking Amargia’s case. I must give credit for cleverness where it is due. Their take-over of our road was well planned and executed. I didn’t recognize what they were up to even though I had the clues. It is now a proven fact. Totally blind people still have 20/20 hindsight. I underestimated these individuals sheer audacity. They found legal, but unethical ways to deny everyone but me access to the road. In my case, there was no legal loop hole so they did something illegal, but not criminal. They paved our dirt and gravel county road at their expense, claimed that made it their road exclusively and put up electronic gates. The local police and county sheriff’s office can’t do anything about it because it isn’t a crime. It has to be settled in court and who do you think can more easily afford attorneys and legal cost? A group of individuals with incomes in the $100,000 plus yearly income range or a group of physically and sensory disabled people. I think “devilishly clever” describes it well.
Amargia is only accessible to those with 4-wheel drive and no fear of off-road conditions these days. I’m still kicking myself for not catching on until the coup de grace. Man, I’m losing my edge in my old age!
Well, that’s our story for why we haven’t been around in a nutshell. It was all too depressing to write about. There is no guarantee that Amargia will weather all this. We have lots of community support though and our adversaries are looking worse and worse by the day. A 70-something-year-old man from church made the trip out here in his nice car to deliver a dish of his famous greens. (Even people who swear they hate collards and turnip greens devour his and ask for second helpings.). How can we give up with support like that! lol.
I’ve been studying the anti-gentrification movement. I suppose I and everybody else who has benefited from Amargia have joined it. Before this, I had not heard of rural gentrification and urban gentrification sounded like a good thing. The word is misleading. There is nothing gentle or refined in rural gentrification. What leaps into my mind after all we’ve been through are the dark ages and the system of landed gentry and serfs. You have a good example of what an anti-gentrification movement can do, Carrie. Boston’s urban anti-g movement appears to be well-supported and thriving.
I promised Amargia supporters a Facebook account of what’s going on so it is back to learning to navigate that site with adaptive equipment. (sigh) Why can’t all social networking sites be as easy to navigate as DG?
Hugs and a good morning to all. k*

Heavens, I didn't know we HAD an anti-gentrification movement, or that there was such a thing. Best of luck in all Armagia's endeavors. You looked to being OK with Facebook so far!

Good grief! So sorry for all you've been going through!

edited because I decided I haven't been posting long enough to be joking around. You never know how people will take it.
Smiling

This message was edited Jan 25, 2015 1:13 AM

I hope I'm not intruding on an established group chat, but here goes:

I need help solving this latest gardening challenge.

I live in an apartment with a 4-5' wide garden plot immediately alongside the front of my apartment. Recently, the progression of my inherited arthritic condition and the last minute drastically lower plant height restriction by property management, means I use a walker with wheels to garden from the outside of this plot - and have been forced to scramble and come up with very short plants from my stash of seeds to fill this 144 square feet - or look at bare ground until next year's planning / planting season!

I've managed to fill my garden plot with "shorties" - BUT they all require deadheading!!

I've found one tool that seems it would do the job but it looks rather heavy (Corona Long Reach Cut 'n' Hold Pruner http://coronatoolsusa.com/lr-3460-long-reach-cut-n-hold-pruner-1-2-in.html )

What suggestgions do y;all have??

My recommendation is pick something that doesn't need dead-heading, but I'm no fun.
http://www.amazon.com/Corona-LR-3460-Bypass-Pruner/dp/B000KL4LVI
Is it this? Amazon says this is one pound something. That does feel like kind of a lot to be using held away from your body for extended periods. I would see if you can hold something (a half liter bottle of liquid) away from your body and manipulate it the way you'd need to. I say this because I am so very weak, and I know I would have a hard time! OTOH, maybe it would maintain or even improve your strength, in which case I think it would be a plus.

Could you use it with both hands? The last OT I worked with felt very strongly that people should aim to use non-dominant hands as much as dominant ones, in case anything ever happened to the dominant hand.. I think that's a good idea in as far as disabilities make us use our bodies in unusual ways. Overuse injuries can and will happen.

This Forum sort of ebbs and flows, where I guess ebb is fewer people and flow is more people. Anyway, we used to be quite active, and now less so, but we might be more active again. Welcome!

Happy Birthday, Carrie! Everyone at Amargia sends wishes for a delightful day.
A belated welcome to the forum, BethNC. Let us know how you decided to solve your challenge, a new tool or different plant choices.
Sheri, I seem to recall you have a white lily birthday too, but can not recall the exact date. Remembering important dates by what flower is in bloom gives a whole new meaning to garden calendar, doesn't it?
I suddenly developed bradycardia (low pulse rate) plus high blood pressure and totally wimped out for a while. It was a surprise for me to learn just how much mental energy is required to string words together coherently. It was beyond my abilities when I was most ill. I sleep a lot and get tired easily, but am much improved otherwise.
There was no choice, but to hire an attorney to handle the road situation. It turns out the road we were "given" when our neighbor decided to pave our shared gravel road and claim it as a private road, may not legal. It may be partially on Alabama Power Company's easement and may violate their safety regulations. Of course, we found this out after we hired someone to smooth the road, but, fortunately, before we had a clay base and gravel put down. We are waiting for A.P.C.'s line engineer to make an inspection to get the final verdict. We hope the high line access turns out to be legal to avoid a major law suit. If the attorney can get the high line access road widened and on our deed as the legitimate access, we will be satisfied.
Our new honeybee hive is growing faster than expected. We will add a new super and queen excluder next week.

I hope everyone has a fun Memorial Day.
MK.

"We will add a new super and queen excluder next week." In English, please?

Hello, Kay and Armagians! I've missed you; heck, I miss all of my old Accessible Gardening Forum friends. I hope your health improves! Bradycardia plus HBP sounds alarming. I used to have a slow pulse and LOW blood pressure, so I can't imagine it with HIGH. Stay healthy, please.

And many thanks for the birthday greetings. The weather is nearly always wonderful on my birthday in Boston.

I hope you guys saw the note from Melody about making the Accessible Gardening Forum free of charge for people with disabilities. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1391851/

Much thanks, Armegia. After scouring the Web for some time, I found JUST the right tool for pruning / deadheading!! It's from Corona, weighs about 1 1/2 pounds, is llooooooooooonnngg and is meant to be used with one hand. It's wonderful! I can even weed with it!!!

http://coronatoolsusa.com/lr-3460-long-reach-cut-n-hold-pruner-1-2-in.html

Do you own it? Is it fabulous?

YES!!! to both questionas. I've been using it for a biy over two weeks* for: de3adheading my marigolds, weeding in all 3 of my small gardens and pruning my daphne.

I wish I had got it sooner: no more precarious stretching to reach or painful bending / stooping.

And it's so LIGHT!!!

I feel I'm finally IN CHARGE re my gardening again. While my garden helper willingly does whatever I can't , there's nothing quite like being able to . . DO IT MYSELF!! (i THINK i'M RE-VISITING MY "tERRIBLE tWO'S" AGAIN! LOL)

My husband (who is my 24-hour-a-day assistant) totally doesn't get that! He says "just tell me what to do and I will do it for you." I WANT TO DO IT!

Could you still write when bradycardia was a problem, Carrie? I find it a struggle, but then; I don’t have all your writing experience
There would not have been any garden this year without Jim and Nadi. I am still weak enough that I am enjoying a passive role in the garden. The others decided to let “good weeds” have the outlying areas. (“Good weeds” are defined as any plant the bees like that are not invasive.) They focused most of their attention on about ¼ acre immediately around the buildings. The outland is a sea of field daisies, blue flax and lavender colored bloom I have not identified yet. . (I could never give up my DG subscription. I need the plant identification forum too much. lol.)
The native prickly pears’ took over xera-scaped areas and are in full bloom much to the delight of native bees, honeybees and sighted people. That would never have happened if I had been managing things. Blind people have no appreciation for cacti as a general rule, but since I am not the one weeding the area, it works for me. Wild food enthusiast will keep it under control harvesting the fruit and pads into nopals.
Peacock and parrot glads, lilies and daylilies are providing color in the more cultivated areas. Tomatoes are ripening and there are tiny pumpkins in the vegetable garden. (To avoid the foliage diseases of late summer, pumpkin are planted early in the deep south and harvested in July.) Pumpkin will store three months in ideal conditions, but deep south gardeners look for sneaky ways to slip it onto the table when fresh. Pumpkin is so firmly sixed in most minds as an autumn food a certain amount of sneakiness is necessary. I’ve always lacked the culinary daring to serve pumpkin pie at an Independence Day picnic even though it would be regionally appropriate, but I am going for it this year. I have immense respect for New England food traditions, but this ain’t New England. Pie pumpkins ripen in July and we should be eating them in mid-summer. If I replace the ground cinnamon with cinnamon basil and the ground ginger with fresh ginger, I think I could even get pumpkin pie out of its cardigan sweater and into a sundress and sandals. It definitely looks like I will have enough fruit to experiment with this summer.
Oh no! Am I becoming one of them? I get so frustrated with more experienced beekeepers when they talk to each other at meetings and I can’t understand half of what they are saying. Sorry, I will save the apiary-speak for the beekeeping forum in future. A “super” is a smaller box attached to the main hive body above the brood chamber to give the bees a place to store extra honey. Confusingly, the basic hive box itself is sometimes called the super. We have a classic hive box, but there are many different designs. That is where the confusing terminology comes into play…I think. I’m still a bit of a newbie myself.
A queen excluder is a metal or plastic device that keeps the queen and drones out of certain parts of the hive by restricting the size of openings enough that the larger sized queen and drones (male bees) cannot pass through. It prevents the queen from laying eggs in places that are inconvenient for the beekeeper and keeps drones with their veracious appetites from gaining ready access to all the hive’s stores. A queen excluder is a way of seeing that only the worker bees who maintain the hive have keys to the pantry. They will see that the queen and drones are fed. Well… they will see that the drones are fed until winter comes and resources are scarce. Poor male honeybees have a harsh end whether they are successful in finding a princess or not, but they live pampered lives until then.
I’m glad the tool worked for you, Beth. I don’t know how it is in NC, but marigolds will bloom late spring to frost here if they are deadheaded. And, I’m not at all jealous of that Daphne. Not me. No way. Not in the least.
Jim is having a transforminal epidural steroid injection again tomorrow for back pain. That usually puts him out of commission for a day or so, but if all goes well. We will be building trellises by the end of the week. He purchased four goji berry plants not knowing how big the vines would be at maturity or that we would not be living here year-round by the time the vines produced fruit. (Goji can take as long as three years to fruit.) We are looking at a little house in Huntsville and encouraging the next generation to take on more of the responsibilities for Amargia. It is kind of funny Jim chose Huntsville. Vickie (CanDo1) sometimes got confused and thought that was where we lived. Now we know. It wasn’t old age at fault. She was a step ahead of us.
mk*

Grrrr. Third time typing this answer! Anyway, the only symptom of my low heart beat and BP was that I used to faint every now and then, but I've always been that way. Actually I still faint now and then, even though now I have nearly high blood pressure. I'm going to push SEND because I almost lost that post for the FOURTH time.

Kay, if you're in touch with Vicki P(or maybe Stephanie (scraps) or Sheri or Debra), you could let them know that DG is thinking of making DG Accessible Gardening Forum free, and ask them to drop Melody a note. I'd love it if we could get this place humming again.

I'm new here, and a wheelchair gardener looking for ideas. I used to have a full and beautiful garden, when I could do it myself, and lately I've been paying for help, which I don't like and can't really afford. I'd love to have some input from your guys who are more experienced. I'm quite experienced with the chair - I had Transverse Myelitis - similar to MS, but only one attack (usually) instead of the M for Multiple - when I was 5. But, up until about 10 years ago (I'm 51 now), I was still able to do some walking. Enough to get around my lot, anyway, and get in and out of a golf cart I used to get around in. I can't do it any longer - just age creeping up on me - and I've given the golf cart away because I couldn't manage the pedals any longer - especially the brake - and it had gotten quite dangerous. So, I've got to find something I can use, besides my Jazzy, which tends to get stuck when it rains or on too steep slopes, or my manual, which simply wears me out. I did repurpose an old garden tub as a container garden. I've just planted herbs in it so I can have my kitchen garden back. And I got a new compost tumbler that I can manage easily myself, so I'm getting there.... But I know the ideas of more experienced gardeners have always been most helpful and the ideas of experienced gardeners on wheels will be extremely helpful to me.

If I still had my old plantings.... Long story, but here's the short version: about the time I was losing my ability to walk, my ex was divorcing me, my mom was dying of cancer and I had a really bad car wreck, my dad decided to "help" me out with the overgrown yard and had it bush-hogged, thereby killing just about everything in it except a cedar tree, a maple, two very hardy roses, a weigela and a yaupon holly. He meant well..... But, all those things combined threw me for a real loop, especially after my mother died. And so I was severely depressed for several years and did little or nothing to the garden. A few months back, and somewhat miraculously, I got mad enough at myself to snap out of it. Of course, that's all very simplified, but I think gardeners on wheels can also read into the subtext well enough to get a whole lot of it. Anyway, my Mom was the most amazing gardener, and I had had a lot of things shared from her garden, and now I'm trying in my own way to pick up where I was before.

So, I got more dogwoods for the under the trees area, and had a few trees transplanted from other areas, got a flowering bunch from the Arbor Day Foundation and planted them, got a couple of hydrangeas, a tea olive, a lilac, some hosta, some variegated liriope, and a few other things here and there (one bee balm, a couple new roses) and had someone plant them. I'm going for trouble-free as much as possible. But one problem is that the guy I hired to help me get the first things in the ground cut back the underbrush, mostly privet, that was encroaching all the way up to the house in back, on the woods side of my 5-acre mostly wooded lot and now there is a lot of raw ground back there that will just go right back to wild in no time if I don't do something with it and it's on a steep, rocky slope, so it's got to be something that will grow quickly, in part shade, in poor soil, under walnuts and hickories, that's deer-resistant.... Periwinkle comes up, and it's a good idea, and I ordered some from an unfortunately, apparently, disreputable company that never sent it. So, I've got to find a new source.... But, other ideas on that would be greatly welcomed, as well.

I have, I think, a volunteer sassafras, but it's going to have to be moved because it's on top of the septic tank and I already had to have a tulip popular taken down there because its roots were clogging it up. And I have just tons of what I call wild violets as groundcover across most of the yard. I'll have to get some pics and see if some of you all can make sure I've got my identities straight on those on that identity forum I just glanced at before I saw this one and had to stop in.

But that's enough of an intro, for now. Please, let's do find a way to get this forum rolling again!

Hi ell. Welcome to the forum! I don’t know about being more experienced, but I do know it helps to have people to bounce ideas off of. Wow, I need to get mad like that. Kudos!
Will mondo grass grow there? I use mondo and a no-frills liliiope as placeholders in shady areas. They are both dense enough to keep weeds down. I think there might be an article in a recent Horticulture magazine about just that kind of situation. I will check tomorrow.
Carrie, I will see if my old address book is still around. I once had all their addresses.
Man, it’s late. Good night everyone.
mk*

Yes, allonwheels, welcome to DG and especially to the accessible gardening forum! I was thinking, as I read your post, about how normal it is to hope that once you get a particular wheelchair or tool, everything will be better. I've certainly felt that way a gazillion times. What I am realizing now is not only is MS, especially my MS, progressive, LIFE is progressive. We're all getting older and although in some areas I think being disabled helps with aging, for the most part we are harder on our bodies than others. The way I use my arms to help with EVERYTHING means my elbows and upper body joints are wearing out. My hands are getting clumsier from MS and from arthritis. My arms are weaker from MS and from ridiculous tendinitis.

Whinewhinewhine. Don't judge me. All on wheels, 5 acres sounds great. (Three times I tried to write that and spellcheck insists that it's 3 separate words.) What you talk about happening to your proper type is so familiar! I think I'd better go back to bed.

hello, allonwheels! at first reading your discription of the area (part shade, poor soiol, steep & rocky, under trees) and needing easy care plants, I immediately thought of how I solved those same requirements in my meager area (we're talking square feet, nothing so grand as ACRES! I'm envious of all that SPACE!!). Then I re-considered and factored in your mobility issues with the minuses of these plants: I decided to let YOU decide since you know best what will. work for you.

I also have to hire someone to plant my plants. For my area, I've put in a variety of different hellibores (Lenten rose), On the plus side is that they're VERY hardy (thrive in those conditions), are evergreens, bloom beautifully and profusely usually around the end of winter (some bloom earlier - I have one that blooms in October and another for Christmas) amd are easy care and water-wise etc. On their minus side is that they are slow-growers (one must be prepared for a plant here and one there with alot of empty ground between them for a few years), they only start flowering the second or third year, EVERY year - depending on particular bloom time- last year's growth of leaves need to be cut off to allow room for all those4 flowers, they are heavy feeders (reccomendation: once a year: 3 tbs of Osmocote worked into the topsoil near the roots of each plant to keerp producing bountiful, colorful blooms).

Depending on how closely you space the little beauties to begin with (they average 18 inches tall and can get 2-3' wide at full maturity: 5 years), that area will never be bare again!
II'm still finding ways to garden / tend my plants. Right now, I have a bunch of container tomatoes on my back patio (roughly 15 square feet).

Oh, and yeah: I guess y'all can tell: I'm NOT a typist!! LOL

Tomatoes around here are really hard. I still have never had one as good as my memory of a warm tomatoes grown in Virginia in the 60s and 70s!

Thank you all for the welcome and for the ideas! I've got a little liriope started, so that's one idea that's in common. The Lenten rose sounds like a marvelous idea, too. I'll definitely look into that, as well. My next question is this: What do you use to get around the garden? I want to get some kind of scooter or something, but I have no idea what's going to work out and it's going to have to be a used whatever it is, probably, from the prices I've seen thus far.... I saw a simply marvelous looking little scooter called a Quingo, but it's sold in the UK and I don't know whether they're selling here or not. It doesn't seem so. I still doubt I'll be able to do anything with some parts of my garden, but at least the close parts, I'd love to be more mobile in.

There is one thing I need to clear up, though. I do have 5 acres, but most of it is forested. My little garden area is less than one acre, right around the house. That's how I have the steep rocky hill that goes down into the shade. It drops down quickly on the woods side of the house. It's a very pretty view back into the woods, but my bank is eroding badly in three places and, without the privet, it's only going to get worse until I can cover it. Of course, the woods will also reclaim it pretty quickly if I don't. You'd be amazed at how fast that happens. On the one hand, I don't mind some wild growth. I like using native plants, when possible. On the other hand, I don't want all the privet back, right up to the back porch, and, aside from tulip poplars and sweet gums, that will shoot up quickly, the privet - which is not native - will be back with a vengeance if I don't do something.

PS: Just about everyone believes ellonwheels is three words, not just your spellcheck! But, Ell (Ellen) is my name and the rest is pretty obvious. A young friend gave me the name many years ago and I immediately appreciated it.

Ell, I have had a series of scooters and wheelchairs. I was always trying to get around in the yard better (but increasing disability necessitated a more and more advanced wheelchair). I have to tell you, they are not great on terrain of any sort. They are great on ADA-type paths, with one foot up for every twelve feet of path, and they are fabulous on paved areas, or even flat grassy mowed areas. They are wonderful at museums, malls, stores, parks, amusement parks and stuff like that. But they are horrible at garden stores with bark or dirt paths, they get stuck in mud and they don't go up uneven terrain. :( Every time I get a new one, I think this will be the wheelchair which is tough enough to navigate the yard, but it just never happens.

And Ell on wheels is a great name!

I have a heriditary arthritic condition and nerve damage from one of my surgeries, which (garden-wise) I can still walk (short distances, with a cane, but not on grass) but I SHOULDN'T bend (if I do, I will pay for it later) and my kneesare shot -no kneeling, no stairs and they won't bend/unbend to go from sitting to standing or vice versa (hence my invaluable garden helper!)
.
TMy gardening space is narrow flower beds around the outside of my apartment and, of course, my patio. They are a bit over 4 foot deep, so I use a long-handles tool to prune and deadhead: I love it!

Right now on my patio, is what I affectionally call my Tomato Jungle:10 containers holding 11 plants. Since its a flat, cemednt surface, I can walk around and tend my 'maters at will.

My other three small garden areas (one is my spring bulb garden, the pic by my name) are accessible by going on the grawss. . . .here is where my off-road vehicle comes in handy! LOL It's one of those rolling walkers with a seat - BUT since it was my great-aunt's, it is one of the first made, meaning it's a sturdy (rather heavy) thing with large ~ 6 inch tall and 2-3 inch wide rubber wheels: it's tricked out with a largish detachable wire basket and the whole thing is deep enough to firmly sit comfortably! Caourse, it has brakes, too (which I use whenever I stop, for adderd security).

My doctors tell me that eventually, I will be in a wheelchair.

Have any of y'all seen the new-ish wheelchair designed for disabled vets so they can go out in the woods and go hunting? It's kinda expensive, motorized and has treads lkike a tank instead of wheels. I've seen it in my NRA magazine. oh, yeah, there's some kind of foundation that helps pay for all or part of the cost, too.

Another plus to the hellibores: they're deer resistant.

No, I haven't seen the wheelchair for vets in the woods, but it sounds great. As I said, my wheelchairs are all designed for use in malls and not in woods or yards, I;m not a vet, so that foundation probably wouldn't want to pay for me to get one. Plus I am very expensive for medicaid/medicare. They bought me a lot of my nice stuff. :) They might think "wait, she said she was wheelchair or bed bound and we had to buy her a new fancy pressure-sore-avoiding special cushion because she spends all her time inside in bed. Now we have to buy her something to use in the woods TOO?" They are pretty nice/good in Massachusetts; they understand the value of doing it yourself instead of having someone else do it for you. At least they understand that there is value in that.

Sorry ell, I meant to write “no frills Liriope” (Liriiope spicata or creeping lilyturf) in my last post, but you obviously understood what I meant. Liriope mascari (bariegated and Big Blue lilyturf) are great for edging and accent, but sometimes not rugged enough for tough sites. Creeping lilyturf is also inexpensive and easy to come by. Anyone who mistakenly used L. spicata for edging will give you theirs gladly. (Yes, I made that blunder. I guess we Amargians are experienced in that respect. We’ve made most gardening mistakes at one time or another.
The only garden terrain mobility machines I know of that really work and are affordable have been DIY works and, aside from the one Beth mentioned, appeared to have go-cart frames as chassis and had those fat knobby wheels. Jim put a link on one of the Accessible threads to the one I think Beth is referring to, but it has been buried up in the chatter since. It is way beyond Jim’s budget, and his condition isn’t serious enough yet that we would approach the VA about it, but it is awesome! Jim has good days when he can still walk with a cane, but also bad days when he uses only his w/c. He should be on the forum in a few days. He tried to open a new DG account, but was having trouble getting his computer system to accept the cookies. His firewall is set ridiculously high and he can’t figure out why the system isn’t letting him change that.
That reminds me. He has the Quantum working now, Carrie. He says it is much more comfortable for a man his height. The Jazzy stays in the van for when we take people shopping that need one, but don’t have one of their own. So often the scooters the stores provide conk out halfway through shopping, if there is one available at all. You’ve helped more people than you know with that donation.
Beth, if my honeybees could write, they would send you letters of appreciation for reminding me about hellibores. The blooms have huge nectar glands and they make food available at a time it is normally scarce. Despite that, I had forgotten to put them on the list of nectar plants to look for.
I found some of the bee plants I’ve been looking for at High Country Gardens of all places. I rarely check their website because it just seems odd to be buying plants from a company called High Country for our marshy lowlands. I will have to learn not to read so much into a nursery’s name.
Good Night…or Good Morning, if you want to get technical about it. lol.
mk*

This message was edited Jun 5, 2015 4:06 AM

(Jim)
Well I am still fighting with my computer it will not accept cookies and there is no OK button to hit when I change the setting it is the same in different browsers so must be in my system lol.
Our Brussels Sprout plant is doing well. Guss we can grow them this far south Yummy.
We found a lily hiding in the weeds and it is pretty.

Should this link be in the Practical Matter introduction post?
http://www.cyber-sierra.com/nrjobs/mobility.html

mk*

Thanks for that link, Kay! I'm not done reading, but I just got to this sentence: Irritatingly, most disability device purchasing programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will only pay for indoor use devices.

Thanks, y'all, for the feedback. I've got some liriope going, and I got some periwinkle and vinca, so I've got at least part of my newly bare area covered. I also planted some forsythia to replace some of the privet. That'll be much prettier. I've still got one large bare spot, on rocky, acidic, clay, under the trees, that I've got to find something for. I'm looking into native plants, particularly ferns, that might thrive there. I think the hellibores would be a good option, too, for some of my area. I'm definitely looking at the native plants option, now, and I've found some sources, though I'll need to wait for the fall....
I'm also still looking into better options for wheeling in the garden. Here's one I'm looking into.... http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org/ I think this might be a good possibility - and not too expensive. If I get it, I think I'll probably use it for my travel chair, as well, since it'll be a good option for going places where you're not sure what you'll be encountering. I'll let y'all know. But, I'll have to wait a while before I can try to get it. I've spent all my money on plants!

Yes, I know what that is like. I started doing my own propagation by seed and cutting to get the cost down, but I still run out of money for plants before I run out of space to fill. That is one of the downsides of a larger property. Another being, no matter how hard one works, perfection will never be achieved.
To find the best native plant for a particular site, check out the Native Plant Information Network.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/
It is my go-to resource to find the perfect native plant for a particular site. Just click on your state or the state that is most appropriate. I say the last because though I am actually in Alabama; I am so close to the Florida line that the native plant list for north Florida is the right one for me.
I read the HortMag article I mentioned in a previous post. The recovering a hillside article was set in Vermont meaning the plants were not relative. The editor did give a short list of shade loving natives. Red columbine was a surprising entry…to me anyway. The others were classics like lady slippers (which I associate more with the northeast), yellow trillium and a cultivar of summer sweet. I think the N.P.I.N. link above will be the most helpful resource.
I think it is past time to start a new Practical Matters thread. This one is getting long. I will do so tomorrow.
mk*

Kay, for a while it seemed like one thread would last us FOREVER. Columbine was surprising because you don't think if it as a shade plant, or a you don't think of it as native?

I was not successful the only time I direct seeded columbines, but, in my head, I had them categorized as full sun plants which explains the failure. Aquilegia Canadensis, the wild red species, must be one of those plants that can do both shade and sun, if they have a rich water supply. I saw them growing in sun in Jackson County (Florida) less than an hour away. Before seeing them in N. FL, I associated columbines with mountain meadows. After reading “wild in the Shade”, I will give them another try. Red columbines are hummingbird and butterfly magnets. The honeybees have not entirely replaced hummingbirds in Jim’s affections. Okay. Here’s our new thread.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1397853/