Great Idea!!!!

Just stumbled on this, Dave must have just started it. While I was reading all the comments I was thinking that you really dont have to have some kind of disability to use some of the tips. I would love to learn of different ways to do certain things. Some of this garden work can LEAD to disabilities!!! Also good to hear about peoples remedies for the things that ail them.
Janice

San Lorenzo, CA

I agree, this is a great idea. I have a little trouble kneeling and getting back up, so I garden mostly in containers. As Janice said, I'd love to hear tips on how you enjoy gardening without crawling around on the ground. For next summer's vegetables, I'm considering building a raised bed on a big old countertop from my workshop. Should be an adventure.

Port Huron, MI(Zone 5b)

another great way to share information

Knoxville, TN

Hey Dave,
Bless your heart,I love it! hope it was not because of all
my groaning the chat room,I thought I had my sound turned down lol
But all kidding a side.I was telling my doctor the other day that gardening has been wonderful for my depression,but the flipside is,it also has been one of the most painful
things in my life.With 2 neck and 3 back surgeries,and
needing more now,I go thought racking pain sometimes
at night from trying to plant,pot and take care of my flower garden.i can't bend over because of spine fusion
and when I get down to plant I can't get back up because
of spine problems,I can't have anymore surgeries,lol
Dr. said I was a surgerial nightmare.If I try to dig to much,I always pay for it at night with cervical headaces.
I don't want anyones pity ,I am happier now since I have my garden.I just wanted to let u guys know that there are some of us who need ideals and ways to grow things.I ask for your prayer's and all the new ideals I can get
luv herblady

Greensburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Had you considered wearing a foam collar when digging, may take a small bit of the stress off your neck tension while digging? I have fusion from R.Arthritis or factory defect? as a child and if I get to much neck involvement I am nauseaus with the headaches ect. I also got some great excersises from my Physical therapist to help keep my neck as limber as it can be. But often I find myself gritting (unknowingly) my teeth for that extra UMPH! My husband has made me many raised beds with the "ledges" wide enough so that I can sit on a cushion, remove weeds, plant or just admire.
Good luck and take care
Diane

Knoxville, TN

Hey,
Thanks so much for the ideal,I had not even thought of
wearing one of my old collars.I wish I had read this earlier today,I might have saved myself the cerval headace
And the ledge is a great idea.Pray that hubby thinks it is too. lol
luv Herblady

Brooklet, GA(Zone 8a)

Herblady, both my husband and i are disabled. but i thought i would tell you about him. he has had 3 back surgeries and heading towards his 4th. he has steel rods from his rib cage to his tailbone. and the screws holding in on the tailbone have loosened up. in june 99 he hemoraged on the table and we nearly lost him. the fussions did not set nor did the one in sept 2000. so now they are going in and put braces from the spine and hook them into each side of his pelvic bones and insert a minitransmitter that is suppose to help encourage the bone to grow. it is believed that if the obne grows and stablizes the spine the pain will be relieved. he i s always in severe pain and he is now only 41 yrs. old. hes been disabled since he was 31.
it has been real hard for him and he understands your pain. unless you have gone thru it no one can comprehend it. i am disabled with arthritis and nerve damage due to diabetese.
he and i get along great helping each other thru our days and dealing with eachothers pain. nov will be 20 years of marriage. i guess i am sharing all of this because it is great to have someone to share it with and to let others like us know they are not alone. gardening is my only escape. i have buckets turned upside down all over my yard so i can sit whenever i need to. i thought they were unsightly but could not afford benches so i plan to try and paint some of them. i do have the use of a farm tractor for planting my garden but it is just too big for some places so i use my tiller and make my rows with it wide enough so i can use the tiller to go back through the rows to get most of the weeds and all out. when planting the tilled rows i wald along with a broom handle and make a hole and then go back with a piece of pvc pipe and drop a seed from my apron into each hole and use my foot to cover it , this is alot easier than bending and hoeing. janet

Springfield, MA(Zone 6a)

reading these threads does mmy heart good. applause, applause for all who show such courage, in the face of adversity. for our willingness to live life to its fullest, despite the pain or perhaps because of it.

Knoxville, TN

hey janet
wow,see I would never of thougt of the buckets,and the stick and the pvc pipe.And I am so sorry to here of the horrible pain your hubby goes thru.I am growing and studing
herbs to try and help get off the 3 kinds of meds for depression they have me on.As well as all the others,I refuse to be put on pain meds and become depend on them
I have seen a post about
trained dogs they give to disabled people,that can help people get up and down do you have
animals.Hey janet I just thought,lol why don't we invent a garden seat that takes us down to work in diert and then brings us back up lolMy luck it would mess up and it would shoot me thru the air lolhey why don't u drive your tractor down here,I need a new flower bed.lol I have a rototiller
but that would be a good hospital trip for me if i used it lol I would began to become fused to it for a long time.Is your arthritis in your hands too?My mom has it and I hurt for what she goes thru.The biggest under-state-ment of my
life is NO-PAIN-NO-GAIN boy lol u had better believe it. luv herblady

markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Thanks for the tip on the pvc pipe=I needed that. By just sharing our pain is so helpful.

Florence, AL(Zone 7a)

I don't know whether reading this has helped or hurt my pain---both I guess. It helps, in a way, to realize that compared to some I don't have it so bad, but it hurts because of the empathy I have for all of you. I have had severe arthritis since I was twenty, and for the past seven years (since I bought this house) I have gardened sitting down flat on the ground. Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to get back up, so I'm spending more and more time crawling around. Thank goodness for planters!

markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Judith How do you get back up again. Do you have someone to help? I ask because I know if I get down I just cant get back up. I fell in the yard last winter in minus 30 degree wind chill in knee hi snow and laid there for 15 minutes till I could use the bucket I was carying to water the dogs as leverage to get up. And so Im really in need of some good tips about getting back up again once one has gotten down-Sandy says her dogs help her but corky is ten inches high and weighs 20 lbs so she isnt any help???

markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Hi ABsGirl Am just down the road about sixty miles from you near the Yough Lake in Fayette County.

Hereford, AZ

Cool place....I am disabled also. I have blown discs in my back at L3, L4 and L5-S1. so i have trouble bendong and such. I am a new gardener as this is my firsat year doing it but i went and bought all steel hand tools (as my garden is only 6' x 6') and since i did not want to have to get down i welded a female thread to the end of all my tools and just screw them onto a paint roller extention. makes it stout enough i can sit and reach everything in the garden. and strong enough i can bear down on it pretty well. it is easier for me than to have all the long tools and is ajustable to whatever lenght i need. anyway is my only idea i use so far but will look forward to seeing how others cope too. Good luck guys!

markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Thanks Silverlocke What a neat idea. Thanks for sharing it with us. There have been times I have had to scrub my floor from a chair because I couldnt stand well and Im thinking I probably could do gardening from a chair wit something like this-at last some of the chores that need done. What innovative people we are hearing from.

Knoxville, TN

`Hey,
How's everyones pain today,it has been 3 days sinceI have been able to do any planting.My pain in my hip and leg are
showing up at the wrong time,I wanted to post a sign that said," Pain,Pain,go away, come again on rainey days!
It has benn raining on and off about 2 weeks and I could have planted in my garden.My pain level was bearable.
Now sunshine for 2 days and pain is unbearable at times.
Not only do I have trouble get down and up,I also feel
like truck is going tru my back,Well I refuse to give up
so I have decided what ever needs plants is now going to get potted.lolI will pot al my plants at the height where
I don't need to bend.lolThe old Pain Monster is not going to take my garden away.Ha, HaI will have the pretties Potted garden that anyone has ever seen!!!!
So Thanks for the pot Ideal!
luv herblady

markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Hi Herblady Sorry you are having a bad time. I have been opposite. The pain was terrible during the rainy period of almost three weeks and now since it is in the hi 70s and sunny it has not been too bad today. I drove to the lake which is only two miles away and watched the boaters and listened to some good music and read some Thomas Merton and looked at catalogs.Tomorrow is a day when some plants have got to go in-Ive had them heeled in in damp sand until the rain was over. Keep your determination bet your garden will be beautiful What are you potting up? Your recitin that old song remindeded me of my Mom who died when I was ten. She taught that to me over 60 years ago. She also taugt e to love flowers She had big glad and dahlia beds and peony which of course she called pineys and phlox and helianthus and roses and bridal wreath and sweetshrub abd spice bush and flowering almond and trumpet vine and live for ever and trailing arbutus and mock orange and iris all bulldozed over and gone many years ago in the name of progress.

markleysburg, PA(Zone 5a)

Hi everybody I actually got into some of my beds to weed today and the pain so far is lying still there waiting till evening to pouncce on me. I actually got the dog to the vet to be spayed-got my truck cleaned out and am going to lunch with a long time friend-arent friends wonderful? I hope all of you have a better day today .

Port Huron, MI(Zone 5b)

Hi folks...I hope everyone is feeling a bit better today. The sun is shinning and there is no humidity here in Michigan today.Yes, my 2 largest labradors are very helpful for me. I trained them to retrieve quite a few things for me when i just hurt too much to even get up. Each of the 5 do different things for me.The largest two stay at my side at all times and I am able to pull myself up pretty well holding there collars and then they get right tight to my legs and i put my hands on their shoulders and push myself up to stand.They will go get different things and drag them to me ..like a shovel or a rake. One will open the frig and get me a drink(as long as it's a can of pop or a bottle of water)of course she doesn't always get the right drink. I can put a pack on my large male and he will carry things to the basement for me and carry them up because i have to have both hands on the stairwell.They will bring the hose to me ...grabbing it by the nozzle. I live alone and trully don't know what i would do without them.So much they do to help me and all they ask in return is food, water, and love, all of which i give them in abundance.
Sandy

Knoxville, TN

wow sandy,I am going to have lab puppies in about 3 weeks!
I got a great ideal,i will bring themto u and you can
train them for us and we will give them away to people
who need them.lol I guess you really don't have time to train all the puppies,so could I at least borrow one of yours that helps you up.or I could send the soon to be father (shaggy) to youto train.If u could just teach him to help me up instead of knocking me down,I would be one happy Herblady
Thanks guys for all support
luv herblady

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