Am hoping the wonderful community here will give me interesting feedback.
I give talks about gardening (yes am listed on the RHS speakers lists) and do one on Gardening with a Bad back and other Ailments. I am no stranger to these issues having over 30 years in the business and now my very own blue badge 🤣
But I would love to hear from others with differing perspectives.
Did you scale down, hire pros, raise your borders?
Do you use tools with braille on them? Change your plants?
Do you grow from seed but only varieties that seed later when it’s nicer out? Longer tools, use kneelers?
Did you plant for extra colour and or noise?
This is a large topic and am really looking forward to your input – thanks in advance.
(Pictured is primula veris – cowslip)
by Check_your_6
16 Comments
Great question! I have been unwell this year and am adjusting my gardening and allotment accordingly.
-I’ve asked for more help from family members-specific tasks in short bursts
-I’m starting more seeds than usual in case some fail due to poor care on bad days
-spending a little more to get instant gratification-plants rather than plugs, plugs rather than seeds
Using pots and raised beds can help as its not as much bending.
Starting to grow more perennial veg.
I have very aggressive rheumatoid arthritis and can’t do much. Lucky for me I have a partner who was a professional gardener so can do all the physical work. I grow a few seeds every year and plant them in planters. Most of the garden plants are perrennials and dwarf trees that don’t really need much work.
I do little and often more than all in one go. When doing potting or related tasks, everything goes up onto my table and I do it sitting down. I keep my tools at waist height so I don’t have to bend down as much to get them.
And I lay down on the grass often!
I’m disabled. I grow from seed because I enjoy it and I have the dexterity, I know it’s harder for some people who struggle with their grip.
Things that help me are composting in a tumbler, I have my hanging baskets on pulley mechanisms so I don’t have to reach up for them, I use a portable stool to sit on and garden. I want to get a pulley thing on wheels next to help move things around and I’d love some sort of watering system. I currently use those plastic watering bulbs incase I am too unwell to water but they’re a bit of a faff.
I use the ‘no dig’ method so I never have to get any big tools out and dig and I plant plenty of perennial so even if I’m unwell there’s something nice to look at. I also grow dwarf fruit trees so I don’t have to reach up. In terms of weeding my partner covered the entire bed in wood chip (which is part of the no dig method) but that means we hardly ever get weeds. I am lucky to get a lot of help from my partner.
I have a tendency to collapse so there are things I’ve had to stop using, I don’t put canes in the ground to stake beans etc and Instead use netting because I am scared of falling onto them, big rocks and stones in landscaping are also a no no.
I couldn’t manage an allotment which sucks as I always wanted one but you also have to learn to accept what you can and can’t do with a disability and roll with it. That’s the key to happiness.
I actually got into gardening when I first became ill back in 2010 – I have FND – and needed a hobby to stop me from being driven insane by my newfound inability to walk or do much of anything at all.
I bought some seeds and grew them in my kitchen. From that moment onwards I was hooked. It was wonderful to have something other than my disability to focus on and helped me enormously.
Over time I was able to walk again and little by little I recovered enough to be able to do light gardening. I’ve never recovered my mobility to where it was before the illness and I have to manage my energy to make sure I have enough to do stuff. I have good days, bad days and rest days.
We bought a house with four acres of land which was just grass and woodlands. Over the course of the five years we’ve been here I’ve propogated many trees and shrubs which my husband plants with my supervision. We’ve got a ride on mower tractor and trailer which is brilliant for getting around the garden and through the woods. I’d really like an electric ATV such as the Polaris but that’s a lottery win purchase unfortunately.
For work in the borders I have a little gardening trolley seat on four pneumatic tyres which is great for me to potter about on.
My favourite part of gardening is propagation and my intention is to buy a polytunnel at some point. I grow lots and lots of plants from seed and cuttings and my poor husband has to dig the borders to plant them in.
A lot of my garden is left wild because I just can’t manage it but I’m happy with that because the myriad of creatures we get here love it. Our house is in a very rural location so the wild bits blend in well.
We’ve got a courtyard bit which the house surrounds on three sides and I mostly grow things in pots here. This is the bit I find most manageable because it’s nearest the house and pots are easier to look after than the borders. I grow mostly perennials, ferns and shrubs in these so it’s mostly just weeding, feeding and watering. I’ve also got a wee plant nursery/preparation area near the house which is fenced off from the rabbits.
I’ve got various seats spread out around the garden so wherever I am I’ve got somewhere to rest. I find it mega frustrating that I can’t spend all day, every day gardening but it is what it is. I’d love to be able to do digging but I’ve tried and it’s a job too hard for me so I have to rely on my husband to do that. Unfortunately he works full time so isn’t around much to carry out my demands. I give him a nice long list of jobs to do for his ‘rest days’.
My borders are never dug over and are full of weeds but the perennials grow up and hide most of them. I just have to live with this and to be honest they don’t look too bad once everything is in bloom. If you saw my garden you’d probably not realise that gardening is my hobby as it’s far from neat and tidy but, I don’t worry about that and just get on with enjoying what I can do.
My favourite kind of day is one where I’ve ‘banked’ enough energy to spend the whole day out there pottering about. I can barely walk or stand up when I come in at the end of the day but it’s so, so satisfying.
I don’t necessarily have limited mobility I’m just fat and lazy.
I keep stuff at waist height where possible, have put in irrigation systems, and at the end of the season I cover beds to avoid having to weed them
Autistic. Have definitely gone with hardier plants, selected survivors preferentially. In case of longer periods of neglect. All my borders I can reach across and have paths through that are hidden when things grow in.
I had an amazing app that catalogued all my plants and would remind me when everything was due grouped by month…. It went bust and I didn’t garden for months because of it because I rely on clear, simply and straightforward instructions and rules but gradually have replicated using my own spreadsheet as couldn’t find another decent app to do the same thing (plenty for veggie growers out there but little for ornamentals.)
Most people put their less visually appealing practical stuff at the back of the garden or tucked into corners, mine is all kept beside the house so I have easy access to the greenhouse, compost, wormery etc stuff that needs regular checking and tending to because If I can’t see it it doesn’t exist, but I imagine this is particularly useful for people with physical disabilities too.
Edit. Absolutely planted and planned my garden centres around my sensory needs. Thick borders to block outside sounds of people and machinery and power tools, lots of things to attract birds, butterflies, smells colour texture and a pond for the water sound. I removed all my lawn because the mower triggered meltdowns. Tried ANC headphones first but they were too hot so I yeeted the lot.
My mum was a mad keen gardener, she taught me everything I know and gave me the bug for it. She used to be very mobile, but a blue badge holder of 20+ years now.
She’s adjusted by growing almost exclusively perennials and shrubs, or stuff in pots which I lift on and off her table for her each time I visit.
For exciting stuff, she’s basically the director in my garden and I do the experimenting for her. She then feels a sense of ownership in my garden too so it’s a nice place for her to sit and tag when she visits me.
It’s not a physical ailment so might not be useful, but I have ADHD. I love gardening, but I’m not always great at remembering everything I need to do! I love:
– plants that don’t need much attention, ferns are great
– plant as much in the ground as possible to reduce the amount of watering I need to remember to do
– when I grow from seed I tend to just sow straight into big pots so I have to do less repotting!
– I try not to pay too much attention to sowing dates, do my tomatoes get started about 2 months late? Yes. Does it turn out ok? Also yes
I have mobility issues,Osteoarthritis in my spine & knees, Rheumatoid arthritis in my hands,Fibromyalgia and a few other issues.Apart from work,the garden is all I have and I love it.I have raised veg beds that my dad and I made from railway sleepers,so I can sit on the side when weeding,planting up ect. All my plants are in pots, as I can’t get down to ground level to look after them. My trees are ornamental so I can prune them and maintain them. I have a fold up lightweight seat that has a pocket on the side for tools. I also have invested in an extendable trowel/fork/hoe/rake its mini, you just change the heads over. There’s a long pole and a short one. I use the magic crystals in my pots so I don’t have to water so often (game changer). As I can only do so much at a time before my body decides to quit on me, I do maybe 15 mins some days, and that’s ok. As long as I’ve done something. My husband has MS and he is struggling too now, so even maintaining our lawn is becoming more and more difficult. But we save our energy and we go for it, bit of weeding one day, repotting another.What doesn’t get done today, we can do tomorrow. We aren’t getting inspections and I want to enjoy my garden for as long as I can, I never want it to feel a chore.
Great question!
Last year my asthma was awful and I couldn’t do more than 10 minutes in the garden. I did pick my battles with the weeds, allowed some to grow and decided this wasn’t the year to tackle them.
I put lots of wood chip down.
I did fun easy things like take softwood cuttings.
I used shop bought annuals in my beds to fill gaps.
I didn’t really grow much veg, and the things I did grow didn’t do well. I just let the nasturtiums take over my veg bed in the end.
This year my asthma is better with new medication, and I’ve loved tackling the weeds!
I’m a gardener professionally and my own garden ebs and flows and most of my houseplants have died at this point.
Do what you can, water if you are able. Do not blame yourself for Mother Nature. She does as she wills we can only try and keep her at bay.
Waist high gardening is in this season. I can’t kneel down or really bend my leg right now due to damaging my acl earlier this year, so my partner built me some big trugs to plant in so I don’t need to bend down at all!
I’ve also been getting help in handling the stuff I’d normally do, so I’ll place pots down where I want them and he will do the digging for me. It’s stopping me going utterly nuts this year!
Do you have anything you could share? Resources? I’m gardening with a group of friends and one isn’t as able to stand or carry heavy things and we aren’t sure what might work for her to get into gardening like the rest of us can.
Clench your butt!
Trust me.
When you’re lowering your hands and putting strain on your lower back, you need to counterbalance with purposefully engaging your glutes.
This is the lifechaning advice I got from my physiotherapist and I stand by it.
Also, perennials. Not a lot of dedicious trees.
Herbs, lettuce and strawberries are enough for me food wise.