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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org, nmgreens@yahoogroups.com
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  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Handicapped Gardening My Way - Margaret Lauterbach
  • Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 08:02:54 -0700


Handicapped Gardening My Way
http://www.margaretlauterbach.com/handicapped_gardening.htm

Getting myself back into the garden was to be a two-step process: buy a
scooter, and build raised beds. Raised beds hold a huge amount of soil, and
it’s a herculean task to fill them. My husband had recently had surgery, so I
sought an alternative.

Years ago, I had built raised beds that were oriented east-west, and five
feet across. That’s far too wide for me to care for, so when we set out to
build more raised beds, I narrowed the beds to 4 feet wide. I was told this
was too wide, and having the capability of working from both sides of the
bed, it really is a stretch.

I hired a fellow with a front loader on his tractor, and he scraped up my
garden soil (that I had been improving for over 25 years by adding organic
matter every year) into ridges, leaving four foot pathways between ridges and
at each end. We started out with four raised beds, 4 feet wide by 17 feet
long. We bought 2X10 and 2X6" fir and 4X4 cedar fence posts for corners,
then hired a handy fellow to build containment boxes around those ridges.
Paths were now four inches lower than the adjacent lawn after the scraping
off of the topsoil, but that was not a problem for my scooter. It easily made
its own “ramp” into the garden. Once the containment boxes were finished, I
got on my scooter and got a rake, and started raking the ridges down into the
containment boxes. That worked just perfectly.

That left quite a bit of ground-level garden that was too low for me to
access, so this year we had more raised beds built, including some low ones
for my tomato patch. I grow my tomatoes in a Vee shape, two beds each about
20 inches wide and made of 2X10" fir. Last year I grew tomatoes in the
ground, and couldn’t keep them weeded. This year I could at least keep them
weed free about 3/4 of the way around each plant.

We use soaker hoses for watering, with quick connects for the hose at one end
of each bed. We’re still thinking of refining this, so I’ll keep you up to
date. The connecting hose necessarily bows out into the path, and I have
hooked it as I passed, pulling the hose loose. Some of the four feet wide
beds have four lines of soaker hose running the length, others have six
lines. When you first plant out, it looks as though you can use all six
lines, but the reality is that four lines works better. Bush beans, for
example, seldom remain bushes. Most varieties tend to develop runners, and
sprawl or overcome other things planted in the bed.

The way I deal with the hard-to-reach middle is to plant things there that
will not need frequent attention until harvest. That’s usually peppers or
eggplants.

My raised beds are used to grow vegetables, since that's what I most enjoy
raising. They could be used for flowers or other ornamentals, of course. As
an alternative, you could plant in tall pots or troughs such as those made of
hypertufa that would be reachable from the seat of an electric scooter.

I had a rock garden bed built that is primarily vertical, but we're still
working on that, so will include information about that later.

About tools for raised bed gardening: Expandable tools are available at many
garden centers. Zamzows is carrying Corona brand, that when the ends of the
handles are twisted in opposite directions, the trowel/rake/claw at the end
may be pulled out, extending the handle two more feet approximately, or it
may be used as just a long-handled hand tool. Some of the dollar stores are
carrying barbecue tongs that are 14 inches long, and they're very useful for
handicapped people, indoors and out.

Each handicapped gardener has a different disability from others. Some aids
are not useful for some gardeners, but are for others. It would be nice if
there were a library where one could check out this wrist-braced trowel or
those side handles that fasten to a rake handle. Then a gardener could try
these tools and if they worked for him/her, they'd rate purchasing.





  • [Livingontheland] Handicapped Gardening My Way - Margaret Lauterbach, Tradingpost, 11/06/2003

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