Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[sharron]

You don't have to totally give up. I have 2 replaced shoulders, a replaced knee, the other one needs doing and a really bad back (all from farming mostly). My raised boxes have been a pleasure to grow in. I recommend growing in raised planters or boxes that come up to your waist. It's so simple once you have them and they are filled. I cannot garden on the ground without assistance anymore. Now I can do all my vegetable gardening, and it's actually fun again.

feeling better today, not hurting as much, give me a couple of days and will have forgotten the pain and will try it again . my back came from my momma's side of the family,course it didn't help that i rode horses until 1995 and got hurt many times, last time decided i would rather walk on my own two feet than a wheel chair so started playing in the dirt instead, hubby will make me raised beds for veggies, already have one raised for my lilies; thanks for the pep talk

 

[lazy gardener]

@sharron , I suggest that you do a google search for hay or straw bale gardening. If you can get hubby to get you a couple of bales, and place them near an outdoor faucet or rain barrel, you can have a pretty impressive garden. Hay bales are about 15" tall, so they make pretty decent raised beds. It takes 2 weeks to "condition" a bale so it will be ready to plant. You can grow crops on top of the bale, then tuck herbs or flowers into the sides.

 

[rjohns39]

anyone out here got experience with goji berries? I have a bucket full to plant tomorrow in my horrible clay soil

 

[sharron]

@sharron , I suggest that you do a google search for hay or straw bale gardening. If you can get hubby to get you a couple of bales, and place them near an outdoor faucet or rain barrel, you can have a pretty impressive garden. Hay bales are about 15" tall, so they make pretty decent raised beds. It takes 2 weeks to "condition" a bale so it will be ready to plant. You can grow crops on top of the bale, then tuck herbs or flowers into the sides.

we already have the hay bales, kept a few from the mini horses i had a couple of years ago. only thing i have now, animal wise are a few chickens and a house pig , dogs and cats but that might be a good idea too i have a magazine here somewhere with that in it
thank you for helping

 

[N F C]

anyone out here got experience with goji berries? I have a bucket full to plant tomorrow in my horrible clay soil

Never tried those Bob. Hope they work well for you, always fun to try something new in the garden!

 

[henless]

@sharron ~ Like everyone else said, try to continue doing as much as you can. You may have to change the way you garden, raised beds, straw bales or containers, any of those will still allow you to do the things you love to do.

anyone out here got experience with goji berries? I have a bucket full to plant tomorrow in my horrible clay soil

I don't have experience with goji seeds, but I have some to plant. I have read that for the first year you need to keep them in containers and bring them in the first winter. After that, depending on where you live, they can be planted outside to grow.

My garden is doing pretty good. Everything is up and growing, even my okra I planted this past Monday. It started pushing through the ground 2 days ago.

 

[sharron]

@sharron ~ Like everyone else said, try to continue doing as much as you can. You may have to change the way you garden, raised beds, straw bales or containers, any of those will still allow you to do the things you love to do.



I don't have experience with goji seeds, but I have some to plant. I have read that for the first year you need to keep them in containers and bring them in the first winter. After that, depending on where you live, they can be planted outside to grow.

My garden is doing pretty good. Everything is up and growing, even my okra I planted this past Monday. It started pushing through the ground 2 days ago.

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i like your raised bed, looks like it would last and last

 

[rjohns39]

Every now and again, things just work out... Two years ago I got 4 dump truck loads: Saw Dust, aged horse manure, sand, and mushroom compost. I thought we had used it all, but while the plumber was digging the trench for a new water line, he discovered about 4-6" in each pile, so he mixed it up and stacked it into an easy to get to pile. So now the plan is to dig out a plug hole for each berry plant and fill the holes with a mix of the stuff above and some potting soil. These plants were all dug up and are about 3 years old (originally from cuttings), the lady was thinning. So hopefully this approach will give them a good start.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Scary! Thank God they got out ok. Hope everything is good at your place Capricorn.

I made kale chips today. One batch with pink salt, the other batch with parmesan cheese. They weren't bad, but I wouldn't want to eat them every day. After coming back in from picking up my granddaughter from school, it smelled like someone had farted. When DH came in from work, he said it smells like a dead rat in here (kitchen). Doesn't bode well for future kale chips.

I don't like kale raw or cooked. But man, I sure can grow some kale! The chickens love kale, so I'll grow it for them.

Yeah, we are doing well. The sun even came out. The river is in flood stage again though. Hubbys boat ramp is floating. Good thing it is on a tether!

 

[CapricornFarm]

getting old sure isn't for sissy's thats for sure, i find that as i get older i can't do like even the previous year, i've always had a bad back and now to have to give up playing in the dirt is hurting, husband does the hard work for me, hes a good man, even helps me can so with his help, going to try to keep going as long as i can, guess i was just feeling sorry for myself

It does stink getting older. My knees are no better and a have tennis elbow in both arms. However, i need to plant strawberries and build stuff, animals are growing fast! So bite the bullet and get er done.