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Old 04-05-2009, 10:49 PM
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Default A Garden for a Handicap Disabled Person

Well the last few years I have had to do container gardens and buy the bulk from other farmers and depend on my children who do the work , I pay for seeds and supplies and we share the harvest. But I was feeling sorry for myself this year. I wanted to plant my own garden again. The container garden was too hard on me and too much upkeep with the watering. So I had some brain storms and I have my garden this year. You see my land goes up the side of the mountain. but there is lots of usable land in different places.

I got a new walker that last week that has huge tires for rough terrain. It also has a nice bigseat so I can sit dwn when I need to. My legs wont go far, so having the seat means a lot. I just take longer to get there is all. and when I get to the plants I can sit down.

I have been making my seedlings inside the house and then transferring them outside. I have a very long thin spade shovel . I have been going to areas I can get to with this new walker, I sit down on my seat and I dig the tiny hole and Gary puts the plant in the ground. I can't do the bending over part to plant them.

Gary had brought the water can so he could give each plant a good start when it went into the ground, gary is also disabled and is limited on what he can do. I had planted the seeds using organic soil made just for seeding.

I have been putting different foods in different places around the land. not your normal plowed garden. I have been using hearty breeds like tomatoes and cucumbers and summer squash, watermelon and cantaloupe. also sunflowers. things that will not require lots of attending. all are growing vines except the tomatoes and sunflowers.

My house next door when I was younger I made the back patio with pea river pebbles. it had cloth under it so the weeds couldn't grow through. it is till there and gets the morning sun. the tomato plants are all going into that pea river pebble patio area I made years ago. they will not have to ever be weeded. and the soil under neath is nice and rich. plenty of night crawlers and earth worms.

the only thing i have to worry about now is the deer getting to my veggies before I do. Gary said he would water the plants when the weather gets too dry. We have three garden hoses that can be put together that are 100 feet each and can reach any of the plants.

I am really excited about this. I can't do a regular garden . the container garden is too much for me to handle. but these plants will take care of themselves. I will spray them with organic ice tea to keep away bugs.

The neat thing is I don't have to have the land plowed. And this walker will take me anywhere I have plants. this walker is GOD Send.

I have to be careful where I plant though. I was in our fruit orchard today and checking to see if the deer were doing any damage to the baby trees. I haven't been in the orchard in over two years now. (I can see it from my deck and that was as far as it went) and It got a little steep and the brakes didn't keep me from going down the hill. I had to let go of my walker. and my grandson came running. it was too steep and even though the brakes kept the wheels from turning. the wheels just slid down the hill. I didn't realize it was so steep until it was too late.

I haven't been out on the property in a couple years and had forgotten how fast it can go down. I normally stay on the sun deck and plant my flowers. and keep them up.

it will be so nice to be able to grow some of my own food again. I will let everyone know how it turns out in case there are other handicapped people out there reading this.. even being handicapped we can still do some things for ourselves. sometimes we may take a different route to get there , but we get there just the same.
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