Showing posts with label wheelchair gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wheelchair gardening. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Elevated Garden Beds - Great for Senior Gardeners!



elevated garden beds to make gardening easier on knees and back

 

I've always been fond of gardening.  Even in my younger years when I lived in apartments, I would always have plants on my balcony.  Most of the time, I grew flowers, but over the years, I began also growing a few vegetables like lettuce and peppers.  Lettuce is really pretty and because you can snip off a leaf at a time, it stays pretty for quite a while as long as the weather is not too hot.

When I bought my first house, I happily saw that it had a lot of flower beds in the front and in the back.  I grew some very beautiful flowers, but as time passed I realized I was missing an opportunity to grow healthy vegetables to eat but also to save the money it would take to buy what I could easily grow myself.  I dug up all my annuals and  planted a blueberry bush, peppers and onions.  I got rid of the bushes down my driveway, and planted cucumbers. It took a few years and hard lessons, but overall, I was very pleased with the results. 

green peppers

As the years passed, I found it more and more difficult to bend or kneel in the dirt to plant and weed and harvest.  My knees were not what they once were.  It all came to a head when I had to have knee surgery,  After that, getting on my knees for anything, let alone gardening, was out of the question.  I was devastated.  I did nothing in the garden that summer, and by August it was a weeded mess.  I didn't even want to go out on the deck.  

I missed gardening very much, so I began to wonder if I could do raised garden beds.  They were up off the ground, but usually only about a foot.  I might be able to make due with this!  I decided to have a look on Amazon and see how expensive they were.  While scrolling through  The raised garden beds, I saw a garden bed that was up on legs!  The top of the dirt was at waist level and could be planted and weeded comfortably while standing up!  

EUREKA !!!!!

This was the solution I had been looking for.  After spending some time looking at the different styles and prices, I decided on this one:

elevated wood planter box

Elevated Wood Planter Box


This was about 5 years ago.  At that time, they were $99 each.  After checking today, I see that they are still the same price.  Not bad!  Unfortunately, they do not arrive at your house ready to go.  My husband and I had to put them together and stain them.  It was a lot of work, but it was very much worth it.  The only thing we added to the boxes was some metal strapping to reinforce the corners. 

metal strapping

Metal Strapping



Below is a picture of one of our boxes four years after we bought it.  Still looking pretty good!


stained elevated wood planter boxes for gardening


These garden beds have been a lifesaver for me.  I can grow my own vegetables without hurting my back or my knees.  Weeding is a breeze, and it is so much easier to examine your plants to look for problems like insect damage.  It just makes gardening so much easier, I wish I had known about them years ago!  We add a couple every year so we can grow more kinds of vegetables.  We are up to eight!  I highly recommend trying these garden beds if you dislike or are unable to garden in the ground  They are great for growing vegetables, herbs or flowers!


Our Garden

a beautiful garden area created with elevated garden beds


    https://www.reviewthisreviews.com/elevatedgardenbeds




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