The Determined Gardener

by Mary Adams

After 20 years, four major spine surgeries (three sets of hardware), countless injections, prescriptions and physical therapy, I finally accepted that I had to learn to live with chronic pain. What began as childhood scoliosis turned into life-long physical limitations. I am able to sit, stand, walk and bend, but for brief episodes and some days not at all. I feel like Cinderella; I get to go to the ball, but it’s always 11:45 p.m. when I arrive.

Find your pain threshold. What is the most you can do on a “good” day? Then do a little bit less. Can you lift 10 pounds without pain, but 12 pounds is too much? Then lift no more than 8 pounds. The same goes for bending (how much), reaching (how far), walking (how long), or any other physical movement. Interrupted when painlessly raking leaves one day, I left the piles in my yard. When I finally bagged them a couple of days later, the pain level was excruciating. I realized it didn’t cause me much pain to rake leaves, but bending to bag them pushed me over my pain threshold. Learn specifically which movements cause your pain.

You may also need to limit time. If you can work in your garden for 60 minutes without pain, plan on 45 minutes. Stop. Save the rest for another day. Determined to work in my yard, I got in the habit of bringing a kitchen timer outside with me.

I heard about a woman with arthritis who could no longer bend to plant rows of seeds. Her solution was to wear a high-heel shoe on one foot and a flat shoe on the other. As she walked, she made a hole with the high heel, dropped the seed through a piece of PVC pipe, and used the flat shoe to cover the hole. This inspired me to find even more solutions for my own gardening problems.

To avoid bending, I made my landscape beds larger to accommodate the leaves that are raked off the grass. A bonus is more space for plants, less grass to cut, and great mulch for the beds. I haven’t bent down to bag leaves in six years. But if this isn’t an option for you, try using two tennis racquets to scoop up piles of leaves to toss into the trash can.

For someone with back, hip, or knee pain, weeding can be a real pain. In addition to mulching weed-prone areas, buy weed cloth (and pins) to place under the mulch. I cover a walking path with pine needles; no one ever suspects that this cloth is underneath. An alternative is thick layers of newspaper. They are biodegradable and most ink these days is soy.

Placing weeds or hand tools on the ground means bending a second time to pick them up. Great catch-alls include small plastic tables hidden among bushes, a piece of decorative wrought iron, or even a basket hanging over a chain-link fence. I keep empty pots on my tables for the weeds I pull on the run.

At times I keep small watering cans on these tables that I fill when I have the hose out. The next day I don’t have to drag the hose or carry a heavy container to water a nearby plant.

Do you find yourself constantly bending to adjust the hose to avoid dragging it over small plants? Invest in heavy cast iron hose guides that will stay firmly in the ground, unlike plastic ones. I have three small hoses rather than one large, heavy one. I plant drought-tolerant plants farther from the water supply and “heavy drinkers’ closer to it.

When I bought inexpensive birdseed, I found myself bending to “weed the seed” as it sprouted. Now I buy millet-free seed and get the same birds and can spend money on my garden rather than at my pharmacy.

Inexpensive grabber tools (not medical-grade ones) are great in the yard. Keep one with your garden tools. Those that fold are easiest to store. A garbage can with wheels makes for easy transportation of pruned foliage; you can hang your grabber tool on the handle with a small hook and it will be easily accessible.

When freeze warnings are in the forecast, place a small tomato cage over small plants and cover them with a pillow case, making sure it touches the ground. In the morning, just pull the pillow case off, leaving the tomato cage in place for the duration of the freeze.

If the July sun is too intense for a plant that isn’t established, grab the tomato cage, but this time cover it with awning fabric. Sold by the foot in the garden department of big-box stores, it will provide filtered shade but still let rain in.

Think about your routine garden chores. Are any of them unnecessary? A tedious weekly cleaning chore can be eliminated by replacing hummingbird feeders with plants that attract hummingbirds, such as firespike, firebush, porterweed, shrimp, and cigar plants.

Are you frequently lifting a hammock or something else to cut the grass underneath it? Kill the grass and mulch those areas.

Is walking painful? I keep three complete sets of favorite tools in several locations — in my garage, in a cabinet on the back porch, and in my lawn cart. I know of a lady who keeps a mailbox in her backyard. In it she stores garden gloves, clippers, trowel, and seeds. Everything stays dry and the tools are convenient when she needs them. Green plastic garden stakes and twist ties can be hidden among bushes in the yard year round so that they are easily accessible when I’m in too much pain to walk back to the garage.

I take frequent breaks and am seldom far from a bench, hammock, or chair. I’ve learned to observe and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us here in Florida. With physical limitations, I may not be able to grow every plant I like in my garden, but I can take time to admire my neighbor’s roses, inhale their heavenly scent, and be content that I had all the pleasure and none of the work.

Mary Adams earned her degree in Environmental Horticulture from the University of Florida, Gainesville.

© 2006 Mary Adams. Originally published in Florida Gardening, Feb / Mar 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.