Random gardening
November 22nd, 2008 by trinatune
Unfortunately my back has really been playing up since I had my baby five months ago. This means that I haven’t been able to get out into the garden or update Greenfoot as much as I want.
Instead of planting out my summer garden, I’ve had to resort to watching my garden develop very randomly. Besides all the weeds, it’s amazing and quite delightful to watch edible plants pop up all over the place.
For a start, many potato plants have returned to one of my raised garden beds. It seems no matter how many times I pull these up, potatoes keep returning. It’s always a bit of a gamble what sort of potatoes I get, but that just makes things more fun.
A rampant tomato vine that sprung from some compost has taken over the other raised bed. However, because I haven’t staked them, the quality is a bit hit and miss.
Mulberries from a cutting I took from another tree have ambled up part of my back trellis. I have been espaliering this for the last year. Espaliering is quite good for my bad back because I don’t need to bend down too much. My husband also helped me partially net it so birds don’t take too much of the crop – however my young son does, which is ok. At the moment picking tasty mulberries with my son is a daily afternoon ritual.
My passionfruit vines are also taking off on the trellis after many years of possum savaging, but that deserves another post.
My garlic is ready to dig up, and I have managed to plant some zucchinis and my regular space saver pumpkins. I do want to try and get some basil and rocket in for the summer months, so hopefully I can do this soon.
Has anyone out there got a bad back but is still managing to garden? If so what are your tips?
Hi Trina.
I have been suffering from a lower back injury for 15 months. It is a bulging disc at L5/S1, however, the pain has not stopped me from gardening.
I have raised beds that are about 50cm high, and are 1.2 m wide. That way I can kneel at the side of the bed and reach half way across without too much pain. Have a look at this link to have a look at the beds. Something like these beds should help you out.
Hope the back gets better soon.
Gav
Hi Gavin,
Thanks for your info – love your blog and the pics of your raised vege beds. I have a couple of raised vege beds too, they are awesome for bad backs.
We built them a few years back – here is a pic of them in the making.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58442405@N00/150268753/in/set-72057594140045092
Hey Trina, I’m sorry to hear your back has been playing up :\
However your garden sounds fab, I’d love to see some pics on this blog!
Hi there Priscilla,
thanks for your thoughts/
YOu can check out pics from my garden here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58442405@N00/sets/72057594140045092/
But I must admit it does need an update.
Cheers
The possums eh? I think its best to figure out what they dont eat, and just be hapy with that…
Tomatoes and Most fruit = No - unless you have netting.
Lettuce, Herbs, Pumpkins, Cucumbers = Yes
We have an awesome local market that runs on Sunday mornings - lots of passionate gardeners that fill in the gaps for us.
Tnx Ro, unfortunately in my garden possums eat everything, even the concrete
The best thing for a bad back is to keep gardening, but do a little at a time. After 2 car accidents in the last decade (I was rear-ended at red lights) which resulted in whiplash injuries I realised lying in bed was not helping me recover my core strength. So a few years ago I decided to start my first organic vegie patch, at my previous house. Gardening was my physiotherapy and since then I have become addicted. The back played up again recently, three months ago I had a ruptured disc and had spinal surgery to remove the bulge. After 6 weeks of lying around (doctors orders), with no vegie garden at my new address and with the peak growing season approaching, I decided to ’spring’ into action. Initially it was an hour a day with no strenuous work but now I can work up to 6 hours and although I still have some back pain, my muscle tone has improved and my core strength is returning. I think the way you move is crucial, I call it Tai-Chi gardening -it looks strange but it works. Don’t bend your back, always use the legs, even when raking and especially when digging. My legs ache more now than my back does, but that’s the muscles getting a workout.
Warning! Don’t try to do too much of the same repetitive task in one go, I did a few hours of raking a couple of weeks ago and increased my back pain significantly but this is now slowly fading again because I am back to doing gentle pottering about. Just listen to your body and remember that pain-killers may mask the warning signs.
Machines seize up if they are not used, I think the body is like that also. Use it or lose it!
Happy gardening -crouch potato
I suspect many years after we leave this house there will still be random tomato plants coming up from the compost that has been spread around the block!