Energy-saving tips for gardening with a disability

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I’m going to stray this week from gardening for wildlife to another topic that is near and dear to my heart: gardening with a disability. To be clear, I still work full time, and I do not think of myself as disabled, but I do have days (weeks, months) when I really struggle. I was diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis nearly fifteen years ago, and that diagnosis has changed a few times since then, most recently to lupus (SLE). My main issues from the disability are fatigue and join stiffness and pain. These days, my worst symptoms are controlled via steroid injections, but for many years they were pretty unrelenting. (I have poison ivy to thank for my successful treatment. I was exposed to poison ivy one year, and I had to get a steroid injection to treat the systemic reaction I had as a result. It was a miraculous how good I felt after that injection. Surprisingly, I felt human again. I was willing to throw myself into poison ivy again and again to get that relief, but thankfully my doctors didn’t deem that necessary.)

I know there are many other people out there who love to garden, but struggle with fatigue, disability, and health issues. It’s a challenge. Gardening is hard work. It requires a certain amount of physicality which doesn’t always come easily. But there are things you can do to make it easier.

Here are some lessons I’ve learned that help me cope and conserve my energy:
  • Use pots and planters. They are taller than ground level, so you don’t have to stoop to plant them. By filling them with potting soil, you eliminate ground preparation, weeding, and digging. Yet, you can fill entire spaces with pots and planters, creating elevated gardens – flowers or vegetables – virtually anywhere. It’s also easy to control your soil fertility and moisture with pots. I occasionally have to weed my pots, but not nearly as often or with as much effort as with a ground-level flowerbed.

  • Use elevated beds. With elevated beds, you get the benefits listed above for pots and planters, but on a potentially larger scale.

  • Wear or carry a gardening toolkit/tool belt.

If you know you’re going to be working outside for a while, you don’t need to spend extra energy walking back and forth to get various tools. Get a tool belt or bucket to carry your most commonly used tools with you. If you see a plant that needs to be deadheaded, you’ll have your clippers or scissors right there. Even if you have a small yard, you’ll be able to concentrate your energy on the project at hand rather than fetching things you might discover you need once you get into it.

  • Use a portable gardening stool or bench. If you’re going to be weeding or planting in an area for a while, rather than kneeling (hard on the knees, even with knee pads) or bending (very hard on the back), use a small, portable stool on which to sit or kneel comfortably while you work. I’m a restless gardener, always moving from one project to another (if I stay in one position too long, I stiffen up), so I rarely use one of these, but other people swear by them.
  • Use the right tool for the right job. When you’re fighting fatigue or disability, conservation of energy is so important. I used to spend too much time trying to dig out weed roots with an ordinary trowel or cut through tree roots with a shovel. Then I discovered an ergonomic tool that was designed to dig up roots, and I added a gardening knife to my gardening tool belt. Specialized tools are designed to minimize effort, and that saves you time and energy. More than one Master Gardener will swear the best tool they own is a Hori-Hori gardening knife.

Purchase ergonomic, adaptive, and/or extendable tools.

  • Ergonomic tools are designed to be easy to use and reduce stress on joints and muscles. Extendable tools eliminate the need to bend and/or kneel.
  • Invest in drip or permanent irrigation. During hot, dry summers, watering can become a full-time job. Reduce the need for all that work by installing automatic irrigation. Even investing in inexpensive soaker hoses can save you energy and time.
  • Spend the money to purchase non-kinking hose. Walking back and forth to unkink a hose is effort you should do without. Besides that, it’s frustrating and annoying. When you’re spending your precious energy in the garden, you shouldn’t let a hose ruin your good mood.
  • If you can afford it, get an automatic hose reel. I consider this to be a luxury item because I have the strength and mobility to crank my hose reel by hand, but for some people it may be a necessity.
  • Plant perennials. Plant them once, and they’ll reward you year after year without any additional planting effort.

Mulch thoroughly.

  • Mulch has many benefits for plants. For you, mulching prevents weeds, so you don’t have to spend time and energy pulling or digging them out.
  • Wear light-colored linen clothing, hats, and sunscreen. Many people with autoimmune disorders are sun sensitive, and sun exposure can trigger a flare. Regardless, it’s good practice to prevent too much UV (ultraviolet radiation) exposure by covering up. UV radiation is associated with skin cancer. I’ve found linen to be the best fabric to wear in the heat; it breathes even better than cotton.
  • Work during the time of day you feel best, and don’t overdo it. I think this advice is pretty self-explanatory, and you will know your body best. I often end up working in the heat of the afternoon because that’s when I physically feel best, even though temperatures are at their hottest. And I have to be careful not to get so caught up in a project that I overdo it. Those of us with autoimmune issues or disability pay a disproportionate penalty for overdoing it. So, be careful. Pay attention to your body when it tells you, “Enough!”

These are my strategies for gardening with fatigue or disability. Some of them are small things, but they add up, allowing me to do more in my yard with less effort. If you struggle with a lack of energy or mobility, I hope these tips help you, too.

Meet Leslie Miller

Leslie Ann Miller shares 3.5 acres in rural Oklahoma with birds, butterflies and wide variety of animals. She is currently transforming her yard with plantings…

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