Ideas for less able/injured growers

[greenmerlin]

I'm not sure where agriculture and allotment food growing merge. Maybe I am thinking more of specialist growers on small holdings here.
I have a large allotment.and after a bad fall last year I have had to radically rethink how to stop my plot getting too overgrown and unmanageable without digging and all the heavy work. I don't want to lose the plot though sometimes I wonder if I have
So far the two main helps have been THE ADZE.
I tore hip tendons badly, so digging causes more damage and pain. I bought a large digging adze on line to replace the spade and a forked adze to replace the traditional fork. Both tools have been used for centuries to cultivate food plants. The pulling action required is OK for me and I have gone through overgrown, couch riddled, patches ,not quite like a knife through butter but certainly more easily and less painfully than the traditional digging and forking..The little mini adzes you can buy at very low cost from stores such as Aldi and Lidl are also incredibly useful and I find more effective and versatile than the traditional hoes. I also found a set of 4 different sized adze heads on ebay and attached long wooden broom handles to them. Good if you can't bend down easily or the heavier digging adze is too big a blade for the job required.
My second most useful tool is my PULL BUCKET ( Google Garden Pull Bucket to see what I am talking about) which replaced the wheel barrow. It doesn't hold quite as much but by golly it's a darn sight easier than shoving even a half ladened barrow of wet manure along a muddy track. Another plus is that it can carry water without slopping over much.
If anyone else has any other tips for those of us who have injury or more permanent disabilities such as arthritis ( That comes to most of us eventually especially if you have led an active life hefting and shoving weighty things like sheep and wheelbarrows!) Why not share your experiences with us?
I am also experimenting with Permaculture which cuts down soil preparation to a minimum, I don't class myself as a trendy tree hugger though I have been known to talk to plants... mainly when a bramble root refuses to budge. What I say to it stays on the allotment as the mainly descriptive words are not seemly for an elderly lady to type in public.

 

[Chasingmytail]

We do home growing chats in the Holistic section. Firstly I would read up in No Dig by Charles Dowding - I dont dig I have the strength of a 2 yr old girl but I am lucky I dont have aliments. I think Charles if the current best way of growing his books are wonderful and his up to date on Youtube. Good webpage with forum. Good laying with a few inches of compost and over winter with muck/cuttings etc into a layered mulch. Look at Curtis Stone on Youtube and his salad growing he uses membrane for less weeding which I am going to do this year. I beleive that the covering of plastic/mulch layers makes light work of starting an area. Do you have a weekend student that could give you a hand for a couple of hours?

 

[greenmerlin]

We do home growing chats in the Holistic section. Firstly I would read up in No Dig by Charles Dowding - I dont dig I have the strength of a 2 yr old girl but I am lucky I dont have aliments. I think Charles if the current best way of growing his books are wonderful and his up to date on Youtube. Good webpage with forum. Good laying with a few inches of compost and over winter with muck/cuttings etc into a layered mulch. Look at Curtis Stone on Youtube and his salad growing he uses membrane for less weeding which I am going to do this year. I beleive that the covering of plastic/mulch layers makes light work of starting an area. Do you have a weekend student that could give you a hand for a couple of hours?

Thanks for that. yes! I have Charles Downing's book and my daughter has been on his courses. She has taken my patch on as a practice project and I am truly grateful for her help. She's busy and has a very small farm that they are redeveloping (No livestock ) on the Pennine moors and two children.The difficult terrain and soil round the farm is a huge challenge and it's taken some years to work out how to make the land more productive so she's getting hands on whilst waiting for the heavy machinery prepares some of her land. I really appreciate her help. However I am so flippin' independent I want to do as much as I can myself. That's the hardest thing about ageing is learning to accept you are not as were in your twenties and to understand that family and friends really want to help.
I managed to get a huge roll of membrane free...it was in a skip!! I did ask the owner's permission first before I sent my husband round to lift it out . I am looking forward to using it. Some is already round the fruit bushes .

 

[Dan Powell]

What about straw bale growing? Less bending down and no weeding. Get someone to put the bales where you want them first obviously!

 

[greenmerlin]

What about straw bale growing? Less bending down and no weeding. Get someone to put the bales where you want them first obviously!

That sounds interesting. I haven't hear of that one yet. Something for me to google tomorrow . Thanks.

 

[Old McDonald]

Just a couple of quick thoughts. Wheelbarrows can be pulled instead of pushed. Think about a horse and cart. It is much easier to pulI a weight than push it. I know you can load more on a wheelbarrow if you do push it because you can see whether it needs tipped sideways or not, but do not load it so high.

The other is stop digging. I have used a system of narrow beds for many years and never walk on them, consequently they never become compacted. They need to be narrow enough that you can easily reach beyond the middle of each bed from the paths between them. I used to prefer to straddle the beds, but that is definitely not good for the hips, so being able to reach at least the middle is now my preferrred option.

At first it looks like a lot of wasted ground with so much space being devoted to paths, but in reality it is not all lost. You can plant close to the edge of the beds and part of the plant will hang over the path, and the plants will also send their roots under the path. I make the paths about two and a half feet wide because I prefer wider ones. You might manage with less. Try planting your crops closer together too. Almost everything will take much closer spacing than is traditional.

Make an effort to raise the beds above the level of the paths. You will need some help at first, because a good way to start this is to remove soil from the paths and put it on the marked out new beds. This means digging. If you can add lots of organic material as @Chasingmytail suggests then the beds will soon be a few inches higher. Perhaps not a lot to begin with, but even 3" is a help. If you have access to straw bales as @Dan Powell said, then put them on the beds and you already have them well raised.

I do dig when I plant potatoes because I like to have the seed potatoes slightly under natural ground level and then pull up a good sized ridge over them immediately. I use an adze shaped tool for this. Most of the world uses the tools you describe in your opening post, not the traditional British spade and fork.

 

[greenmerlin]

Thank you. Some good tips there

 

[KMA]

Was almost crippled with arthritis at the start of 2016 but am pretty much fully mobile again thanks to physio and turmeric, this has made me take access and mobility into consideration as I plan things for the future.

Main thing is raised beds that I can work from a wheelchair, suitable paths between and turning circles at each end. I'll lose some ground but I'll still be able to get out and grow some things even if my body does start to let me down again. I like the idea of the adze instead of a spade, never did see the point of hoes. I'll adapt or make a dreg if I can find one in a farm sale to use instead of a fork.

The hay bale idea has got me thinking that I can use old hay/straw bales as a quick filler in the raised beds without having to import a couple of truckloads of soil. Build the sides, put the bales in then soil/compost on top jobs a good'un.

 

[jade35]

Thinking about wheelbarrows. Do you have a single or double wheel barrow? As Old McDonald said, you can pull as well as push a wheelbarrow and provided the barrow is well balanced, two wheels are really easy to push or pull and more stable. The main disadvantage is that they can be wider. Also a tyre with a good air pressure is a pleasure to work with, one with low pressure is hard work. I am not sure what the solid non puncture tyres are like to work with though.

Found this website http://www.wheelbarrows.co.uk/2-wheeled-barrow.html (although some of the prices are eyewatering) and of course James Dyson's ballbarrow which is mentioned in this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/tools-and-accessories/the-best-wheelbarrows-to-buy-now/