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Re: [ENABLED] ENABLED-GARDENER Digest - 14 Jan 1998 to 15 Jan 1998

On Fri, 16 Jan 1998, Ruthmaku wrote:

> My husband has Psarkinsons disease and still wants to garden.  His main
> problem is lack of balance.   What he plans to do this summer in addition to
> having raised the beds for vegetables (but not enough in my opinion) is to
> string vwery strong rope along his rows of plants.  He has hopes that these
> will make it easier for him to get himself up, for he will have something to
> hold on to.  Hope it works.

My grandmother tried something similar years ago... she had Meniere's,
and was constantly dizzy. The rope gave her enough "fake support" that
she was comfortable enough to trust it, and then fell more often.  Which
was not the original idea at all.  Has he considered something like a
kneeling bench, with handrails at the sides for "uppings"?   Or something
like a quad-cane attached to a plywood base (to keep it from sinking in
loose soil)?  That's what my grandmother finally used, except her "garden
support" was homemade... about a foot diameter plywood circle bolted to
the bottom of a 4x4, then braced out from the 4x4 to the edge of the
circle.  Top was nicely rounded and polished for grabbing, and turned
sort of like a cannonball bedpost.

The other thought I had was that out here in the PNW, raised beds are
pretty common... up to 18" or more... and usually quite narrow.... two
arm reaches. Built like that, you could run a scrap plumbing handrail
down the middle of the bed at "grab for balance" height, and use it
as a low trellis if you wanted.

My 12" raised bed is pretty easily constructed, though I didn't make it
two reaches wide (and I should have -- it's too wide!).  It's built from
cedar fence boards from a fence construction company... got those for
about $2 each, since they were too crooked or too knotty for construction,
and some scrap 30-36" lengths of re-rod, which the local concrete
accessories firm cut for me for about $0.60 each, and some scraps of
1x2 I used for temporary bracing.

Pound the re-rod into the ground till only about 11" sticks up.  Since I
was using 6 ft long boards, I spaced the re-rod so every board was
supported in the middle and near both ends, so the re-rod spacing is
actually pretty irregular at first glance.  With the re-rod in the ground,
stack the boards on edge against the re-rod, and anchor on the inside with
a couple of wooden stakes to keep the boards from falling over as you fill
the bed.  With longer re-rods, I think 18, and maybe even 24" deep beds
would be feasible.  I'm not sure it would work if your house is built
on sandy soil, however.  We have clay that is miserable to dig... and I
just can't.

I filled ours with mostly commercial compost, which out here is
99% ground tree debris.  Added clay and sand as it becomes available from
other projects, including the neighbors, who are delighted to give me some
clay from holes they dig.

Kay Lancaster    kay@fern.com
just west of Portland, OR; USDA zone 8
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