Garden reclamation

AnneL

Hi all, I have to do all my gardening whilst sitting on a gardening stool, but it hasn't stopped me from reclaiming both my front (now finished), or my back garden from what used to be where the people around here used to dump their rubbish as the house was empty for a long time.
I am 3/4 of the way done in the back garden where I have to contend with many docks and dandelions, plus more than a few geums. Add to those, numerous burried bags of rubbish, rubble and glass (I dug up a whole window frame complete with 5 buckets of glass), a giant Sycamore and enough slugs and snails to start a business exporting them back to where they originated. On the plus side my gardens are pretty much pulsing with worms, bees and just about anything some people shudder at. I can dig down 13 inches from my stool, so if I need anything deeper I dig a trench big enough for my stool and my feet, then in I clamber and get down and dirty. I love being outside and since I can't go walking anymore, gardening is my favourite exercise. Yes I dig until the pain won't let me and sometimes longer to finish the job, but when you can sit outside and relax with the bees buzzing around the flowers and the birds singing, you can forget the stress the pain causes for a little while.

frogmorton

AnneL

Gardening is the best cure for stress and down-days ever for me! I love getting mucky. I have a stool thingy which has handles so i can get up easily. There have been days when i have been happy just to be out there and prepared to crawl back in! It's worth it!!

If you can manage it you must post us some pics of all your hard work. The challenge sounds brilliant and so rewarding🙂

Last year I hit upon this scary creature....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14x0hHkJvbKsWbqUN_1KjtcFHuO4AzTbI/view?usp=sharing

It turned out to be a moth in the making and elephant hawk moth. Don't worry I put it safe as my usband was about to ,mow there!

Lilymary

Hi AnneL. I agree, gardens are wonderful stress busters and mood lifters. Full marks to you for perseverance! Your garden sounds a mammoth task, and think you're amazing for finding ways to tackle it from your stool. My house had been unoccupied for 17 years before I bought it, so the garden rescue was a major job, including boundary to boundary ground elder and a million Spanish bluebells and snowdrops. I shifted 8 tons of stones and rubble in the process. Thankfully it hadn't been used as a dumping ground. I'm finding my OA really frustrating these days, but still get enormous pleasure sitting in the garden watching things grow and the insect life it attracts. Never had a hawk moth, although I did catch a pair mating on a lamp post in an industrial estate last year!

I sometimes manage to dig over one bed at a time, but my husband does the really heavy work for me now. He knows that once I get stuck in I'll keep going till I can literally no longer stand (if he sees me with a full size garden fork still trying to dig the garden from sitting on the lawn, it's time to take my toys away 😄). I also rebuilt a very low stone wall last week, which I'd been meaning to do for a year or two, but this I could do mostly sitting on the ground, so I was really pleased with myself at the end. We need to reline the pond, as it's sprung a leak, but I think that will have to wait for now. The wildlife have already abandoned it, but we have visiting hedgehogs in the back garden to make up for it.

stellabean

Hi AnneL I enjoy my garden as I can loose myself in a job and even though I have pain all the time it is good to have something to show for it. I am only allowed to use a hand trowel or a small spade. It is amazing what I can root out with my trowel it has slightly sharpened edges so goes into the soil easier than an ordinary one.

I have a box/stool on wheels which is great to sit on and push myself along, you do need to be careful to make sure you sit in the middle too near an end and you are dumped on the floor. I am trying to remove a mass of creeping buttercup which are so big they look like they have been on steroids. I have a couple of tree ferns by a water feature and am delighted to see the marsh orchids have seeded into the top of one I am looking forward to them flowering.The birds have cracked using a meal worm feeder it has only taken 15 years but I have no ides who is taking the worms they disappear in the late afternoon to early evening, I have sat for ages in the greenhouse but failed to spot anyone.