Just wondering if anyone else on here has health problems which affect their gardening?
Hi Charlie,
I have health problems which effect my gardening too - not arthritis in my case, but ME, which effects the signals the brain sends to the rest of the body & means that anything can malfunction - immune system, digestion, circulation, hormones, etc etc. In practice this means fluctuating & apparently random symptoms which include muscle & joint pains, splitting headaches, & senses not working properly. I wake up some days feeling like a zombie with a hangover ???, others feeling like I have 'flu, & others feeling perfectly OK (sorry if you already knew all that - knowledge of ME is a bit limited so I feel if I mention it I have to explain that no, it's not just being tired!!).
Like you, I can't lift heavy bags of compost or anything like that - I scoop it into a flowerpot & move that instead. Designed my garden to be fairly low maintenance as Romeo hates gardening - though he does mow the lawn for me :). I find I can do more if I do it in short bursts, & go inside for a drink & a sit down every now & again. I can do about an hour in one go if I rest for the rest of the day, but on a good day I could probably do 40 minutes in the morning & then another 40 in the afternoon.
Many of the things which are best for ME seem to be much the same as the things which help arthritis - eating a healthy diet with as much organic food as possible; herbal remedies (I take Passiflora when I can't sleep); and fish oil (recently read a book recommending the supplement VegEpa as being better than standard cod liver oil-type things - for arthritis as well as for ME - but haven't tried it yet myself). I also take anadin every morning as I can't function without :( - would love to cut these out but wouldn't have any quality of life if I did.
Anyway, sorry to waffle on so long. What I really meant to say is: if you are setting up a web page about gardening with disabilities you might like to look at the Carryongardening site (if you don't know it already) - it's run by Thrive (disabled gardeners' association) & has lots of good ideas: you'll find it at
http://www.carryongardening.org.uk/. There is a forum which is good for finding out how other people cope, eg with gardening from a wheelchair, as well as just chatting about gardening, & there are some useful links, etc. Good luck with your web page - there seem to be a lot of us gardeners out here with health problems so I'm sure it would be useful!
Juliet