When we moved here a few years ago I wasn't interested in gardening, and needed a low maintenance garden because I'm disabled. Looking for low maintenance plants & designing the garden got me hooked on gardening but I had only really thought about planting non-edible plants, apart from a few herbs. Now we're hoping to move again, and I'm wondering whether it's going to be possible for me to grow any fruit or vegetables in our new garden (this is all still at the speculating stage - not even house-hunting yet, but hoping we'll have a bigger garden!).
So, can anyone suggest fruit or veggies which are very low maintenance? To give you an idea of what I can/can't do, I can't do anything which involves a lot of digging as I have trouble lifting the spade at all, even without anything on it! - so probably not looking for anything where the edible bit is underground, unless it's very easy to pull up! I also have good days and bad days, so I wouldn't be able to plant anything which needs a lot of tlc or can't cope with being ignored for a few days - I can never guarantee I'm going to be able to do anything at a particular time.
Anything I plant will probably also have to be very hardy (no greenhouse/cold frame at present; don't know whether we'll have one when we move but prob. want things which can go straight into a bed outdoors rather than anything too fiddly). And finally, they'll also have to be easy to grow organically - ie not too susceptible to pests & diseases - as I'm allergic to chemicals so couldn't spray anything even if I wanted to. Oh - and I'm also allergic to onions, garlic, chillies, peppers, cauliflower, & citrus fruit ::) .
Am I being too hopeful, or does anyone have any helpful ideas?
I am sure there will be people with better answers than me, but reading your post I immediately thought of blackcurrants, gooseberries, rhubarb, possible raspberries although these need a little more care. These all only need feeding and then pruning after fruiting. Mine sit in my garden with a minimum of care and reward us with lots of fruit. If you were feeling particularly unwell then they will wait a while for their pruning, nothing seems really urgent with them, would they be any use?
Parsnips are a veg that just need sowing in spring and leaving until after the first frost to harvest with very little care in between. I didn't water mine at all this year and have been eating a wonderful crop - I remember EJ posting almost exactly those words last year - she's right! I think other root veg are the same - I am just about to make new raised beds for them so will know in the future! I am sure other people will be able to help more now.
Re-reading your post you say not underground so that will rule out roots, although could someone harvest them for you and store them where they are easily accessible?
What about salad greens and tomatoes in raised beds or pots so they are easy to reach, although they will need lots of watering.
Squashes would be good fun, if you grew the smaller varieties that are not too heavy to lift when harvesting. You would only need a couple of plants easily started on a windowsill and planted out when frost is past.
Enjoy the anticipation of what you can do, I think it is as much fun as the actual gardening. I am having fun thinking about it too...
I also immediately thought of soft fruit, all those that tulippa mentions plus blueberries (can be grown in pots if your soil is not acid enough) and strawberries. Tomatoes can be done, although they need watering you could arrange to have a drip irrigation type setup installed so watering would be a simple matter of connecting the hosepipe and turning on the tap, but you'd need to start them indoors on a windowsill. If you can't tend to them regularly to nip out the side shoots you could choose a bush variety which only needs staking and occasional tieing in.
Salad veg would be easy. Carrots would be easy enough to grow, if your soil is soft and you choose a short rounded variety they should be easy to pull up, no need for digging. How about dwarf beans, broad beans, peas, spinach and chard, squashes and small pumpkins.
Good luck with your plans, it's well worth trying the veg in your new garden, so rewarding to grow your own food. :)
try carrots in pots raised offthe ground i just plant them water when needed and easy to lift my kids love to grow these because thay can be put anywhere in the garden use a high enough pot put bages of compost in lose sow and a way you go hope i was some help and if you like carrots you have endless meals to try
Also consider slightly exotic plants like Cape Gooseberry - expensive in the shops, but actually less bother than tomatoes - no day to day upkeep required. Sow in a few weeks time indoors, and put plants out around May, either direct in the soil or in pots, but you'd need to keep the pots watered. They will be ready to pick around about August/ September.
QuoteAlso consider slightly exotic plants like Cape Gooseberry
I should try tasting one before you grow them, they don't appeal to everybody
There are so many varieties of salads and lettuce - rocket is one of the easiest. Also you could perhaps have a little herb garden?
I don't know how easily you can harvest from a potato barrel? Perhaps too difficult for you to reach in. Maybe others on the board will have tried it.
hi juliet,
you can grow carrots etc in a bucket (you need to pierce bottom for drainage). morrisons sell the black buckets flowers come in, 8 for £1.
we've just bought some potato bags from thompson and morgan (we paid 25p each). you put on a shelf or on the ground, place one tuber in each bag and top up the compost as the plant grows. no digging at all! ;D. as with carrot idea above, the compost is never compacted at all so pulling up should be quite easy. what's more, neither of these veggie's have to be harvested at a certain time so won't 'go over' if you are too unwell to bother with them for weeks on end!
grapes, figs and various fruit trees can be grown in pots and if you can get help just once a year at pruning time they can be trained to a level that is accessible while seated.
there are literally thosands of things you will be able to grow and harvest, and the benefits of eating produce straight from picking are well documented especially for people on restricted diets.
we wish you the very best of luck,
Tara and Dave xxx
Wow, thanks everyone for all your helpful replies - I hadn't expected there to be so many possibilities! :)
Romeo isn't into gardening & he already does so many other things I can't really ask him to harvest or prune things as well, but even so it looks as though I have a lot of options. I can manage a bit of watering so that shouldn't be a problem so long as it doesn't matter if I have to skip a day or two - I have a small light watering can & it's much easier to lift than the spade!
I'm a complete novice as far as fruit & veg are concerned so I'll probably have a lot more questions, but for now just wondering - do they all need full sun or will any grow in part shade? I think gooseberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, strawberries, and carrots look like my best options to start with from the ones suggested - sounds as if I could do them all in tubs or buckets; also poss. dwarf runner beans, although I have to make the effort of cooking those. And I'll definitely investigate the potato bags & see whether I can get fully organic ones - sounds a great idea.
Off to find HDRA catalogue ... :)
Lettuce and things like spinach can tolerate some shade - also easy to grow and harvest :)
Thanks Bupster.
blueberries will tolerate light shade.
Thanks Jesse - that's useful to know. Looks like generally speaking I'm looking for a sunny garden though!
What a fantastic thread! My contribution would be oriental vegetables, they are a cheatin' way to get healthy fresh greens, broccoli etc. in a third of the growing season. Plus they get planted from August when other stuff is wilting, tolerate some shade, crop through the winter, look pretty, and don't need any digging. The definitive work must be Joy Larkcom's Oriental Vegetables - the complete guide for the Gardening Cook Pea shoots, anyone? ::)
Don't forget the dull and boring beetroot. Almost zero maintenance (on my plot anyway) and easy to lift when required. The colour and taste of fresh beetroot (not pickled) is a real joy, whether cold on salad or hot with a savoury dish. I am growing cape gooseberry for the first time this year, along with another physalis - tomatillo, the cost in the shops for cape gooseberry is really horrendous.
I have an article from The Garden from way back which is about how to grow produce in a back yard. The bit I think may be relevant is that they use the vertical plane rather than horizontal. It takes a bit more to set up, but basically a good solid trellis thing well supported/attached and a big trough along the bottom, plus window box type things hung half way up , cans on hooks etc, with individual plants in.
It means the soil bit can be set at a practical height, beans, gourds etc can grow up from the ground, and it's all in a compact space.
If it's of interest, I could look it out.
Cheers
Juliet, you asked about shade, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. My blackcurrants and gooseberries do well in partial shade and also get a bit overgrown by a Montana at times but still do very well. I think strawberries can grow in part shade too.
Juliet, would it be possible to get someone to construct a couple of raised flower beds to get things up to your level?
Using the concept of square yard gardening, ( thus creating a 3-4 ft cube perhaps) it would then be possible to create some very fetching 'planters' or 'potagers' -
[A potager is a small kitchen garden, with ornamental and productive purposes, derived from the French jardin potager - a garden providing vegetables for the pot, hence the French for soup, potage.]
Combining salads, (don't forget the humble raddish!!), herbs and a few flowers, tagetes and calendulas, violas and pansies etc, will create may hours of pleasure.
Below is a link for some great tools that might be of some help to you.
Might I also suggest that you acquire a select few 'highly scented' shrubs for your patio. Could suggest a few if required! ;D
http://www.gardentoolsforallseasons.com/disabled%20gardening.php
What a good link :D
Thanks, Tulippa, for the info. about shade - that's very encouraging, as most of my favourite non-edible plants seem to want full sun so I was thinking I'd have to sacrifice some of the space I'll need for those or find a very sunny garden.
Thanks also to everyone else for the further suggestions - I should perhaps say though that I'm not in a wheelchair & don't need things at a particular level - in fact the further down the better as sitting on the ground is a lot easier than standing up, & is actually easier than sitting in a chair too! The main problem, as far as gardening is concerned, is simply a lack of energy - I can do almost anything (apart from lifting heavy weights etc) so long as I don't have to do it for very long - lifting my arms above shoulder level is exhausting, as is standing still (walking about much less so). If I sit on the ground, I can garden for about an hour on an average day.
I have a very lightweight trowel & fork, and do all my planting etc with these - unfortunately the soil here is heavy clay and if I'm not careful they tend to bend backwards ... thankfully haven't managed to snap one yet! Maybe I'll have some nice light soil when we move!
Sadly allergic to most scented plants, Flowerlady (have hay fever!) so my garden has to remain pretty much scent-free, apart from the herbs & hardy geranium leaves.