Senior gardening. Toning it down and dealing with fatigue
susanzone5 (NY)
5 years ago
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Electronically Challenged Seniors
Comments (9)It gave me a chuckle, Janis. I've been messing with computers since 1966 when I took my first course in it, on the big mainframes at our local University. Took a couple more courses in programming down the road in the early seventies. I remember when everyone was WAITING FOR WANG! The vision for PCs was there much earlier than today's kids could imagine. I laughed at Lilo's Luddite comments. I am pretty darned close to one, but I don't cut my nose off to spite my face. I'm fine with technology if it fulfills a purpose for me and then I don't have any problems wrapping my mind around it. I have some really deep seated personal agendas when it comes to the disposable mindset, however. It really rubs me the wrong way to have perfectly good machines sent to the boneyards because the technology behind them has gone defunct. I guess because sometimes that technology doesn't necessarily do a job better. Before Skype, I used to use ICQ. I knew how to use TDY terminals to keep in touch with my deaf friends. I had a cable way back in 1970 twenty years before they became available here, and as soon as digital phones came down the block, I had one. I sat here counting the number of computers I've had over the last twenty years, and I think I am up to six PCs, my first one custom-built before they became available in box stores. However, I just bought my first laptop and had to ask my kids how to turn the danged thing off. LOL. I do know older people who refuse to learn anything electronic. It can bite them in the butt, it can. But, so much of the new stuff coming down the block are toys and expensive ones at that. Fine, if you have the time and money to play. My DD and I have speculated about whether my father would have gotten into computers had he lived past his 81st birthday. We both concluded that he'd have the best systems out there and have them figured out forward and backward....See MoreSenior rose gardeners
Comments (11)Thank you all for your comments about my "senior attitude" I was pleased that so many agreed with me regardless if you are a senior or not. The world is a crazy place now so i would like to tell congress stop making life more difficult and go plant roses!!! My barefoot roses in the containers are loaded with buds and several, Mardi Gras and French Lace are ready to open and share their color for us. I check up on them every morning when I have coffee with my dogs on the porch. Maggie and jake are 2 Shitz Zoe rescue dogs who know when I say "Lets go and check out the roses"--they both run to the door and shake their fluffy little tails and can't wait until we go out. (Could it possibly be they know there is a cookie waiting out there for them and it not the roses themselves that attract them?) Living in a senior condo development built around a 40 year old golf course is not so bad. I get to garden the things that I want, like roses and nasturtiums, and not have to worry about who will mow the grass and clip the shrubs. I will take pictures of my lovely ladies when they are all blooming. I just have to figure how to add the pictures. In my next post I will include the names of these newly planted lovelies. Most are floribundas. I wish you all either a good planting week or at least a peaceful time checking out rose books and planning your garden so you will be ready when spring finally arrives in your area. Judith...See MoreBuilding a Raised/Elevated Garden Bed for Senior Center
Comments (4)Oh ... don't put rocks in the raised bed. There is absolutely no benefit to be had from doing that. Yes, that will take a lot of soil to fill. However you can get it cheaply (compared to bagged prices) by the cubic yard, delivered. A 4x10 bed that is "thigh high" - what is thigh high? About 24"? Or more like 30"? Assume that it is 24". So that is 4x10x2, which is about 3 cu yards, for one bed. Of course you don't want to fill it all the way to the top but that's a ballpark figure. For 2 beds, obviously, that's about 6 cu yards needed. You want clean screened topsoil. You should have someone knowledgable about garden soils inspect it before you buy and have it delivered to make sure it is satisfactory. It should cost in the area of $15 (give or take a few bucks) per cubic YARD (not cubic foot). There is usually a delivery charge, but they usually won't charge that if you are getting 10 cu yards or more delivered. Maybe your scout leader could negotiate a remittance or reduction of the delivery fee since its for a senior center. Or maybe you could build an extra bed! And use some of the dirt to beef up their ornamentals or flower beds! I doubt there is anyway to back a dump truck up to the beds themselves so you will need a spot where it can be dumped, and you young strong Eagle Scouts should start trucking the dirt over to the raised beds in wheelbarrows. If the raised bed is 2' or more high, a small moveable ramp (can be made from wood scraps) might be helpful in getting the front of the wheelbarrow high enough up to dump over the lip. 6 eagles scouts armed with one shovel apiece and 3 wheelbarrows should make short work of the process. One eagle scout on either side of the wheelbarrow to dump it. Keep moving the wheelbarrow down the line to dump the soil. There should be room to dump from either side. So, Dump on one side, then Dump on the other, then move down the line. This way you won't have to spread it as much. As to the raised beds. Although 4' widths are typical for raised beds, older folks and shorter folks (such as myself, who woke up one morning to discover I was now a member of both categories) have difficulty reaching that far in. Consider making them 3' wide instead. And then consider making 3 beds to make up for the loss of growing space. It depends on how much space they have. Be sure to leave PLENTY of space in pathways between the beds and anything else nearby to allow for the passage of wheel chairs, walkers, and rolling garden scooters and carts. I suggest 4' minimum clearance per side if possible so people can always get around each other. 5' or even 6' would probably be better. Not to be indelicate, but ... human beings who have reached an advanced age sometimes find themselves in a situation where any impedance in getting to a bathroom could result in a humiliating experience. Among other things. There are a LOT of reasons to make sure there is plenty of space to move around. Safety considerations, for example. The less chance of someone taking a tumble because access pathways are crowded, the better. At your age, tripping and falling down results in maybe a skinned knee and possibly some embarrassment at your own clumsiness; at my age, it could result in a broken hip and a long slow (or not so slow) decline to the end. You absolutely CAN use modern pressure treated wood to construct raised beds. The new stuff does not leach like the old stuff, and the old stuff didn't leach that much until it was itself fairly advanced in years. The old stuff was treated with arsenic and that is mostly what could leach into the soil. However, unless your plants are significantly deficient in (I think) potassium? or phosphorus?, they don't take up arsenic, so the risk was always pretty minimal. With the new stuff, there is no arsenic. The only thing that leaches into the soil is a very small amount of copper. Copper is actually a dietary requirement (in small amounts). And again, plants take up little or no copper and it takes decades for this leaching process to take place. Organic standards STILL don't allow for the use of any pressure treated woods, but outside of knee-jerk reactions to PERCEIVED risk (as opposed to ACTUAL risk) there is no reason for concern over the use of modern pressure treated woods in your veggie garden. You can read more about it here and decide for yourself. You could use cement blocks to build the beds instead, which has the added advantage of having a space to sit while working on the bed. Top it with flat pavers or wood for a comfortable ledge upon which the gardener may perch while he or she is at work. It has the advantage of being permanent and sturdy, but the disadvantage of expense. Building up walls that high takes a lotta concrete blocks. It also may winter-heave over time. Depends on your climate. But honestly the easiest thing to do is just build them out of pressure treated wood. The modern stuff is safe for this use. You could build some elevated beds as well. Those would need to be a little higher off the ground - "waist" height (whatever that means) but because they are so high off the ground, crops such as tomatoes could not easily be grown in them. But shorter crops such as peppers and eggplants, cabbage, lettuce, etc. The beds would be more susceptible to drying out than a bed at ground level. If there is time and funding enough, consider installing a drip irrigation system for the beds. Not the expensive underground computer controlled type, but the affordable home gardener type that uses rubber hoses and emitters. Look for Orbit or Rainbird systems. Again some help from a knowledgable gardener would be useful. Contact your local extension agency and ask for help from one of their Master Gardeners or an extension agent. Using quick disconnects (get solid brass fittings so the oldsters don't have to deal with equipment breakdown in a year or two) you can easily set up a permanently installed system that doesn't have exposed hoses for people to trip over 24/7. Just haul a hose out and plug it in when you're watering and then disconnect, coil up and store the main supply hose when its not in use. Everything else will be mounted in the beds where nobody will ever walk. Encourage the use of mulch to cut down on evaporative loss and discourage weeds. In my raised beds, I actually lay down wetted flattened brown corrugated carbon boxes and plant through that, then cover over all with bark mulch. You want undyed 100% wood with no demolition content. This may also be purchased for less than bagged prices if you buy it by the cu yard. Again there are delivery charges etc etc. But a lot of municipalities collect yard waste and grind it up and make it available for little or no cost to city residents. Contact your city and perhaps your leader can negotiate a free or low cost delivery of last year's ground up tree limbs to be used as mulch in these raised beds. Or get some dads with trucks. Remember to leave room for the mulch layer when filling your beds. Also keep in mind that the soil you add to the beds WILL SETTLE. So its a balancing act. Don't order the dirt until the builds are completed and you have volunteers who will definitely show up to move it. Make sure the senior center will have a spot to dump the fill dirt, and that you have sufficient manpower to get it moved in a timely fashion. Be prepared to clean up any construction mess. It's more complicated to talk about it than to actually do it. Here is a link that might be useful: calculator for cubic yards needed...See MoreDealing with fatigue
Comments (8)Julie I can understand the heat thing. I can no longer work out in the heat of the day due to High blood pressure. I can't even stand out in the sun without feeling the effects of the sun. It never bothered me before and after talking to my dad he said the same thing happened to him. I now only work outside in the early morning and late evening's. I was like you. a really hyper person not really realizing that I was cause I lived with it, but I was never ever still, family members would ask me can't you just sit for awhile LOL. Not if I didn't have to. Having to slow down just kills me. My mind races with what I wish or want to do but can't cause of inability to do them. I had a Risotomy done last Monday and it is showing effects that can happen when they burn the nerves, this is the only way I get relief from the pain. While making a sandwich for lunch I was holding the bread spreading may-o on it and my hand started shaking bad, enough so that I had to put the bread down or end up having it fall on the counter. Risotomy's can also lead to seizures. I have three more to go through and hope nothing happens. The bad part of it is that it only last for maybe a year and have to go through it all over again. I am scared of what's to come and what type of life I will have. I don't know how I will handle being in a wheel chair and depended on people to do thing's for me. I'm not that type of person to ask for help in this way. My grandfather was like that he'd do thing's he shouldn't have done risking his health. It's so hard to realize that we have to sit back and do only what our bodies allow us....See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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