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Gardening with Limitations - A Few Adjustments

© Carol Wallace

It has been a long time since I sat at this keyboard and attempted to write about gardening. And, having just gotten back from a harrowing trip down the steep slope of my driveway to get the mail, wearing the equivalent of studded tires on my feet to keep me from breaking my neck on the ice, it seems like a somewhat absurd thing to be doing now.

I've already had my first garden disaster. That was when my Helleborus niger - the Christmas rose - decided to almost liver up to its name and burst forth into bloom at the beginning of January. It made it to the big fat bud stage. I could see the whiteness of soon-to-be-flowers from my sunroom window and was excited. But then temperatures dipped to sub-zero. Talk about being nipped in the bud! And then a foot or so of snow fell on the hellebores (and all the rest of the garden) so that even if they had bloomed it wouldn't have been in my sight.

But there is nothing to be done about that sort of thing. It is nature's whim and we, mere mortals that we are - must bow to it - or be bowed down by it.

Some whims of nature are easier to be bowed down by than others. Like those whims that affect our health, and impose limitations on us that make gardening difficult. I spent a lot of last summer in a soft neck brace, afraid to do anything very vigorous. I did something only slightly vigorous when I used my loppers to cut down the stems of the spent daylilies in the main garden. Hollow stem! Not even thick branches that required some exertion. It was three days before I was able to safely pick up anything heavier than a Kleenex. Then in August, I had my neck rebuilt - and the recovery from that is not yet complete - in fact it may be a full year before I can garden somewhat like I used to. But the surgeon told my husband that I willlop again - although maybe not this summer.

So - like many of you, I a facing a summer of gardening with limitations. And even in the midst of the snows of February, it's not absurd to try to plan for that. There are tools that can help - tools ergonomically designed to cause less stress and require less exertion from the gardener. More important - there are also adjustments that can be made in the garden itself to make it easier on us. And there are a few adjustments to the gardener that can help, as well. May as well think about those now.