My Routine: Spending Time in the Garden

Image by yuankuei via Flickr

Selena, Selena, so fibro-friendly,
How does your garden grow?
With radish, pepper, tomato
And green bean all in a row.

One of the good things to come out of the six weeks I spent at the Cedars-Sinai Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia Program in 2007 is my container garden. I was challenged to turn my interest in gardening into a fibro-friendly activity and gardening in containers fit the bill. I can tend my garden from a seated position, with minimum reaching, lifting, digging or bending. I have also outfitted my containers with a soaker hose system; I purchased the parts for the system I created on eBay (a fibro-friendly way to shop.) My watering set-up is automated, attached to a DIG Irrigation Products battery operated hose water controller which is programmable for multiple days of the week and watering duration.

Unfortunately, my gardening routine seems to get a late start each year; seeds that can be started between April and June inevitably are planted in June. It seems that Spring is often a time for flare-ups, infections and calamities---last year I broke my foot in March, this year I caught the flu and developed a persistent sinus infection starting at the end of April and lasting a whole month. So if I were to change one or two things with my garden routine, it would be to figure out a way to better survive Spring physically so I can start planting earlier.

My Lightweight Barrel Containers
-Established in 2007, My First Year of Container Gardening

(click on any picture to enlarge)



The BIG Container from Naturalyards
-circa 2008 and Built to Last 30 Years!

(click on any picture to enlarge)




My garden wish list includes another large container from Naturalyards. I was able to order an exact size that perfectly fit the space I designated for the container. This container was wonderfully easy to put together---tool free and like stacking Legos. Robert helped me put my Naturalyards container together in about 1/2 hour and it will last for a long, long time thanks to the Port Orford cedar used in its construction. I highly recommend Naturalyards: their customer service was excellent and shipping via FedEx is included in the price of the container.

Surprisingly, time in the garden has turned me into somewhat of a novice bird watcher as well. Among the birds I have seen: the black Phoebe, the wrentit, the red-winged blackbird, the red-tailed hawk, Anna's hummingbird, Stellar's Jay, the lesser goldfinch and our local flock of green parrots.

As you can tell from my impassioned description, I wholly enjoy my garden routine.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Good Ideas for Los Angeles: Vertical Gardens from a Chinatown Company (laist.com)
• Short on Space? Grow Your Vegetables in a Container! (hbb2obm.com)