
Gardening With a Chronic Illness
Don’t let a chronic illness stop you from enjoying gardening.

These tips and tricks will help you continue to enjoy your favorite pastime despite your illness.
Container gardening
Get some containers and place them on a table or railing. Even if you’re in a wheelchair, you can reach them to plant seeds or seedlings. Weeding will be easy because container gardening doesn’t leave much room for weeds. Ideal plants for container gardening are strawberries and tomatoes. Also, radishes, lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, garlic, celery, bok choy, and other similar vegetables.
Raised garden beds
Raised garden beds can be built to any height. They are ideal for people with arthritis who find it painful to bend over to weed a garden. If you use a wheelchair, they can also do the trick. They are ideal if you suffer from back pain. Raised garden beds are not new to the gardening circle. Any plant that is planted in a regular garden can be planted in a raised garden bed. Raised garden beds are like container gardening. Because they need minimal maintenance for weeding. Build them 2 feet by 2 feet, and you’ll have an ideal garden plot that is easy to weed and grow your favorite vegetables.
Dwarf fruit trees
Dwarf fruit trees are designed not to exceed a certain height. In most cases, this height is between 1.5 and 2.5 meters. If they are kept pruned, they can remain at a lower height, which means it is easier to harvest the fruit. Ideal for those who are sick and can’t devote much time to their gardening. Fruit can often be picked flat on the ground. Minimal maintenance makes this an ideal gardening method.
Consider smaller gardens
If you can’t do raised beds and don’t have containers, you can always garden on a smaller scale. Reduce the size of your garden into 2' x 2' plots and arrange them in different parts of the garden. Spend no more than an hour a day on your gardening, and you can divide that hour into 4 15-minute intervals. If you have 4 different plots, you can spend a few minutes a day gardening and get a very profitable vegetable crop.
Potatoes
Growing potatoes when you have a chronic illness is easy. Here are two fun approaches to planting potatoes.
Tires: Put an old tire on the ground and throw some soil on it. Plant 5 potatoes in the tire. Stack another tire on top and repeat. You can stack them as high as you can imagine. Water from top to bottom. At the end of the summer, you can tip the tires over and harvest the potatoes.
Washing machine: You can take grandma’s old washtub and put potting soil in it. Put in your potato plants and add some soil. Water as needed. By the end of the season, you will have huge potatoes.
Gardening doesn’t have to be a chore. These methods make it fun and easy, even if you have a chronic illness.
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