Gardening for The Disabled - Yes the joy of African violets is a passion of mine. - Personal - http://maxpages.com/happymspage/Gardening_for_the

Even in Florida there is a resting spell
in outdoor gardening. I have been planning to maybe enclose
the area on our patio where I have my pot garden.

But back to indoor plants. I get great joy from my
African violets. But in Christmas season
we have four big Ponsettias indoors and several growing outdoors.
Growing plants has been a hobby of mine ever since my Mom gave
me a small plot to do with as I saw fit at age 6. I still have
the Jade plant she started when I was born in 1934. Its huge now
and gets my loving care all the time as I feel a special attachment
to this plant being the same age as me.

.

I loose one now and then from over watering probably. They don't like
their roots too wet. My watering schedule for them is usually every
10 days . I should mark my calendar to keep the cycle right.Mine get the
east and west light as well as the north since our Florida room faces
north but light comes from east and west also.RET

African Violets can be a great source of enjoyment I have 4 of them going
just on a table and they get mostly north light in my studio.Don't over water
these violets,once a week is more than enough. I sometimes stretch them 2 weeks.

Do you realize how little space you need to raise good African violets and
even make money at it. I know a woman who has a small hot house in Ohio,not
over 18 x 12 feet She is doing a great business in African Violets and other
popular house plants.What you buy in these places is many times better
than what you get in Walmart or Kmart who usually don't have any one expert
enough to really take care of them. Any ways getting back raising for sale.
Previously mentioned woman does $35,000+ worth of business a year,and she
is just part time . Buy the way she also used a cane.(MS)

If you look around youcan see some really nice hanging plants these days.
We were at a art and crafts show last Saturday and saw pitcher plants as plants in hangers
they suppliment their diet with traping insects.That could be doing you a favor.
With the passing of this month more and more garden places will be offereing
started plants. Revisited 4-16-2000 RET

March 6,1999
A while ago I did a page on wheelchair gardening.
I got my basic ideas from several books I checked
out of the my local library.
you might also check into Susan's page on gardening
for the disabled.This is a great information page for us.
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/1391/disabled.html.
It is now starting to warm up a bit even up north.
Have you the place to do a small garden? I do mine in
large pots,about three foot high and two foot in diameter
and get very good results. I first started such a garden
the first time I was in a wheelchair full time.
The therapy of growing something can't be minumized

It does wonders for me to be able to go out there and
pick fresh strawberries of my hanging pots of
strawberries. While I don't get many,it is enough to
grace my cereal at breakfast.
Regardless if you are in a wheelchair ,or using a
cane or crutches I recogmend the container method.
They are easier to work regardless of your condition,
And they give just as good a results as working
in the earth but no leaning over. We have ours on a
patio which is pored concrete.Leave your self room
to get about from one large pot to the other. I use
an X formation to line up the pots.
If you are looking for something different,try
gardening.It will help you chase the blues.
How will you handle the pests. My worst pests
are the birds.We get some more the birds from the
north during the winter. So the bird population
is large and they are hungary. Most of the time
I have no trouble until the fruit changes color.
When the tomatoes get red the birds can see this and
they come. I cover the fruit with a cheese cloth
netting. It has kept them away. AS for insects
I don't like to use sprays. The strongest I sometimes
use is dish soap suds in a sprayer. Actually
since the birds are so hungary they eat a large amount
of bugs.
I just received an e-mail from a person that has
had planters build of concrete blocks . Each planter
is 3 feet square and there are paths between the 4
planters for this person's wheelchair to get to all
sides to work. The height of the planters is 2feet,
above the ground.The individual waters the garden
from one
location by a hose.RET revised 6-17-99

Eileen Lukeman and Richard Tanner

FL.

Eileen(Lobosgirl) and Richard (RET1000) both at aol.com

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Page Updated Sat Jun 6, 2009 11:19am EDT