Around My Fruit & Veggie Garden, With Aim Toward Accessibility

[Bear_with_me]

I haven’t been active on the forum for some time. I have a good size home orchard and garden in Southwest Washington State. I haven’t had a lot to say lately, and there have also been some major challenges that take time and energy.

I thought it might be useful to describe my approach toward better accessibility practices, for my fruits and vegetables. Accessibility can make all the world of difference to a fruit grower ir gardener, if done right.

By accessibility, I include these concepts -

Not reaching too high or climbing ladders

Not reaching too low or digging at ground level.

Reducing labor requirements for tasks that are taxing, overly tedious, requiring too much hard labor, and potentially unsafe - especially in hot weather or wildfire smoke season. There are effective methods.

Spending too much money for a product or method, especially that may not give much in return. If it breaks the bank or is useless, it makes for less, not more, accessibility.

I should add, these experiences are my own, and I make a lot up as I go along. Also, accessible gardening is a broad concept with potentially infinite permutations, and it’s only possible to address a couple of things at a time.

The two most noticeable aspects of my garden, beyond the tall fence (for deer) are how I manage growing fruits, and my raised beds.

For fruit -

I have about a dozen apple trees grafted onto, mostly Bud-9. I believe I grafted those about 5 or 6 years ago, so they take some time. Until last year, I grew other crops between the trees to use the space.

Those varieties include Gravenstein, Jonagold, Jonared, SummerRed, Porter, Black Oxford, Sweet-16, Akane, Pristine, and I have a Cosmic Crisp that I bought on M27? and genetic dwarf apple, Apple Babe, that is yet to produce fruit. Also a Macoun I grafted onto Bud-9 three years ago, it’s small but has some flowers now. This size apple tree can be tended standing without reaching up or down too much, or sitting on a garden stool. They have to be staked, branches tied, fruit thinned, and pruned thoughtfully.

I also have five espalier -trained apple trees around the perimeter. All are 2-variety.

Three are Redlove varieties, that I don’t care for so I’m re-grafting those arms with varieties I like better. The others are Zestar, Gala, Freedom, more Jonagold, Blue Pearmain, Honey Crisp.

If each mini tree gets ten or 20 nice apples and each espalier limb bears ten or so, that’s more than enough to use and share. They have been bigger and better than my original orchard apples. I’ve tried to time them to ripen from as early as I can, through main season, to as late as I can. This winter I added grafts of GoldRush to replace most of the Redlove Calypso as a season extender.

At the corners, I have columnar trees.

The varieties include Tasty Red, North Pole, Golden Sentinel, Golden Treat, and an incorrectly labeled one that was supposed to be Tasty Red but isnt. I quit trying to train them as bottle brushes, and just let them do their own thing, but within bounds. The North Pole, and Golden Treat have been my favorites for flavor, texture, size, and production so far. Tasty Red is too new but is blooming now. North Pole in my garden is on Bud-9 and stays very small - after 6 years is only about 4 feet tall and is producing nice apples.

I also have an informally fan-trained Nanaimo peach and two genetic dwarf peaches that have a rain protective shelter over them for the winter. The size is perfect to manage sitting or standing.

My garden beds are all very-high sided raised beds. I have three main types, which evolved over time.

Planter Wall block corners. Currently two with overwintered garlic and I planted onions in the third for this year. After the garlic harvest, I plant green beans. The insides of the sides are lined with plastic to slow rotting. At this height, the sides eventually splay outwards, a big meds and it’s a big project to fix. Now I have 2X4 top rails as shown, with 4 foot rebar going through, sort of like tinker toys. That works and they really do stay in place. The top rail is also good to lean on while sitting or standing to work.

I have cement block sided raised beds. I need to do some maintenance, but basically they are almost problem free. This year these will have tomatoes, and after those finish, next year’s garlic gets planted.

The last is a bit different. I used discarded cedar fencing and discarded, treated 2 x 4 fencing rails to make what is basically a big box. Inside are stacked, repurposed pavers, although 2 levels of cement blocks might be better. The box is lined with plastic on the inside. I stained to outside so they would last longer. Inside are 25 gallon fabric growing-bags, with big holes cut in the bottom for drainage. The soil is 75% garden soil, about 10% perlite and about about 25% compost amendment. These are the perfect height for me. I can support myself on the rails while working. So far they have grown great onions, scallions, a big crop of peppers, tomatoes, and beans. One bag is about the same as a 4-foot long garden row.

All of the planters have drip irrigation. I use cardboard mulch for weeds, water retention, and to prevent soil-borne / splashed tomato disease. Most of the tomato varieties are dwarf for easy management, except determinate romas.

I use this a lot but need to make a better one. It’s very helpful but not strong or stable enough for me.

I will stop there. I’ve known neighbors, friends, and family members have stopped gardening and fruit growing, due to less disability than mine. It can be done. I think it’s good to have a place to share info and experiences, and empower people. It does take planning ahead, and effort, and good information. Nobody gets younger so that’s good to do.

There is a great deal more, but this might be too much already, If it seems anyone wants me to describe my approach and experiences and if no major objections I can say more. What I describe here barely scratches the surface.

[Noddykitty]

Nice post, I enjoyed reading it. I really liked the cinder block raised bed.

[Perkolator]

Nice garden and nice espaliers!
Very clever using the rebar stake and 2x4 to hold those concrete things together better - I’d suggest rebar safety caps or something covering the protruding stubs though, you never know.

[Bear_with_me]

Thank you!

The cinder block raised bed isn’t pretty but it works for me. It’s a perfect height to make my work easier. The tip is covered with repurposed pavers. I can sit on the wall if i’m tired, and support myself while working.

They are not cemented in place. I could see that becoming an issue, but not so far. It leans in a couple of places, which I want to correct this year.

On building it, I set myself a goal of setting 5 blocks into place per day. It took a while, but that got it done.

Also, moles here have an entire underground metro system. I think it’s as extensive as New York’s LOL. So before putting down the blocks, I put down a layer of plastic chicken wire and a layer of galvanized fencing. So far the mole city has not added any above ground metro stations in the raised beds.

Those beds are filled with regular garden soil, which I amend with compost etc lime any garden soil.

[Bear_with_me]

Thanks!

Wise advice. I am accident prone.

[Tana]

Great to see that you spend productive time in the garden! I’ve found that gardening is a great motivator to get out - I have modified most of my permanent rehab exercises into gardening activities. (Though moderation becomes an issue when it comes to passion, since gardening also works as a mild pain-killer for me.) It is such a pity some people give up on it completely, while it could actually help them get better or at least feel better.

I have not done much large scale modification to my garden besides raised beds and narrower beds and installing working areas that reduce the need to bend and cashes of tools so that I don’t have to carry things around more than necessary. But after my 1st back surgery and having to watch the garden take care of itself for a year, I turned more towards no-dig/less dig system and growing as many perennial or self sowing/managing vegetables as possible. Ideally most of my veg stays in place and can survive slugs, minimal to no weeding and a month of neglect.
I’ve also replaced a lot of equipment that put leverage on the lower back - it is amazing how much bad equipment we had…

[Bear_with_me]

I hope your back improves!

I think the narrow beds are a good idea.

I use containers a lot. I have plans to build a much better wheeled garden stool. Just have to do it. The one I have helps a lot but is going to break down some day.

Cardboard mulch hells tremendously. Sometimes I put down slug bait before laying the mulch. Also the drip lines. It has to be weighted down so it doesn’t blow away. For squashes I use black plastic mulch. Either way, (almost) no weeds, and reduces need for watering.

The photos are previous years before fixed the problem of sides splaying outwards. Also, I tried brown paper. It rots away too fast. Cardboard lasts longer plus insulates a bit more.

[joan]

My mother used to put cardboard in her rows to keep the weeds down

[Bear_with_me]

Here is the replacement gardening stool that I made from scrap wood I found in the shed. It’s mostly cut from a 3/4" thick plank and a 3/4 inch thick piece of plywood, with 2x2s on the inside. I used a hole saw to make it slightly lighter and allow more light could get into the inner shelf, and deck stain so it lasts longer. The casters are from Amazon. So is the foam fishing seat pad.

This is more sturdy and more stable than the old tubular steel gardening stool. The tubular steel legs were starting to bow out and I thought it might collapse. The inner shelf is handy. Tools go where I go. The slightly taller height is better for my legs. The slightly extra length and width make it more stable for sitting. The height is good for working the raised beds while sitting.

The casters have brakes so it wont move when in use. The casters and seat pad were the only cost so far.

The one improvement I need to make is to replace the rope handle with a more rigid pull. The casters tend to roll at different rates so if I pull it too fast behind me, it falls over. It’s really meant to be a stool and not a cart but if it rolls more stable, I can use it as a small cart as well. I found a cart - pull handle on Amazon and will see how that works. An axle with wheels that don’t turn would probably have worked better,