HOMESTEADING AND PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

[flowerbug]

I do qi gong on the beach. I am simply not strong enough for tai chi! I can do 2 movements but my ankles are too weak! (I burned my feet badly last year walking to the beach on bitumen and haven't completely recovered). Wading in the water and swimming are both really good for my injuries as well. Plus the added bonus of a magnesium boost! I love the beach, but don't get there as much as I would like lately.

I had great posture on horseback, never unplaced in a rider class, but now, unless I imagine I am show jumping, I cant bend correctly! Its like I have forgotten how to send that message from brain to body. Its slow to do stuff being aware of all of my movements though, so I get a lot less done when I am focused on pretending I'm on horseback all around the garden lol. I slack off on posture a lot just to get cleaning done, which isn't good but I haven't given up trying completely.

Tai Chi can be adjusted to your own strength and desires. if you are able to walk you can practice Tai Chi. the depth of the stance can be less to your own needs and strength. for a real workout a deep stance and very slow. for those who don't have that strength or capability or have poor balance you can be standing almost completely upright or even sitting.

swimming is a great exercise too.

 

[Britesea]

When I started Tai Chi 3 years ago, I was walking with a cane. I spent the first month of practice (3 times a week) sitting in a chair and moving my upper body; I would just place my feet in an approximation of the correct form. Then I started standing up for 5 minutes, finishing up in the chair. Then 10 minutes, 15 minutes. The day I was able to do an entire hour standing up is still burned into my memory! Now I do 2 hours: 1 hour of qi gong and one of tai chi, and if the C-virus hadn't shown up I was planning on trying to get certified this year. I cannot do the really deep stance yet, but my teacher says I can do it well enough to teach. My cane gathers dust behind the front door.

 

[tortoise]

I have been working on making gardening physically easier, and it's starting to make a difference.

• I started a permanent bed system. This minimizes any rototilling. The established beds (most are 30" x 30') make me able to plant rows without needing DH to help me with stakes and strings.
• I planted clover as a groundcover to minimize weeding. I don't have it in all the beds - and don't plan to.
• Hoeing daily with a stirrup hoe is the physically-easiest way for me to weed, so BTE and lasagna beds don't work for me
• I'm using thick mulch rows between beds. They are 12 - 18" wide, and goal is 12" tall. Started them with wood chips, but using garden debris and aged barn manure and such too. If BTE actually works, someday these paths will become my garden beds?? IDK.
• I hoeing out perennial weeds for weeks before planting garden seeds. This gets crabgrass under control! Virtually eliminated it, but it creeps in around the edges.
• I have DH rototill the perimeter of the garden to break up the sod to make crabgrass removing feasible.

I'm really shocked how well this is starting to work. I have spent three works sessions in the garden this spring and it's mostly under control. 1/3 of the garden for "hill" plants is 1/3 - 1/2 covered with clover! I need to dig out other perennial weeds. The rest of the garden has all the annual weed debris rakes out and almost all of it has been hoed at least once.

I'm very excited to see how this year goes. A couple more years of establishing clover should get this garden easy to manage.

 

[flowerbug]

clover does look so nice, but can be hard to weed. i turn it under with the shovel and then use the stirrup hoe to keep it from coming back. planting into that turned area is very fertile. we have a lot of clay here so that is also fertile.

good job on keeping after it with the stirrup hoe. that is what we use the most in our established garden beds too (inside the fence and a few areas outside the fence too now). for weed control around the gardens it is best to have an edged pathway around the outside which is wide enough that any chance weed roots coming in from the sides can't ever make it all the way to the gardens. a deep enough edge helps a great deal with that. the pathway helps keep wind blow seeds and things from grass mowing or weed eating from getting thrown into the gardens.

i don't like a lot of pathways or small gardens as i've found out i can be a lot more productive and flexible in larger spaces. when i'm done planting a plot then as i'm backing out i also plant the pathway i was using to plant. i just have to remind myself to leave enough room between rows of plants so i can weed, walk, harvest, etc. i like having the flexibility to plant a different pattern the next seasons as it means i'm not depleting the soil as much as i could be. and to me the fewer edges i have to work around and maintain the better. i don't use strings and sticks much for planting. i guess i just eyeball the line for a seed drill and it works out well enough.

i have my nasty weed list. all weeds get used as much as possible in the garden where they are grown. i'll sit and pull leaves off some weeds and leave them on the surface for the worms to eat up and then take the seeds and any bits of roots that i might worry about regrowing and that all ends up on a reserve weed pile where they can dry out and the birds can pick through it all. as of yet i've not moved any dirt from that area back to any gardens, but if i were to do that i'd bury it deeply enough that any chance weed seeds could not regrow. i don't usually move much at all to this reserve pile because where a lot of people might take a whole bucket of weeds i might take just a few at the bottom of the bucket with the seeds. i'm much more likely to take a chance that a weed left on the surface will dry out and not regrow or even if it does i can usually head it off before it gets too far the next time i come through with the stirrup hoe. i like to think that all those weeds are free energy and free fertilizer for a garden and so far the way the gardens are going it seems to be working out here for me too. it would go even quicker and better if i could do some cover crops in the fall and leave them through the winter but that is not possible under the current management. so i just daydream about that for now...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have been working on making gardening physically easier, and it's starting to make a difference

Dang girl - you are making progress! That's fantastic. A garden is a lot more fun when it's not a constant battle...I have some volunteer clover that I never weed out. It's slowly spreading. The heat will get it in a couple more weeks, but it'll come back when the weather is more favorable for it.

 

[tortoise]

for weed control around the gardens it is best to have an edged pathway around the outside which is wide enough that any chance weed roots coming in from the sides can't ever make it all the way to the gardens. a deep enough edge helps a great deal with that.

I was thinking about digging a trench around my garden to try to slow down the seasonal invasion of crabgass. Do you think it would work? I might test it in one section - would be a lot of work!! but worth it if I only needed to do it once.

 

[Britesea]

I have a feeling it will only slow it down for a year or so.

 

[tortoise]

I have a feeling it will only slow it down for a year or so.

That's about what I was thinking. DS13 is digging a trench in one section, like 20 linear feet. It's the worst section. Even getting relief for one season would be great.

 

[Britesea]

If you can keep up with it as it creeps back in (like spraying with a vinegar spray to kill the top growth and weaken the roots that are trying to come in) you may be able to keep it back with minimal labor.

 

[flowerbug]

I was thinking about digging a trench around my garden to try to slow down the seasonal invasion of crabgass. Do you think it would work? I might test it in one section - would be a lot of work!! but worth it if I only needed to do it once.

crab grass is mostly spread via those tiny seeds. the only way to get it from spreading is to isolate the area from as much surrounding grassy areas that have it as possible and keeping after it when it does sprout so that it can't make more seeds.

tilling spreads seeds from below the germination zone in a garden up into a spot where they can sprout again and they persist for a long time. so the best approach is to not disturb the soil that much so that the seeds stay put where they can't sprout.

these are what works for us as best practices as any place that is left open to the sun will end up being a crabgrass farm here.

as soon as possible a cover crop of any kind helps keep it down.
no bare dirt.
not having a grassy area near the vegetable gardens.
being vigilant and making sure any crab grass that pops up gets weeded before it can form and drop seeds.
crab grass doesn't start growing until it gets warmer so you do have some time to get cover crops growing on bare dirt.
not using herbicides.