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Marjory: Hi, everyone. This is Marjory Wildcraft,
and today I'm in Southern Oregon with my friend Bonnie Grace Rising.
And Bonnie is almost 62 years old and has lead a very active life,
but now she's finding herself with some lower back problems,
and some knee problems. And yet Bonnie wants to garden,
has done a bit of gardening throughout her life,
but now she's finding she needs to adapt some techniques
just because of her physical issues that are coming up.
And we were having a conversation and Bonnie has been
experimenting and trying and I just want to share some tips with you
of things that Bonnie has found has worked. Maybe this will inspire you
or grandparents or parents that you have
that might have some of these concerns. So Bonnie was telling me,
you have, I normally plant my beds about 4 feet wide,
and you were saying that you find that a 3 or 2...
Bonnie: That's too wide. That's too wide for me.
Trying to bend over and get that far into the middle of the 4 foot row
is difficult. So I find probably about a 2-1/2
to maybe a 3 foot bed works for me.
It's much easier to get into.
Marjory: And you were also saying long-handled tools.
Bonnie: Oh, absolutely. It's so much easier.
In fact, I have a long-handled tool
I don't have to bend over quite as much. The tool reaches into the bed farther.
Marjory: Why don't we bring that up and show folks which one.
Bonnie: Well, this is the.
Marjory: Yeah. It's just a long-handled.
Bonnie: That's how tall it is, too.
Marjory: Helps you do weeding?
Bonnie: Yeah. This one's got some weight to it,
so the weight of the hoe helps me as well.
Marjory: So this way, you don't have to bend over.
You can still be standing up straight and working.
Bonnie: Exactly.
Marjory: Wow, that's neat. And you were saying also something about knee
pads?
Bonnie: Well, knee pads, I use those little,
they're just regular knee pads that you can move around.
But I think something that I want to try is the knee pad
that's got also a seat attached to it, and handles so you can push yourself up.
You can flip the thing over and you have the knee pads on one side
and a seat on the other that help me to sit and maybe do some weeding
bending over that way, instead of just on my knees,
because my knees are pretty bad.
Marjory: I want to get you one of those and let you try it out,
so we'll get everybody an update later on and see how that works.
Bonnie: Woohoo! Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. Sure.
Marjory: So Bonnie, I think the ideal thing would be
to have raised beds that are actually just at about hip height.
Is that one?
Bonnie: Oh, that would be fabulous. But because I don't have the material to build
a raised bed, I'm building a raised bed, but it won't be
in a framework. It's just being built up.
Marjory: You're just raising it up?
Bonnie: And I'm adding lots of compost and mulch and material to build a raised bed up.
Marjory: It's also a clay soil here, so having it raised helps with drainage.
Bonnie: Oh, yes.
Marjory: Well, great. Well, there you go. There's a couple of great tips for you.
If you have any other suggestions or comments, by all means put them down below.
Both Bonnie and I read these, and we'd really love your input.
I'm looking to do some more with Bonnie. So subscribe to the channel,
and you'll get to see more about Bonnie and updates on what she's doing.
I'm Marjory Wildcraft, and you can grow your own groceries.