{"id":6803,"date":"2021-08-15T11:20:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T15:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/?p=6803"},"modified":"2021-09-14T09:23:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T13:23:08","slug":"raised-bed-gardening-first-person-perspective-from-an-occupational-therapist-entry-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/2021\/08\/15\/raised-bed-gardening-first-person-perspective-from-an-occupational-therapist-entry-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Raised Bed Gardening:  The start of the growing season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have had a garden every season since I moved to my home in 1991. \u00a0 Having a busy job as an OT, and later adopting my daughter as a single parent. Like most things, some years are good for certain plants, and not so good for other plants. It seems like my gardening method has been:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>start seeds early if I have time<\/li>\n<li>call my neighbor to till my garden with his tractor<\/li>\n<li>buy transplants, plant seeds (wait, what happened to starting my own?)<\/li>\n<li>plan a marathon weekend of planting my purchases<\/li>\n<li>attempt to water it routinely<\/li>\n<li>mulch with grass clippings and weed barrier material<\/li>\n<li>weed in the evenings after work<\/li>\n<li>try to find my harvest among the tall weeds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>I always hope for the best based on the weather and my available attention.\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #003366\">To be honest, <em>my activities are often determined by my lack of time and energy<\/em>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Suggestion:<\/h3>\n<p>In 2020, Maine AgrAbility worked with the UMaine Extension Home Horticulture &amp; Gardening Team for Episode 9 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/victory-gardens-for-me\/\">weekly Victory Garden for ME series.<\/a> This series consists of short pre-recorded videos geared towards Mainers growing their first vegetable garden. Maine AgrAbility is featured in the <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/videos\/#ergonomics\">Pain-Free Gardening (Episode 9)<\/a> with recommendations on preparing for your work to address issues like lack of time and energy.\u00a0 Here are some ideas from the video:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No matter what your age or condition, make sure the tools are right for the project and they fit your size and strength.<\/li>\n<li>Change your tasks frequently. Rotate tasks between sitting, standing, and kneeling. This way, you won\u2019t strain any one set of muscles.<\/li>\n<li>Be flexible with yourself. Do several short gardening sessions over the course of the day or throughout the week.<\/li>\n<li>Be mindful of how you\u2019re feeling. Pain is a red flag. If you start feeling tight in your back, or your shoulders are aching, it\u2019s time to take a stretch break.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have had a garden every season since I moved to my home in 1991. \u00a0 Having a busy job as an OT, and later adopting my daughter as a single parent. Like most things, some years are good for certain plants, and not so good for other plants. It seems like my gardening method [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"66","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maine-agrability-blog"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":66,"label":"Maine AgrAbility Blog"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/author\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":66,"name":"Maine AgrAbility Blog","slug":"maine-agrability-blog","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":66,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":50,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":66,"category_count":50,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Maine AgrAbility Blog","category_nicename":"maine-agrability-blog","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6803"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6956,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions\/6956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agrability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}