It's About Time, Saving Money, and Feeling Good

A few years ago, when my wife, Barbara, and I were first together, we needed a place to live. She was going to school in Farmington and I was working at Sugarloaf. We needed a cheap rental somewhere between the two areas. It seemed that New Vineyard was the town of choice. To make a somewhat long story short, we found a nice house that came complete with nice landlords and lots and lots of horse manure. The owners had been horse trainers.

Did I mention that we were poor? We were scrambling for every opportunity to either make, or save, money. There were two young boys to feed and not much income to do it with. Barbara had a long history of being a gardening fanatic and I grew up on and around farms and home gardens. We didn't have to agonize a lot about our next steps. I got a friend to bring his tiller over and we turned a horse paddock into 12 inches of very rich loam.

We learned a few things with that garden. For example, if you stick lettuce seeds into a foot of composted horse manure and add water, you are in danger of getting hit by the greenery — if you don't jump back fast enough. We also learned that, if peas get that much nitrogen, they will fall right over dead. What the hey has this to do with a disability website, you ask?

Over the years, we have continued to save money by having gardens. We both became disabled at relatively young ages and without our gardens we would have been hard pressed to put food on the table. During a period of time when we had three boys at home, we grew almost all of our vegetables at an estimated savings of $3000 per year. Well, as we've slowed down a bit, and only have one dependent at home, the tilled areas on our property have shrunk. We still grow a variety of vegetables and have some flower gardens, just for fun.

Two years ago I bought my first accessibility device for the garden. It's a little red tractor seat on wheels. I can't bend to weed, or plant, anymore, so I sit and work. I thought of raising the garden beds, but it seemed easier to just lower me.

Our gardens provide food, pleasure, and much needed exercise. Sorry I can't chat more about this, but I've got seedlings on the windowsill that need water.

A few randomly selected gardening links:

http://www.frugalgardening.com/

Cooperative Extension
http://www.umext.maine.edu/

http://www.mainecottagegarden.com/

041607