ELLIE'S BLOG on Living Well with MS

With a little creative thought and some ingenuity anyone with a disability can find a way to adapt their environment so they can successfully have a garden that they will love.  Whether it's a beautiful garden with shrubs, flowers(annuals- perennials) or vegetables you can realize your dream.  A small medium or large garden can be done in pots, raised beds or in the ground.  All you need is the desire and some seeds or bedding plants, good soil, mulch and of course the sun.

However, heat from the sun for people with MS can be the first problem to be conquered. It's a result of the damage to your myelin sheath creating a neurological problem.  So when the temperature increases causing your body to heat up your functional physical ability lessons or just totally goes.

I know this personally. Just the other day I was standing picking lettuce in my raised lettuce bed at 3:00 PM and the temperature was getting close to 90.  My legs told me "you need to sit in the shade now".  But I pushed myself and got up the steps to my bridge-ramp and luckily my wheeled walker with a seat was right there. I was able to push myself backwards into the house.  I then flopped into my wheelchair and cooled myself down with cold water. But it took a few hours before I was up and walking again.  I had no business picking my lettuce in the afternoon in the hot sun I know better.  I usually pick it early morning before its hot then I'm fine.

The point of having a garden is to be able to enjoy what you've decided to plant. Whether it's the smell or beauty of your flowers or the taste of fresh vegetables right out of the garden. You don't want to ruin it by becoming overtired through too much heat or unnecessary effort.  So be sure you have a shady area on a deck or just a grassy area that you block off as your haven to relax and refresh yourself while watching the birds and butterflies visiting your garden.  This time nourishes the soul and revises the spirit!  In fact planning your shady retreat areas must be a central part of your garden plan.  And if your garden is part of a whole family adventure like mine is make sure that they know how critical it is for you.  This is not the time to put up the big front or get into that I don't want to bother people  mode.

And again I am going to use my new garden as an example.  I'm sitting on my chaise on the deck in the upper right hand side of the picture.  It is a very shady area.  Thanks to the old evergreen tree branches of my next door neighbor which hang over our deck.

Notice the umbrella over the table for shady eating.  To the far left is a brick patio with raised beds for vegetables and flowers.  Behind that is a very shady area under a big old maple tree that's perfect for potting  plants and staying cool.  There are other areas further forward that are not visible in this picture.  But  you can see in the next picture far back on the left on the side of the house there is another old evergreen tree and  the area under it is also very very shady.  And the next picture below which shows my herb bed and my raised lettuce bed to the side of my bridge ramp from the deck to our house.  Close to the house is a very shady area where we keep a lot of our utensils for gardening.  My son plans to put a roof over it which will also make it shadier.  He also plans to put a roof over the other side of the shed which you can see in the other picture.

As well as having shady areas available and planning your garden time early or late in the day when it's not hot you can't forget to use cooling device's.  I had been using headbands and wrist bands as well as neck scarves in which there were crystals .  When you soaked these in cold water they expanded and retained the cold for quite awhile.  But this year they're just not as effective  so I'm purchasing other devices. Naturally I went to Google and after checking sites I found the  USA Tech Guide site.  On it they have 28 web sites that you can check things out  to find sources.http://www.usatechguide.org/techguide.php?vmode=1&catid=187     I decided to go with gel inserts.  I used two different sites. On one I purchased a loose fitting inexpensive vest. On the other site I purchased head ,neck and wrist bans with gel inserts. I'll let you know how they work.  Of course ice cubes or a spray from the garden hose helps too!

On my next blog which I going to put under Disability I'm going to show how my sons made my raised  lettuce bed. This has been absolutely marvelous for me and could be for you too!                        Ellie