[BlindTlk] Working in a Garden

[Julie Johnson]

Yes, I garden both at home and in the community garden.  There are some 
things that aren't practical, like using a hoe to chop weeds, but other than 
that it's pretty much the same as for sighted people.  Learning what is a 
weed and what is a vegetable/flower took some practice.   I prefer to set up 
the garden so I don't walk through where the plants are.  The square foot 
method works well.  I also have a few raised beds.  I plant some things in 
the landscaping so they can vine on the fence or porch railings, much easier 
than setting up trellis and then tearing it down at the end of the season. 
My main garden area at home is only 4 feet wide and about 30 feet long, 
which allows me to be able to walk around the outside of the plants and 
reach in to pull weeds or collect vegetables without walking through where 
the plants are.  The community garden space is a big rectangle of 15 feet by 
30 feet, where I do have to walk through rows.  I have to be super careful 
not to step on the plants, especially early in the season when they are 
tiny.  It's doable, but not my preference.

I tried different labeling methods in the garden, but never did find 
anything that worked well and lasted throughout the gardening season.  I 
have a few things in flowerpots and those I just stick in a braille plastic 
label right in the dirt.  For the rest of the garden I keep notes on the 
computer to help me keep track of what is where, when it was planted and 
anything else I want to remember.  I don't label seed packets.  I just use 
Seeing AI or something similar.

Knowing when the vegetables are ripe can be done by touch.  It's not much 
different than picking out produce in the grocery store.  You have to be 
familiar with the vegetable to know what you should check, size, firmness, 
ease of removing from the vine etc.  That all comes with practice.

It took a number of years before I could reliably get things to grow and 
produce.  I'm not naturally gifted at growing things.  Now my general 
strategy is to plant 10x more than I will want at the end, so after I kill 
off most of it, I'm still left with a reasonable amount.

Happy gardening!
Julie
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-----Original Message----- 
From: Ella Yu via BlindTlk
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2018 7:18 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: Ella Yu
Subject: [BlindTlk] Working in a Garden

Hi all,
I'm supposed to start working in a garden soon and I'm wondering
if it's possible for people who are completely blind.  I will
have assistance.
Thanks in advance.

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