Getting Arthritis and looking for advice about simplifying

12 years ago

When we bought our house, we never expected:
1) That the person who had always been responsible for all of the yard work and home repairs (me) would be diagnosed with arthritis and find herself unable to physically keep up with the gardening.
2) That this house we truly love would be worth significantly less than what we paid for it 9 years earlier.

Our split-level house is on a quarter acre, sloped, oak-treed lot. The soil is sandy. Between the shade and and the sandy soil, we found planting hostas and other shade-loving annuals a better alternative to grass. The lawn we have left takes 14 minutes with a push mower.

My hips and knees no longer allow me to do the weeding and mulching necessary to keep the gardens up the way I used to. Additionally, both in spring and fall cleaning up oak leaves is a huge chore. And then there is significant snow in the winter.

My DH and I both know that we should give the house up, but until the housing market rebounds in our area, we are looking for ways to make staying here another 2-5 years less labor intensive for us.

We've tried hiring the work done, but have been disappointed with the high cost and/or unreliability of the people we've found so far. For example, the guy who removed snow this winter damaged our patio and a wood retaining wall. The guy I hired to rake leaves started two weeks ago and haven't seen him since.

So, I'm looking for ideas and advice regarding how we can simplify and make things easier. I have a number of ideas but just don't know what will give us the best returns in terms of cost and easing up on the work.

Do I put in a sprinkler/watering system?
Do we pull out the perennials and put in sod?
Do we do both, because the grass will not grow without significant attention to watering.

Do we buy a lawn tractor to clean the driveway in winter, do leaf vacuuming and perhaps help us when we have to put down mulch or will maintaining and storing a big machine (no one in the family is mechanical) too much work?

Finally, do we bite the bullet and hire a professional gardening service at $40 or more per hour and hope we get lucky with someone good? If you think that is the way to go, then advice on how to find someone good and reliable would be appreciated.

Are there other power tools or options we should consider?

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Comments (5)

albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
12 years ago
We understand. Today I will pay $400 for a fence repair that I would have done myself for less than $40 three years ago.

I've never had good luck with irrigation systems but when I could fix them myself I always had one.

Do your codes allow Xeriscaping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia? If so consider this as one option.
kitasei
10 years ago
Your question is more than a year old, but I do have a suggestion. I have responded to many listings in Craiglist (under Farm and Garden) by people like yourselves who have offered divisions of perennials, chicken bedding compost, etc in exchange for help doing the dividing, coop clean out, etc. I have enjoyed each opportunity. My husband and I also have a property that is way beyond our capabilty to maintain. Your hostas seem like the best solution. A light weight blower would help you manage the leaves. Get one that you can start (maybe electric?) and carry without bending over. Be proactive about the snow. Have your snowmelt ready to spread with a scoop as it starts falling. Park your car at the entrance to the street so you only need to make a path to it.
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zzackey
10 years ago
I'm very scared of Craigslist after the recent posts and news articles I've seen. Too many untrustworthy people on there.
sixtoomanycats84
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
It would help to know what part of the country you live in. Do you get a lot of snow, or just enough to be a problem? Kitasei above has several good suggestions.

Grass on sandy soil really doesn't grow that well. I think you've found your answer with groundcovers. Maybe you could expand on what you have, adding other varieties, planting them more thickly on the outer edges so you can confine your work closer to the house. Just be sure to choose wisely (do your homework) so you don't plant invasive ones that you'll have to grub out of the wrong areas.

When the leaves start falling, ask around -- I collect leaves from people's yards to put in my raised garden beds (to keep the weeds down).

If you hire someone (professional or other), make dead-certain-sure that you don't pay them in advance. No work, no pay, no excuses. But I must admit that there certainly are a lot of people these days who don't want to work, and worse, don't know HOW to work.

Check online and see if you have a local area blog. West Seattle has one -- I wish more areas did: westseattleblog.com where you could post questions. It would be safer than some of the lowlifes on Craigslist.

Ask around for reliable handy persons (M or F), or a labor-barter group. Do you have non-strenuous abilities (bookkeeping, etc) that you could trade?

I have discovered that quite a few home-schooled teenagers can make pretty good workers. Ask around.

Even with arthritis, don't let your body freeze up by eliminating moving. Do what you can do. Exercise will help keep you mobile.
ophoenix
10 years ago
Check out the website www.accessiblegardens.org. Lots of information that will help you with your garden. There are plans, stories, videos and tips for gardening with various types of limitations from physical and financial issues.