Podcast: Gardening With Arthritis

Full Transcript:
Released 3/26/2024

PODCAST OPEN:            
You’re listening to the Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast, created by the Arthritis Foundation to help people with arthritis — and the people who love them — live their best lives. This podcast and other life-changing resources are made possible by gifts from donors like you. If you’re dealing with chronic pain, this podcast is for you. You may have arthritis, but it doesn’t have you. Here, learn how you can take control of arthritis with tips and ideas from our hosts and guest experts. 
 
MUSIC BRIDGE 

Bailey Cook: 
Welcome to the Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast. I'm Bailey Cook, your guest host for today's episode. I was diagnosed when I was 8 years old with arthritis, and it has been quite the journey. The more I get older, the more interested I am in trying to adapt things. Today, we're going to talk about gardening for arthritis, which is something that I am determined to do better. (laughs)  

So, gardening is a wonderful pastime that's not only fun and rewarding but also good for your health. In fact, research shows it can improve both the physical and mental health for people with a wide range of conditions, including arthritis. It's even been said that the benefits of gardening could be used as a social prescription globally to help improve the health for people with chronic conditions. But what can be done when painful, achy and swollen joints from arthritis keep you from tending to your garden's tasks? 

In this episode, we'll explore gardening tips, techniques, trends and tools to help and hone your green thumb with less pain and discomfort. Today, I'm joined by our guest expert, Dina Pittman. Welcome to the podcast, Dina. Do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? 

Dina Pittman: 
Hi Bailey. Thank you so much for having me here to talk about gardening today, my favorite topic. I have always been a gardener. And I have always just played in the dirt. And so, I can't imagine what it was like for you with juvenile arthritis, having to go through all of that and get your diagnosis at the time. But I feel like with osteoarthritis, particularly people who are older, the diagnosis process is probably a little bit different. 

As an adult, I had always been kind of confined to small city lots for my gardening. I always, of course, dreamed really big, and I wanted so much more and looked at all the magazines and poured over the catalogs and all that stuff and just dreamed about having this gardening paradise. And so finally, after my kids were out of high school, my husband and I decided we were going to move a little more rural. And we were able to get an acre-and-a-half. 

And I thought I was just in heaven, because this is my paradise. Here I get to finally put all those things into action and build all the gardens of my dreams. I thought actually that my biggest problem was going to be learning how to garden in the shade because our lot was very treed. And I thought: There's not enough sun to have any gardens anywhere. But I was going to learn how to deal with it. 

And then, it turned out, that what my biggest obstacle was, was dealing with the chronic pain and injury that I was having from osteoarthritis. And so, it was a constant battle between me kind of trying to build these new gardens and do it in the way that I always knew how, which is not necessarily the best way if you have arthritis. Then I would get injured, and I’d go to the doctor, and it was just… “Well, you have a little bit of arthritis going on here…” But never really like someone sitting you down and saying you have arthritis, you have a chronic disease that's progressive, that you're going to have to learn how to manage if you're going to keep doing what you're doing. 

That's kind of where I'm coming from. The Disabled Gardener is the website I started, and my blog, and I started trying to come to terms with this diagnosis. And trying yet to have my dreams of having big gardens. 

Bailey Cook: 
You have this dream, and you've continued to fight for that dream despite any obstacles that might have come your way. You said the pain was your biggest obstacle, but let's really jump into it. What were the greatest obstacles you had when it came to planting and watering and weeding and pruning, and all of these different parts that actually go into gardening? 

Dina Pittman: 
In the beginning, it was more of just trying to get the beds built and trying to get the hardscaping in and all that kind of stuff. And so, I just had to adapt and learn and get really creative. One of the things that I say with planting is, for one thing, you should probably do perennials instead of annuals. Perennials are the plants that come back year after year, and annuals are the ones that you have to put out again and again each season. 

You might have to do a little bit of pruning or something on them. But you don't have to keep replanting. That's going to save you a lot of wear and tear. Another thing you can do is plant self-sowers, which are things that are going to re-seed. It depends on your area that you're from and how cold it gets and if the freeze kills the plant completely back. But where I am, we've pretty mild winters, so a lot of the stuff that I have, the flowers, marigolds and zinnias and stuff like that, will actually re-seed. The seed will lay on the soil, and then the next season it'll sprout up by itself. They also can be a nuisance and cause a lot of plants where you don't want plants. And so, you wind up having to pull them all up. 

Have a good garden scooter. I have one that has an adjustable seat on it. A lot of times you'll see the little plastic ones in the store. And they might be good if you're the right height for that particular thing, but they're not adjustable. I'm a little bit taller, and if my back's hurting or my knees are hurting, it's not so hard to sit down on that scooter or stand back up from the scooter. 

Bailey Cook: 
I actually love where you started with this is: You don't just jump right into planting. 

Dina Pittman: 
Yes. 

Bailey Cook: 
This year, I really want to figure out how best to build my garden and like, how do I do that in a way that I'm not going to be in pain trying to, one, take care of it, or two, put it together even. How did you start with your pain and planning for your garden? 

Dina Pittman: 
Well, for one thing, I had a lot of plants already from various other gardens that I had, and so I had all these plants that I needed to put somewhere. Then I took the time to start planning out. And you want to look at how much sun in your area it’s going to get. I have a lot of shades, so that's always a problem for me: to get things to bloom because they don't have enough sunshine. 

One of the things is to look at different raised bed designs. Vegetable gardening and flower gardening are a little bit different. Where I do my vegetable gardening, I have all raised beds. And where I do my flower gardening, I am working more on doing, it's called sheet mulching. If you wanted to start a new area, you kind of mark out your area where you want it to be. And then you could put cardboard down on top of the grass, if there's grass there. You can put layers of newspaper. 

You can put layers of leaves then on top of that, and you wet it down and then put mulch on top of it. If you put a good 3-inch to 5-inch layer of mulch on top of that, then you've kind of suppressed all your weeds, maybe not all of them. And then you can come back and kind of spot-treat your weeds. But if you were doing a raised bed, you could put that kind of system down and put your raised bed on top and then bring in some garden soil, compost and stuff like that to do your planting in. 

There's a lot of new raised beds coming out now that are really interesting. The metal raised beds are very popular. And I'm starting to just experiment with all kinds of different raised bed gardening. I've done pots. You can get like plastic containers at your hardware store and plant in those. I love to do carrots and lettuce in those big plastic containers. And there's something about those containers being high enough up off the ground. It kind of keeps the bugs out of them. 

PROMO: 
The Arthritis Foundation tests and certifies products and packages that are proven to make life easier for people with arthritis, chronic pain and physical limitations. An Ease of Use certification recognizes products that can be easy to use by everyone. Explore them at arthritis.org/easeofuse. 

Bailey Cook: 
My grandma gave me this book about gardening. My grandma is the best. She has a beautiful flower garden. She doesn't do vegetables, but she has a beautiful flower garden. And she also has arthritis, and so she has a lot of the tools that really help. I live in Utah, and so it's a very hot summers and very cold winters. (laughs) 

Dina Pittman: 
A harsh environment. 

Bailey Cook: 
Yes. We have very hard ground, too. I think that some of these things that you've brought up are a really good fit for where I live. Things just don't really grow that well in the ground here. 

Dina Pittman: 
Yeah. You've got to work on the soil constantly because soil is just your foundation, and you've got to build that soil so that the plants can get what they need. The roots actually communicate, unless the soil is so compacted; then it kind of makes the root just give up. (laughs) 

Every state has a Native Plant Society, and so you can look up the Native Plant Society. They will have all kinds of information about which native, or sometimes adaptive, plants do best in your area. 

Bailey Cook: 
Right. 

Dina Pittman: 
The thing about the natives is: It's so great for arthritis because it reduces your workload. So, if you're trying to keep a plant that doesn't do well in your area alive, you're having to give it a lot of things. You're having to baby it along and keep it alive. And if you're with your natives, you just kind of can ignore them and they're going to be adapted to your soil, they're going to be adapted to your conditions. 

Bailey Cook:  
That’s my biggest challenge. I plant these things, and what I really struggle with is: It gets so hot here during the summer. I think one thing that I really was challenged with last year is watering it and taking the time to do it maybe in the morning and at nighttime. And we are also in a drought and so, you know, kind of being mindful of not taking too much of the water. 

Dina Pittman: 
Watering is another thing that a lot of people will think, "Well, big deal, you just water something." But watering is a huge chore, and when I first started out, we didn't have any kind of sprinkler system. And so, on an acre and a half, that’s a pretty wide amount, when I had beds here and beds over there, and I’m dragging that hose along all summer long. And with arthritis especially, tripping can be a major problem. 

One of the best tools I ever got was an automatic retractable hose reel. These automatically go back, and if you do a little research on them, you can find some really good companies out there making fantastic hose reels. Now I have three of them, and I still want two more, so I'm still budgeting for those last two. They're expensive, but they're so worth it because they work so well. 

Bailey Cook: 
And is that, like, you press a button and it does it automatically? 

Dina Pittman: 
The brand that I have, you just tug on the hose a little bit, and then it retracts for you. And you pull it out and tug on it and it locks, and then you tug on it again and it retracts for you. 

Bailey Cook: 
I think of, like, a vacuum cleaner cord. Like you just pull it out and then… 

Dina Pittman: 
Exactly like a vacuum cleaner cord. (laughs) 

Bailey Cook: 
I hate to admit it, but my hose has been literally laid out across my yard all winter because I was watering something in the back and then it froze and I just never put it back over my arm. And it's still sitting there, and it's so embarrassing, but… 

Dina Pittman: 
And it's unsightly. 

Bailey Cook: 
Yes. 

Dina Pittman: 
But the other thing about watering, if you're not using a big hose like that, but you're using watering cans. You need to remember, like… I have some really cute, old, old metal watering cans. And water weighs eight pounds per gallon. So, you need to remember that. I've been gradually switching over to a really good watering can with a nice rose on the end that sprinkles the water out real soft, but it's all plastic. And it's high-quality plastic, so it'll last. 

PROMO: 
All year long, the Arthritis Foundation is putting a spotlight on how serious chronic arthritis pain really is. We’re also sharing inspirational stories, as well as tips, solutions and resources to help manage your specific type of arthritis pain. Visit arthritis.org/pain. 

Bailey Cook: 
When you're thinking about having your garden and planting things and having these planter boxes, is that similar to things that help you kneel down and sit on it and things like that? 

Dina Pittman: 
I would call it more of a wagon almost. Not a wagon, but it’s got four wheels and mine actually steers. And then it has a swivel. It looks like a tractor seat in the middle of it, and that seat swivels around so that it raises higher or lower. 

Bailey Cook: 
And what kind of things that help you with gripping and dexterity? I know a lot of people that have arthritis, it may affect their hands. And for me, I mean I drop things all the time because my hands just quit working. And so, what kind of tools help to balance that? 

Dina Pittman: 
Well, I do have ratchet pruners. They have like a little gear. And so, when you squeeze the pruner, it clicks onto that first gear, so it doesn't go back. And then you squeeze again, it clicks again. Any tool that's going to use leverage instead of your hand being the leverage is going to be better for you. 

If I'm going to spend all day, because I've got a big project and I'm going to be in that garden all day long, planning is so important. One thing that I do is, like, meal prep. And You would think: meal prep? We're talking about gardening. But nutrition is so important in managing your arthritis. I get inspired by my garden and try to grow my own nutrition, which is fun. And it helps teach you to eat a lot of different vegetables because you’re learning to grow things that will grow in your area. And I found myself growing things that I’ve never heard of before, but they're awesome. But when you do that, that takes more prep. 

I'll go out first thing in the morning, and I'm picking lettuce or greens or whatever it is. And bring them in and wash them. When you're tired and you're saying, “Oh, I’ve still got to go pick those greens and bring them in and wash them.” Then it's a big chore. But if you do it in the morning before you get started and before you're too tired, you can just have that to look forward to all day long. Then all you have to do is stir fry them real quick. 

Bailey Cook: 
Yeah, you bring up a good point with gardening all day. Would you say that it's best practice to take one day and do everything or to do maybe microbursts where you work on certain projects for a set amount of time to not overfatigue yourself? 

Dina Pittman: 
You still have to kind of budget what you're doing because you know yourself and you know you're going to be limited. What I like to do is not do any one activity too long. So, really, half an hour is a long time to do one activity. Again, if you take it back to the gym, you know, would you do squats for half an hour? No. 

Bailey Cook: 
Absolutely not. (laughs) 

Dina Pittman: 
But if you, if you say, “I’m going to plant for half an hour, and then I'm going to do something that doesn't require as much bending down or kneeling or squatting or whatever.” That brings me to another point. One of the things I found: A lot of people — especially if you're having a lot of pain — get really overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done. Just relax and go, “Oh, everything’s so beautiful.” 

I'll actually take out a clipboard and a piece of paper and pen and walk the garden, just with the idea in mind of putting those top things on my list that need to be done. And somehow that takes the anxiety out of it for me. 

Bailey Cook: 
So, for people that aren't as lucky as you to have all of this wonderful space to garden in, there's a couple of different types of gardening that I want to get your feedback on. The first is patio planters. What are your thoughts about patio planters? 

Dina Pittman: 
I love them. I have tons of space, but I still have patio planters. I would say, too, patio planters are going to be good if that's your only garden. You might still want to do your native plants and things like that in there. But patio planters can be really good for the things that you do need to baby along. 

Bailey Cook: 
We've talked about watering a little bit. What do you think about the self-watering system? Is that something that you use personally? 

Dina Pittman:  
I have experimented with some homemade ones, and that's what I've done in the plastic container boxes. They call them a wicking pot, where you put the water in the bottom and the soil kind of wicks that water up. And so, it's supposed to be kind of a constant watering for them. I think that could be a really good way to lower your maintenance and your labor that you're having to do. I love experimenting with the different ways and writing about it. 

PROMO:
Movement is the best medicine. But it can be hard when you hurt. Your Exercise Solution is a resource to help you create a customized physical activity routine based on your specific needs and abilities. Learn more at arthritis.org/yourexercisesolution. 

Bailey Cook: 
On social media, we asked the question: What's the greatest obstacle to gardening with arthritis, and how do you overcome it? So, I'm going to read a couple of responses and we can just kind of chitchat about what they said. 

Dina Pittman: 
OK.  

Bailey Cook: 
The first one comes from Bionic RA, who says, "Having or modifying my tools to make the worse work less stressful on me. I am 6' 4", so standing straight is better for me, and I look for rakes and shovels with longer handles. Don't carry when I can wheel. I garden almost every day. It's where I get grounded." And then he says, "Micro doses are best." We kind of touched on a few of these things, but what's your feedback? 

Dina Pittman: 
That's very smart for them to specifically look for long-handled tools because, you know, it'd be nice if all of our tools were just custom made to our height. (laughs) Just like the garden scooter, too. I kept trying to use those little bitty garden scooters, and I was like, "This is hard to get up and down." And I felt silly that I couldn't get up and down from my garden scooter, but then, I realized, "Oh, it's because it's too short." 

If you're using a shovel, and you've got this load that's way out away from your body, you're going to put a lot of strain probably on your lower back. Sometimes it depends on the activity you're doing, I guess. You would need to bring that weight closer into your body, carry it as close to your body as you can. And the other thing about tools is: You've got to keep your tools sharp, because that's one of the worst enemies for arthritis: dull tools. 

If you're trying to cut your roses or cut anything, it puts so much strain on your hands if you're just sitting there and your tool won't cut it because it's too dull. Same as in the kitchen if you're trying to chop onions or whatever, and your knife is too dull. It's just going to work so much quicker and easier if your tool is sharp. 

Bailey Cook: 
The next person says, "Raised gardening works best for me. I have so much trouble getting up after kneeling in the garden or bending over. My back and knees appreciate being able to stand. When my hands start to hurt too much, I get a bucket of ice water and put my hands in it just until the throbbing stops. Then wrap my hands in warm towels for about 15 minutes. Helps so much to keep the ache at bay." 

Dina Pittman: 
That makes me both sad and happy. If I am going to spend all weekend or all Saturday trying to get this whole project done, you know that you’re going to be sore in the evening and you need to plan for that pain. If they can do the alternating heat and ice with their hands, and that's going to help, that's a great thing to plan for pain when you're done with a day of work. But it's sad if they have to stop during their work and do that. That's very hard. 

Bailey Cook: 
And the last one that we'll talk about, this person says, "If it wasn't for gardening, I think I would weigh 300 pounds on my 5' 1" frame. I live in the desert and love working in the heat. It warms my bones. I have 13 native trees and about 100 brittle and sage brushes. They all need my care, and sometimes my husband helps me with the tall ones." 

Dina Pittman: 
Well, first of all, everyone always says, “What do you mean exercise? If I'm gardening, I’m exercising.” And I have a problem with that. Because that's what I used to think, too. And then I kept getting injured. And what I figured out is that: When I'm gardening, I'm not moving correctly. I'm off balance. I'm carrying loads of water or whatever, and I'm not doing things correctly. But now that I've learned to exercise, I make sure that I'm doing whatever I'm doing with a good instructor who's telling you to correct your posture while you're doing it. 

You have to work on, to be able to garden successfully with arthritis, your mind management. We tend to be perfectionists. And we have this perfectionist idea of what our garden is supposed to look like. Nature doesn't make it look perfect. But we still enjoy it. We still enjoy what we see. And so sometimes you just need to drop the perfectionism a little bit and just do what you can. And enjoy it. 

Bailey Cook: 
I love that. I do want to hear a little bit more about your website and your blog. 

Dina Pittman: 
I got really depressed when I started feeling like I can't do this. Here it is, my dream come true to do all this gardening. And I felt like I was being told I just have to stop doing it because that's what was hurting me. I'm a little bit too stubborn to just stop. So, I decided I had to find a way to do it and figure it out. My blog was just kind of me along the years figuring it out. I also am on Instagram and Facebook, and I try to post weekly. 

Bailey Cook: 
And for our listeners, how can they find your blog and your social media accounts?  

Dina Pittman: 
My blog is just disabledgardener.com. On Instagram, I'm @disabledgardener. And on Facebook it's The Disabled Gardener. 

Bailey Cook: 
Dina, what would you say is your favorite gardening tool when it comes to gardening with your arthritis? 

Dina Pittman: 
Well, Bailey, that's a really hard question to answer, but I'm going to have to go with the retractable hose reel. Because if you don't get out there and water, your plants are going to die, and no one's going to be happy. Your plants aren't happy and you're not happy. So, I would say it's probably that hose reel. Just makes your life so much easier. 

Bailey Cook:  
I definitely need it. Because my plants die, and then I am not a happy camper. 

Well, as we wrap up, I just want to ask what are your top takeaways that you want listeners to really remember after listening to this episode? 

Dina Pittman: 
Well, I think the most important things are what I call the pillars of gardening. Those are kind of the mind management. You have to get your thinking about your arthritis under control. And you have to come to that point. If you're an older gardener, and you're suddenly finding yourself not able to do what you've been able to do before in the past, you have to get to that point where you realize: “I have this progressive, incurable disease, and I am still going to garden. So, how am I going to come to terms with that?” 

And that's where the mind management kind of comes in. And exercise and nutrition are very important. And I like to try to get the nutrition from my garden. And the exercise. When I first started having to go to physical therapy, I thought, “This is so dumb. They're not doing anything to make me stronger. I could be at home gardening.” 

But I finally learned to use those physical therapy sessions to try to learn from people who are trained in movement. And what am I doing wrong? And how can I correct this? And I want to remind people: When you're in the off-season of gardening, that is your spring training. You need to be training to get fit for the garden. Because that is your time when you can be working on your strength and your core strength. Core strength is so important for balance. All of those things you can be working on during that off-season, so you're in training for that garden. 

Bailey Cook: 
I love that. (laughs)  

Dina Pittman: 
And then also examine your methods. Just start learning about new ways of gardening. I don't till anything anymore. There's no need for it as far as I can see. And so, I do no-dig gardening. And I do the layer mulching and all that kind of stuff to try to improve the soil. But also look at your tools. 

Oh, one thing I really can't stand to see is women using a wheelbarrow. Because almost every garage has a wheelbarrow that someone's needed at one point in home ownership. And wheelbarrows are very unbalanced. And you load that wheelbarrow up, and you're off balance. It's really heavy. And it's just a recipe for injury. 

Instead of a wheelbarrow, you can use a garden cart. A garden cart is balanced. It has two big wheels in the front and legs in the back. It's super well-balanced, and it makes carrying a load easier. And honestly, I wish my garden cart could just follow me around the yard like baby Yoda. (laughs) Wouldn't that be great? 

Bailey Cook: 
I love that. 

Dina Pittman: 
So, examine your tools. And then also, you know, pain management. You're going to prep your dinner so that you have your nutrition at night. And you're going to take care of yourself first. And then you're able to take care of your garden. But you just have to define what you want your life with arthritis and gardening to be. 

Bailey Cook: 
I did also want to mention right before we leave: The Arthritis Foundation has some really great Ease of Use products that could benefit you with gardening. We have things like our connector hose and our hose nozzles. If you ever want to check out some of those, it's https://www.arthritis.org/partnership/ease-of-use. 

And I just really want to thank you so much for joining us today and giving us your wisdom. And just thank you so much for sharing with us. 

Dina Pittman: 
Thank you, Bailey. Thank you for having me. And congratulations on the 100th episode. That's very exciting. 

Bailey Cook: 
Thank you so much.  

PODCAST CLOSE: 
The Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast is independently produced by the Arthritis Foundation. Gifts from people like you make our podcast and other life-changing resources possible. You can donate at arthritis.org/donate. This podcast aims to help people living with arthritis and chronic pain live their best life. People like you. For a transcript and show notes, go to    arthritis.org/podcast. Subscribe and rate us wherever you get your podcasts. And stay in touch!