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Lone woman gardener
hogweed
Posts: 4,053
I would be interested to hear of any hints or tips other lone women gardeners use to get round the perennial problems of moving heavy bags of compost from car to garden. Or doing the heavier jobs in the garden. Or even just keeping on top of all the work that is required to keep the garden refreshed and vital. I don't have any family so no-one close to help.
I find I don't have the energy now to spend a day gardening and tend to do a couple of hours for days in a row, to get the tasks done. I also get someone in to cut my hedges once a year and, on occasion, to dig out big shrubs past their best. In the past I have been very self sufficient - dug my pond, laid slabs, steps, paths etc. so have always been very active.
I find I don't have the energy now to spend a day gardening and tend to do a couple of hours for days in a row, to get the tasks done. I also get someone in to cut my hedges once a year and, on occasion, to dig out big shrubs past their best. In the past I have been very self sufficient - dug my pond, laid slabs, steps, paths etc. so have always been very active.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
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Last year, started having a chap to do the grass (means I don't need to carry lawnmower up and down steps from one part of the garden to the other). He will also dig out large shrubs and do high pruning.
Without him, I would need to sell up and move to a flat. No way!
I use a plastic sledge!
I kid you not. I posted this very morning extolling it's virtues. It may not last forever but it was cheap (for 2) and so far I've moved about half a ton of logs from cutting down point to drying out point and it only took me a few runs!!! Several birch tree seedlings in a giant pot, a giant bendy bucket of soil/compost and as well when you get all your kit down the garden one bit at a time over the day, you can bring it all back in one run!!!!
Marvellous!
I did get a man in for digging big holes and doing heavy work but he's a recent acquisition and that's a whole nuther story...
If you can't manage to get them in a dry place, then investing in a tarpaulin secured by a few bricks to keep them dry.
I have a similar problem to you and slice bags open with a stanley knife and use my hands to scoop the amounts I can cope with into a waterproof bag, dump it in the garden and go back for more at a weight I can manage.
Oh for the days when I single handedly removed a row of 20ft conifers all by myself.
A folding sack trolley like this one https://www.screwfix.com/p/folding-sack-truck-80kg/1209p is very useful for moving large bags around the garden and folds down nice and small. Not so good if you have steps like Joyce though.
I also treated myself to a decent wheelbarrow last year. One with a nice fat pneumatic tyre. Although it's heavier it is so much more stable and easier to push over uneven ground than the old lightweight one I struggled with for 30 years.
For mulching with homemade compost I find it easiest to load several smaller buckets with compost and then put these in the barrow to take them to where I need them. In a border with perennials coming through, mulching using smaller buckets is easier than shovelling from a wheelbarrow.
Heavy tasks like digging and tree pruning I just have to do in short sharp bursts. I find I can spend longer in the garden if I make myself change tasks every 45 minutes so that my back and legs get a change of posture. Have to be strong willed to stick to it though.
For landscaping I employ a landscaper. I've been lucky enough to find an excellent chap in the village. He has all the right equipment and know how. What would take me a year to achieve (probably not very well) with a spade he does properly in a week using diggers and dumpers.
I have already accepted that as the years go by I may also need to start employing people to cut the grass and the hedge. If you can afford to do that I would. If gardening is your main interest it's an investment in both your mental and physical health.
Like others, I'm not on my own but my OH is not interested in gardening and rarely helps much, apart from grass cutting occasionally. The only thing I simply can't do is banging in fence posts with the man killer - I can't lift it above my head - so I have to wait until he feels like helping to get that done and that usually uses up my 'allowance' of his time in a week so everything else I have to do. I'm still building this garden, so there's a lot of heavy work needed. The plot is very steeply sloping and I don't have many paths that I can use a sack truck on. A wheelbarrow is Ok if it's not too heavy, but it has its limits. So I invested in a 'Muck Truck' - a powered wheel barrow - which I use to move big bags of compost, loads of manure, stones for wall building, that sort of thing. They aren't cheap - about £2,000 - but it's been invaluable.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
M-U - you should take out a patent on your sledge idea. PP was obviously won over by it.