I wanted to share a couple pics of Jamie's garden. Jamie is a C5 quadriplegic. He has little use of his arms but no use of his hands. If he bends his wrists a certain way, his hands fold up to allow him to grip objects. This raised bed was built last summer so this is his first year gardening (since being in the chair).
His onions and radishes have sprouted. He's also growing carrots, cucumbers and unsure yet what else he wants to put in there. Ignore the beer bottles. Yes, he's paralyzed but he's still a typical guy who loves his beer, sports and women!







And here's Jamie...shh...don't tell him I posted his pic.

Most excellant!!!!
Thank~You Christina!!!
& Jamie too!!!

That is an awesome garden!!!
& he's even got onions...
(I am havin' a hard time with mine to sprout..)

Does he have a fence or trellis for the cukes'?
They'll take up alot of space if he doesn't get one in....

And P/S I won't tell him you posted his picture, but if he finds out,
you can tell him I only looked at the garden.. *

Hi Weezie,
Yes, he has a trellis for the cucumbers.
I sure am proud of him! He's been doing a lot of smiling lately! He gets so down about all the things he can't do anymore (and rightly so!) but he forgets that there's still sooo many things he CAN do! He's always loved gardening...so now it's his turn again. He won't let me touch his garden. Good for him! That's my man! He owns my heart!

That I soo terrific Cristina!!
what a great raised garden! !
I can't grow any veggies .. some how I kill them!! ... sounds like he has a great green thumb!

I was going to ask how it is coming!

I wish he had about 5 of those gardens...
We'd have him doin' allllll sorts of goodies
out there..
That IS Greatttttttttt news...

Maybe we can get him into some flowers..
*so he can pick his bride some flowers everyday..*


And where he has his garden, there is like a side of a garage????
He could get those hanging bags, and grow strawberries in them..
And he can even do those hanging tomatoes like Angleblossom did, that would put the tomatoes right at pickin' level...
Did you see her post on them? *If not, I'll find it and post it so you can see how she did it, she did a great tutorial on it as she did it, complete with awesome pictures...*

Christina!! I just saw this.. This is Fantastic!!
Good for him not wanting any help I also won't tell about his pic SHHHHHH! I was looking how the raised bed was made .. Thats wonderful!
Oh okay I admit it I looked at that beauty of a boat too (Fishing Time)!!

Okay..here's some recent pics. The first two are of his entire garden...the last one is his carrots, which are clearly sprouting inbetween his radishes...and no..mine still haven't sprouted. I love the boat too!! Unfortunately, it belongs to his dad. We use to go out on it all the time before his accident but haven't been out since. We just fish offshore now..which is still great!! Though, we haven't caught a thing yet this year!!
I think this year has been Jamie's best year since his accident!! He seems more alive and more happy everyday! So great to see!

Christina

His garden is wayyyyyyyy farther along than mine his... hmmmmmfff!!!

Okay, what are those things under those big
tall clear things in the back, a nosey gardener wants to knowwwwww!!!

Great job Jamie, what else are you planting????

Man, I'd love him to have about 16 more of those gardens and fill them fullllllll!!!
Okay, maybe only 10 more for right now..

I just went back and looked,
and then remembered...
CUKE'S right?????
And he's got the trellis thingie
there for them to crawl up on right????

Um..it's wayyyyyy farther along than mine too!
Under the pails, he has a hungarian yellow pepper and a jalapeno pepper. He just put his cuc seeds in..and that's all he's growing. Maybe next year, he will add another bed. (which means more competition )
He's certainly enjoying this!

Shots weezie!

Peppers under the plastic pails. He felt they needed to be covered today because of the wind..and I'm not gonna' argue with him. (I didn't cover mine.)

Tell him that the seedlings need to be exposed to the wind,
especially now, as they are young..
They need to develope "wind~roots"...
As a plant grows it needs to sway back and forth with the wind and have something in the root system to keep them from blowing over..
The plant soon developes those roots and learns to stablize and strengthen those roots as the plant gets bigger and more wind blows on it...

If you don't let it sway, it will think it won't have to make those roots, then all of a sudden when you uncover it, and it's got a large amount of growth on the top the plant will be like tryin' to hold back a kite with a piece of weak silly string, so to speak....

That's in the process when growing seedlings and a person "hardens them off", in the green house growing, they need a fan blowing on them..
In the house they need to be blown on with your mouth..

Oh you don't have to tell me. I have a fan blowing on mine constantly in the house..but like I said, I'm not gonna' argue with him..he claims he knows what he's doing and so far so good.
I'll read him what you wrote, maybe he'll listen to you.

Hey looking great! Everything is getting so lush and green now.
Great job Jamie and Christina!

looks good!

Jamie had an excellent day yesterday. He celebrated his 34th birthday. Just had a few buddies over for beer and pizza, was a good time!

This was his garden yesterday:



Here's his cucumbers coming up just fine. He's decided to keep 3 of the plants:



He also put in one tomato plant in a seperate bed:



Here's some of his radishes that we picked yesterday...they're long gone...yummy!!



Here's Jamie with 2 of his buddies. Randy is sitting in Jamie's new wheelchair..trying to figure it out...doesn't look like either of them know what they're doing. They decided to play bumper cars in them instead. Men!! This shows a good shot of Jamie's hands. They're fixed in that curled position..he can't move them but if he moves his wrists a certain way, he's able to grip and release objects.



I apologize for all the pics for those who have dialup.

Those tomatoes and radishes look GREAT!!!

The cukes look good too...
Look at the one, all the other leaves are opposite, and that one is side~by~side...
hmmmmmmmm!!!

Can't give you any comments on how the guys look,
I'm happily married...

christinia,

jamie

Arent you 2 the ultimate? Wonderful, and especially like the smile .. he seems happy with it all.

dodge

Yes, I see it now...I never noticed before. That is interesting. Wonder why its like that?

I'll show Jamie, he hasn't noticed either.

Might be just a fluke..
Mother nature has those everyyyy once in a while..
But doesn't make it a bad guy....
I was just out planting more cukes..
*we are cuke pigs' here*
and planted my mother's burpless one's too,
right by her house, she doesn't like going all
the way to the garden now, so I plant some right it in the back of her house now..


**********Take a peak at this I found**********
3 compartment tomato patio planter on wheels..
I realllllllllly wish Jamie's dad would build him something like this,
wouldn't this be neat???
I think if I were to make one, I'd extend those
wood pieces that are in each corner on the end and the two in the middle, straight up about 3, 4 5 feet.. and then make it so you could strengthen it by adding another cross bar wood piece on top,
and would make a great built in support for the tomatoes..
*what I wouldn't give for a piece of paper* UGH!

looks good

Wow Christina!! The Radishes looked Scrumpcious!

He's really doing a terrific job and out doing some of us! Life has a way of closing doors with no reentry to opening new doors of passion and excitement one would never dream of existing in their life,, doesn't it?
Thanks soo much for sharing the pics , His pals on his birthday .. bumber cars LOL yep typical men !!
Weezie you find the neatest thing,,, a patio-planter on wheels!! what a marvelous thing,, I invisioned what you were saying about support for the tomatoes or even place some latttice or heavy gauge chicken wire for vining veggies maybe on one side or end to have it half canopy over it or around it,, coooooool idea!! That would be great for anyone that had ground space issues,, Merme may want to get a look at that too,, it would be wonderful if someone would build that for her as well!...

Great garden. Tell Jamie I'm jealous of his radishes(the grubs got mine). I can't think of a better way to spend a birthday then with good friends with a little beer and pizza on the side, well maybe a lot of beer with pizza on the side.

Okay, how about this for Jamie's dad to make tooooooooooo!!!
Strawberry Tower......

Jamie's garden looks great and i have a craving for some radishes now too!!
Great job

Jamie's garden is doing wonderfully!!

Here's an overhead shot.



Here's the one half of the garden. You can see spanish onions, beans, carrots, cauliflower, green onions (which need to be pulled to make room for the cauliflower), lettuce and peppers.



Here's the other half of the garden where you can see his cucumbers doing wonderfully!



Here's his tomato plant looking great as well.



And here's another of Jamie the gardener.



I think he's doing a great job and he sure is enjoying it!

That garden is way ahead and looking better
than mine, that is for sure......

I think he's doing an awesome job...

(**Did you take a peak at those two things I posted,
I really think those would be very cool
additions to his garden...**

Yes, I did look at them Weezie. Thank-you for posting them!! I'd love the tomato planter for myself!! And the strawberry tower is great. Jamie loves them both. His parents have an RV and travel a lot throughout the summer so that gives Jamie lots of time to plan the project for when his dad is settled back home.

I will definately be on the look out for more..
There is a table top garden *on saw horse benches* Merme and I were talking about..
I'll have to see if we can find a picture of it yet?

I am truely excited for him...
I sincerely hope he can get those two things built and have some more fun...

I'm truely enjoying seeing him get into gardening..

Oh H#LL YEAH, I'd like those tomato containers for my mother in the worst way..
She'd go bonkers over them...

Alright Jamie!! what a difference from the last time I checked in on the garden!!
Veggies looking very good !!!!!



Have the green onions been pulled yet??Lettuce carrots. tomatos, cucumbers
There's practically a Chef's salad in there!
Now that will be some gooood eat'in!

Christina,
Tell Jamie that his garden is great!! I am sure your are proud of him. Not many people push themselves to overcome their handicaps. God gave each of us special gifts, and gardening is Jamie's.

Ironside

Thank-you Ironside...I read Jamie exactly what you wrote..very kind of you!

Jamie's garden is looking unbelievable! I'll have to get pics of it today. His cucumber plants are just loaded with cucumbers!! Everything is so green and so healthy! I did get a picture of his tomato plant. Jamie tried to get a pic of me beside it to show that it's taller than I am (which is only a little over 5ft) but he was having a hard time yesterday with his hands and he just couldn't hold the camera well enough to take the picture so I got one of him beside it. I'll be sure to get more pics today of everything else..for how...here he is! (And yes..his plant is much larger than all of mine! )

He's done a great job Christina
Well done Jamie!!

Why thank-you Penny. You know what Jamie does with all his vegetables?? Waters when needed...that's it!! I've got to post pics of his garden compared to my garden, his looks so much more healthy and he does nothing....just waters...
Lesson learned....don't fuss...let mother nature do her work!

Wow Christina, you tell him he must have the magic touch! It looks fantastic!

I will have to remember that one...let mother nature do her thing.
Tell him it looks great

I just can't get over Jamie's cucumbers!! I have no idea what we're going to do with all of them. We're not big pickle eaters...love them...but both try to avoid salty foods. I suppose I could pickle them and give them away. Everything else in Jamie's garden is doing woderfully! The pic of the tomato plant really doesn't show how tall it really is. It's a good 6 feet tall now...perhaps taller...and just covered with tomatoes! He also pulled a carrot yesterday...not quite ready but he just wanted to see these "Purple Haze Carrots". We sat there like a rabbit and chomped away on it. Was tasty!!

Oh bummer...just went to pull up Photobucket and it's down for maintenance. Will post pics as soon is Photobucket is up and running.

Sounds like he really enjoys his garden and it looks like it enjoys him too.
I have seen the "purple haze carrots", arent they just the strangest looking things.
As for all the cucumbers...what about neighbors who may want them?
Tell him fantastic job!

Jamie is doing a splendid job. Wish my maters looked as good.

As for the excess vegetables, you could freeze some, give some to the neighbors, or even to your convenience store clerk. Last week, I took some cukes and squash to the guy who runs our dump site. He was tickled to get them...

Dianna

Good ideas Penny and Dixie. I have 24 tomato plants in my garden (amongst tons of various peppers and other vegetables.) We have no problem eating up everything! But with cucumbers, unless you pickle...I mean..we can only eat so many salads and sandwiches using cucmbers. I will give some to neighbours and family...may even pickle??? Hey..I can send some to you!!

Here's the pics:

His garden:


His cucumbers:


His tomato:


And here's the fist picked carrot (we were hasty but just wanted to see...and taste!!)

That garden is gorgeous!!!
*way better than mine is lookin' right now..*

I salute you Jamie...
*insert saluting gremalin...*

You've done AWESOME,
and I really hope you can get those couple of things made up to incorporate into your garden and can not wait until next years crop...

How many more ideas can you handle??
I have one or two more, I will post when I hunt then down for you...

Whoa!!!!!!..... Everything grew so fast!
Wow! That box is full of yummy veggies!
Great Job! Loveing the progress Indeed!!

Tell Jamie I'm coming over tonight to pick all of that stuff while you're both in bed! Looks great--everything looks so healthy.

know when some one tells me I have a green thumb I'll just have to say na-ah > Jamie does!


Excellent! Jamie

Do you know what type of tomatos he planted Christina? I have the beef steak ones and there are lots of flowers, still no tomatos, i know the cherry ones grow alot quicker, so i was wondering what kind Jamie has?
Maybe i can apply his technique to mine!!

I love his garden I can't take my eyes off of how healthy and beatiful his garden is. Please tell him i said so. Thank you Christine for the pictures.

Thank-you so much for all the compliments. I pass them all along to Jamie..he blushes.

Hi Penny. Jamie's tomato plant is a big beef. Very large plants with lots of "beefy" tomatoes. Big Beef is a beefsteak variety. Yummy stuff!!

Thanks Christina...i have the same.. the beef steak ones and i have tons of flowers but no tomatoes..i was told it all depends on when they were planted and because they produce a bigger tomatoe, they take longer.
His do look great though!!

Jamie and I noticed a couple of his tomatoes look as though something was munching away on them. Well...we found out why! Meet "Tommy" the tomato worm.



After getting rid of "Tommy", we found two babies. We'll definitely be keepin' a good eye out for any more! Hard buggers to find! And gross! They give me the heebie jeebies!!

Tommy looks well fed doesnt he

Knock on wood
*insert me knockin' on my head*

I don't have any of those bad~boy Tommies' here..

Wheewwwwwwwwww!!!

Jamie's sunflower..not near as tall as Michael's but still tall! Lil' shy of 12 feet and still growing!



BTW..we found 2 more tomato worms. Icky!!

That is awesome Christina

Holy Schmoly!!!
That's tall...

*I was thinkin' of you yesterday...
I was standing with my brother from Oregon,
and was looking at my sunflowers, and *I haven't been out there in days, doing anything cause I was next door cleaning up for his arrival* and I saw a double sunflower, just like the one you posted... I will have to take a picture and hunt down your post to your double sunflower and post it there...*

Next year for a bonus idea... if you do sunflowers just like that.. plant sweet peas or morning glories going up the stems..
You've got them spaced just right that if you have smaller vines like those growin up it,
it'll look reallllllllly cool...
The regular garden peas can be grown up them too, and will give extra nitrogen to the sunflower.....

WOOOOWSEEEEE!! Those Sunflowers are awesome!

WOW....Well done Jamie!!

Checking in to see if there is any updates on Jamie's garden?
Looks good!

Jamie's garden started out fantastic this year but then he had a couple upsets. His cucumbers got a disease and died. He still managed to get a good dozen cukes off them and there's still a couple left to be picked but it sure didn't take long before they looked like this:



He still hasn't picked any peppers but it won't be long now:





His cauliflower is going strong and has it clothespinned shut in order to blanch:



His tomato plant has done wonderfully even with the hornworm problem he had about a month ago. Here's just a few out of his MANY picked and the plant is still LOADED with more! The variety is Big Beef:



His tomatoes look fantastic but to be honest, the flavour is NOTHING like the ones I'm growing. He's a bit disappointed with them and said he'll be growing a different variety next year.

He's picked a ton of beans and they're in the freezer ready for many meals to come. His spanish onions are almost ready to be picked and dried. He sure has enjoyed the season and has MANY new and improved ideas for next year!

Wow Christina, I'll take a few peppers please!! Everything looks great....

What type of toms are you growing that taste so good????

And I'm sorry the cukes got a disease....that's too bad. Tell Jamie way to go!!!! He should sign up with his own account on here and come chat with us all.

Those tomatoes look absolutely great...
*peppers too*
Did you make salsa???

Those cukes look like mine..
**Did you have any cucumber beetles this year?
Yellow bugs w/ either black stripes or circles on them?**

Looks amazing...well done Jamie!

Weezie..we're certain the plant developed bacterial wilt. I know wilt can be caused by cucumber beetles but not in this case..as we found no bugs.

Thank-you for the compliments Penny!

Christina...Jamie's plants look great!!!!

Wow, Nice garden! Well Done Jamie!!

Jamie and I thought we'd dig to see if he had potatoes yet. Neither one of us are familiar with growing potatoes and I dug and dug and dug and only found one! Maybe I have to dig deeper? He seems confident that there has to be more potatoes in there! I'll try again later.

Here's his potatoe:



Then Willy got a hold of it:



Then Willy ate it!



Jamie didn't seem to mind, he's still smilin'!

Question?????

When you grew your potatoes',
did you put it in a great big well in the ground,
and as the potato grew green leaves upward, did you then throw more dirt on top, and do that step repeatedly???

That's how you grow potatoes, as they grow green upward, they then will send out shoots like underground sideways, and make the potatoes, then you just keep throwing dirt on top, and it does that consectutively..

But that sure was one nice lookin' potato though!
Perfect size and shape and color!!!

Hi Weezie

Jamie planted his potatoe at a depth about 10 inches. When the plant grew to be a foot tall, he covered it with dirt up 'til about 5 inches and continued to repeat that as the plant grew.
Should I just keep diggin' for more potatoes? I was a bit hesitant with my digging as I didn't wanna' "ruin" his good thing happening.

Yep, I'd keep diggin'...
Just to see anyways..
If you did all that,
there should be, theoretically,
more in there...

Of course, if you don't find them all,
they'll just sprout next year on you again!!!

Thanks Weezie!

And by the way:

Willy told me to tell you that it also tasted great!

Thanks Christina for the update

How's Jamie's garden doing these days Christina??
Allllllll wrapped up for the winter?

And what has he got planned for this coming next season???

Hi, Jamie and Christina ! I'm back !