This time of year there are signs of Spring everywhere. From the green spaces around you to shops selling bulbs and seeds. It’s the time of year when people get excited about planning their gardens or allotments, maybe they are starting seeds, perhaps they are simply cleaning up after the winter, and it all seems so easy. That is unless you have a disability.
What happens when you can’t dig holes for your bulbs because you can’t bend? Can you pull the weeds out anymore? And what about pruning or removing dead shrubs?
One of the first things to do is to identify what it is you’d like to do and find the item most suitable. For example: before my disabilities prevented me bending I would use a trowel to plant bulbs. Now I need a trowel I can use whilst seated so one with a long handle would be ideal. The same for my weeding fork, I now need a long handled one as I can’t get down on my knees anymore, or is there something else that would help something more suitable.
It’s very easy to think that the only place you’re going to find the right tools is on disability website but this simply isn’t true. Whilst searching for a long handled garden cultivator I found a few that would fit the bill. One of them was £67.99 from a well known mobility website, the other was £6.92 from a building merchants. The only difference between them was a handle on the end of the first one. I solved this problem with a drill handle which costs £4.55 from eBay. It still makes it hugely more cost effective. Even more searching found the first, £67.99, cultivator for £27.90.
Find what you want then search for that specific item to find the best price. If that’s still too much, find an alternative on a website not catering for the disabled. My favourite long handled cultivator comes from a local home and DIY store and cost a mere £4.50.
It’s an unfortunate truth that companies will put the word ‘mobility’ in front of a product to push up it’s cost, a cost which most disabled people can no longer afford during this cost of living crisis. Whilst I agree that it can take longer to find what you need, the difference in cost is worth the extra 10 minutes.
Being disabled doesn’t mean you can’t do things, you just have to do them differently.
Bright Blessings, Ellis
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