Re: garden kneeler

[animaux]

Well, I have fibromyalgia, a bad back, and arthritis in my hands, knees and hips as well as chronic tendonitis. The knee things don't help! What does help is moving around a lot. I also bought a few of those kneeling pads, the soft spongy ones, but I found a few which were twice the size of the older versions which were about 9 inches wide. I pile them on top of one another and kneel on them.

Actually, the only thing that works is when I'm finished gardening, I take a swim a hot tub and a nice cup of tea with a few darvons PRN!

Has anyone tried the kneeler for weeding beds? Does it help? I have a bad >back, fibromyalgia and a darned right arm that likes to hurt! Really, does >this help do the gardening?

[TOM KAN PA]

Go to Harbor Freight Tools and get some of the pads that you strap on to your knees.

[Allview]

I try to do all the weeding by bending from the waist. My back doesn't mind that. If I want to be on my knees, the garden kneeler is a godsend. It gives my poor knees a pad and it makes it easy to get up. Otherwise I kind of flop around trying to get my knees to lift me.

Marilyn in Ohio

[Zemedelec]

Yes!!! Wonderful little things. zemedelec

[Chris Owens]

For a while there, when I could still walk, I had trouble getting up and down. My kneeler was INVALUABLE as an assistant in this process. It was also a wonderful, lightweight moveable seat for doing anything that I could get at by being 18" off the ground. Personally, I found it less helpful as an actual kneeler because the inconvenience of having to constantly reposition it as I moved along was less than the value of the padding. For that, a pair of shin guards -- the kind with hard plastic outside and soft padding -- worked much better. The result of this, of course, was that I'd use the kneeler to get down; then find myself pretty far away when I wanted to get back up. My DH was constantly having to bring it to me until I got really good at working in circles. :)

Chris Owens

[Lee]

thought i'd like to have one but after seeing the price tag.... i'm too stingy to buy one. i think that, as others have noted, that it is hard to have to get off of it to move it every few feet or so. what has helped me more than anything.. still have to move it frequently however... is a new 5 gallon paint bucket with a lid. with its lid side up i can sit comfortably on it, pick it up by its bail to move it and use a large walking stick, like a shilali, to help me get up and down. i think the kneeler would be good to help one get up and down probably more than the shilali, as in my case my hands and wrists are in not too great a condition.

i think what i need to do is to learn to use a long handled hoe or scuffling tool to do a lot of the weeding or cultivating rather than having to bend or sit or kneel. lee

[Warren]

You might be too stingy for this, too, but it beats a 5 gallon bucket:

Amen.

Converting to raised beds can help, too.

I'd be so much of a better gardener if the ground wasn't all the way on the ground. ;)

[NewsUser]

I've got a seat that turns over for kneeling. It's fine for sitting, but I haven't tried kneeling on it. My lower back starts hurting when I'm in a sitting position bending over to work so this isn't the best solution for me. Also, one of my knees is awfully fussy and doesn't like to bend at all, much less bear weight, so I've avoided using the overturned chair for kneeling. But, I bought a pair of knee pads at Home Depot that are like kneeling on a cloud! These things were made for construction work, not gardening, and have a hard plastic side lined with some kind of foam that is wonderfully soft yet supportive. I worked on my knees for several hours without any pain!

Karen

[Gloria Lenon]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I did buy a garden kneeler (they were on sale) and this is the one Paul James recommends. The way the legs are formed are good for our soil (soil? did I say soil?, er, mean sand) down here in Florida. Hoeing is not an option because of where the weeds are, so hand-pulling is easier, on me!

[Mister Foldee]

Its shillelagh - not shilali.

- Buckethead

[Lee]

thanks, buckethead.. i knew it was probably wrong when i wrote it but i couldn't think of the other word that would have described it and still can't!!! :) i am geting old and the part of my brain that spells and remembers what i did this morning has ... now ..what were we talking about??? .......oh ! oh! ...cudgel!!!! cudgel!!!! that's was the word i was looking for... but probably not spelled right either!! pleas let me know if it isn't as it is not in my spell checker. thanks again, love... lee...

[Lee]

well, son of a gun, Marilyn... i may have to change my mind on the kneeler.. i had/have? .. a ruptured disk and my doc recommended a surgeon, but i opted for trying to get it to heal naturally and it is doing really well, but gets a bit finnicky if i do too much bending and lifting, like heavy hoeing or lifting bags of cow pooh etc. it is that i have a number of things that i thought would really be great that i don't or can't use any more and didn't want to buy another white elephant. guess i'll have to try finding one in a garage sale..LOL. love...lee