Is arthritis causing you food security anxiety?

What if I can’t feed myself? My family? My community?

These are realities most in this generation have never experienced.  But lately, pandemics, shortages, and world events, all contribute to feelings of panic.

In the last few years, going to our jobs to produce money for food and going to stores to spend money on food has been enough to produce anxiety at the risk of being exposed to danger.

Our mental wellbeing is taking a hit from all sides.

For Gardeners the answer’s right in our yards

Grow our own food.  It comes naturally.  It puts us in control of the situation and reduces anxiety.

Throughout history the most important task of homesteading was food production. The seeds used to start new lives in new lands were carefully preserved and transported until they could be planted to provide food security for new communities. 

But what if you don’t have an established vegetable garden? Or what if food security means you need to be growing a lot more food than you have in the past?

What if things get serious?

For Gardeners with arthritis this causes anxiety

What does arthritis have to do with this anxiety?

 Imagine if you are limited physically in your ability to create new garden beds.

Then you have the combined anxiety of, I need food security, but I’m not able to do the work required.

I follow several “survival garden” social media accounts, mainly because I find them full of information about how to produce a lot of food and preserve it.

But most of these people are younger, stronger, and are doing tasks that I’m not able to do.

How do I find a tool that lets me reduce this anxiety of what ifs?

I need to ramp up my food production, but I need it to be easy and accessible. 

I can’t install grow tunnels and till up large plots.

I’m physically unable to tend to rows of plants growing on the ground.

It’s not feasible for me to move large pots around.

I need a way grow tons of food year-round that doesn’t require lifting, bending or moving equipment.

I need it to be sustainable year after year. I can’t haul in tons of compost or yards of soil every season.

I need a Food Security Garden

I’ve decided I’m going on a journey to discover the best means of producing the most food I can in a limited space with limited physical abilities.

I’ll trial a combination of preformed raised bed gardens, fabric grow bags, wicking tubs (SIP’s) and regular grow tubs.

I’ll dedicate about a 16X20 portion of my yard to my security garden.

The things I’ll look for are:

• Easy to assemble
• Can put anywhere on my property
• Raised high enough to limit bending
• Easy to cover in winter to grow food year-round
• Easy to water
• Multiple affordable components so I can add to my food security garden each year
• High quality materials that will last for years
• Sustainability

Hopefully I’ll never need it, but maintaining a food production garden massively reduces my anxiety about world events.

I’ll start small with the idea of adding on each year as I discover what works best.

Follow me to see updates on this project and start your own food security garden.  Let’s show what we can do despite arthritis.

There are so many circumstances in this world we can’t control. Let’s make food production one we can.