Vertical gardening

[MKG]

No, not the plants - me.
As my joints have deteriorated (that's hard for one so young as me) (???!!?) my garden activities have had to change. I can still get the apples, pears, plums and damsons from the orchard because they're in the general direction of UP. I can no longer get the lettuces, spuds, cabbages - that kind of thing - from the garden because they're in the general direction of (this is going to surprise you) DOWN. I have a decent quantity of rhubarbs which, although they're DOWN, can be pulled with only a slight bow in their direction. I have all the winemaking ingredients I can handle, thank you very much, although I'll miss the elderberry and sloe expeditions.
The garden has been adjusted to suit. But now I have two greenhouses (unheated) to take into account. They're not huge - I have a little one (don't giggle) and a big one (same applies). For the past two years, they've been mainly occupied by chillis, but it's becoming apparent that I can easily produce more chillis than even a chilli maniac could use (my freezer has a lot of chillis in it). Being a hater of wasted space and having become totally saturated with tomatoes, I've tried other things to prevent TCO (Total Chilli Overload). I've grown melons - very successful and extremely tasty but they all ripened at the same time - and no, melons are very difficult to turn into a wine worth drinking. I've grown aubergines, but I'm afraid I had to award them the top prize in the Most Boring category. I've been banned from growing "not more bloody" tomatoes (sorry, Odsox).
What shall I grow? The design spec. says "tasty, useful, non-glutting and no you will not make even more wine!!".
HELP!!

[Green Aura]

A couple of lemon trees and a grapevine (purely for eating purposes obviously ) for starters. Ginger, turmeric and some lemongrass (they're to go with the chillies). Raised bed for year round salad leaves.

A butternut squash, growing up a frame - and I wouldn't give entirely on the melons - they make fantastic sorbet, or frozen in slices make splendid lollies (skin on for holding). Maybe there are varieties that aren't aimed at commercial growers and ripen in succession.

[ina]

Climbing french beans and cucumber also grow nicely upwards, and in the greenhouse in our climate...

[Flo]

Runner beans grow up. Try http://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html for Telephone Peas which are climbers and I've heard good words of those. You can try French beans, climbing varieties – try ‘Cherokee trail of tears’ also from Real Seeds which I've heard good words about. You could also do a search through the Real Seeds Catalogue for their Trombino courgette seeds - these are apparently good climbers.

[Odsox]

All good replies, but am I missing the point?
If you can't bend or kneel, then how are you going to sow or plant these fruit and veg plants, as well as train them upwards until they are at an appropriate height?

I would suggest that (depending on your greenhouse(s)) that you make a permanent staging all the way round and grow things at waist height, rather similar to my big greenhouse. Ignore the hydro tubes, the bit in between is what I alluding to. http://selfsufficientish.com/forum/view ... ilit=hydro
Then get or make enough troughs to fill the space and away you go. Take the troughs/containers into account when building the staging, i.e. staging height = waist height minus container depth, so that container surface is at waist height

Things to grow, strawberries (bare rooted available now), dwarf French beans, carrots, spring onions, lettuces, dwarf runner beans (needs bees), dwarf peas (although not very productive), radishes, celery, cucumbers, Sutton broad beans (needs bees), broccoli & cauliflower (during winter/spring) and certain dwarfish varieties of peppers and tomatoes.
All of those I have successfully grown myself over the last few years, in containers at waist height.

Plus you still have the beds underneath to plant other stuff if you can get occasional help.

It's a bugger getting old, isn't it?

[ina]

It's a bugger getting old, isn't it?

Don't I know it...

However - I think there will always be a certain amount of bending etc be involved in establishing whatever crop you grow. even if it is at waist height, like strawberries... I like my raised beds; certainly make life easier.

[Jansman]

Its a good point about using staging.I have made similar to go over my row of compost bins.On this I grow all sorts in containers and therevis no bending and such.In Spring I shall expand on this as it increases my growing area.

[Weedo]

Have a look at this site for ideas - I did, briefly, look at doing something like this in another time and space (big city flat balcony)
[url][https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/60094976248100251//url]

[MKG]

I should have been more specific. I CAN kneel down - but I can't get back up again, so If I'm by myself it would be a stupid thing to do. I can also bend a bit, but it's pot luck - half of the time my back cramps and locks and, believe me, that makes me say "Golly Gosh, that smarts a little". Something like that, anyway.
Beans are taken care of - they're in very large pots just outside the house. I was worried that they wouldn't crop well, but they happily produce beans to the point of saturation, as all bean crops should.
I have a greenhouse and a half of staging, but I simply cannot help looking at the space beneath them and making impossible plans. I think I need a motorised staging system which brings any one of four growing surfaces to the top at the push of a button. I'm thinking of calling the system the Porcine Aviator.
Thanks for the Real Seeds tip, Flo - but I already use them. Their jalapeno claims are perfectly true - you CAN produce fully reddened jalapenos in the UK, and I have loads in the freezer to prove it. I save the seed - it comes up absolutely true, but then no one else anywhere near me grows chillis.
I hadn't thought of ginger and turmeric - but I am now, thanks to whotsername up in the frozen north.
I think I know what the problem is - it's the thought of expanding lawns rather than using the land a bit more productively. It strikes despair into my heart - not really because of the lost growing opportunities but because it means more bloody mowing.
Still - beggars and choosers, you know.

[Thomzo]

MKG don’t lose heart and turn the garden into lawn. There must be another way. Is there any possibility of swapping spare fruit for vegetables? That way you could plant more tall fruits but still get vegetables. Also, what about raised planting outside? Search on Pinterest for pallet planters for salads, potatoes in pots, carrots in plastic boxes etc.

Also, give up gluten now. There’s a proven link between eating gluten and getting arthritis.

[MKG]

Hi Thomzo - nice to talk to you again.
Don't worry - I'm just having a general moan. My knees and back have done pretty well but they're getting on a bit now, so it's more a man-moan than anything else. I did toy with the idea, last night, of getting sunken paths dug and it took a while to realise what idiocy that was. I blame the homebrew which, thankfully, I can still make at waist height and drink at mouth height. When I can't do the last bit, I'll know it's time for the scrapheap.