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Julie allotment
With a new allotment to tend alongside macular degeneration, Julie has been learning ways to make gardening easier. She shares her story and tips.

Gardening has been part of Julie’s life for a long time. A move from Sydenham in London to the Orkney Isles some years ago opened a new world of windswept gardening opportunities.

“We have lots of gales here,” says Julie. “When people first come here from further south to live, they put up polytunnels and greenhouses. These are usually blown away within a couple of years!”

Her love of plants is a joy she likes to share with others.

“I put small plants outside my front door for folk to pick up as they pass,” says Julie. “In return they put donations through my letterbox for charity. They don't all sell and by the end of summer some get quite big. I pass these on to our local women's refuge or to Orkney's new 8-acre community park.”

A new diagnosis

Around six years ago, Julie received a diagnosis of macular degeneration. This is a progressive condition that creates distortion or loss of vision.

“During the past year, I've lost the central vision in one eye,” says Julie. “I find it hard to read or see faces. I hope the other eye will hold out. Meanwhile I am using whatever assistive technology I can.”

Julie’s diagnosis has not stopped her continuing to grow and learn in the garden.

In the last year, she acquired an allotment. She is now finding new ways to work in this space and discover what best to grow.

She has also recently joined Thrive’s free Gardening Club, having been aware of Thrive for decades. “I always meant to go to Battersea to see your garden when I was living in London,” she adds.

Julie garden
Part of Julie's garden

Julie shares some of her allotment and garden tips:

  • Firstly, don't be too ambitious. If you have poor eyesight, it can be tricky to deal with pests such as caterpillars or their eggs on cabbages. Our allotments are full of cabbage white butterflies. I can see them, but not their greedy offspring!
  • I've concentrated on bug-free veggies that are easy to grow and deal with in the kitchen. Leeks instead of onions for example. I've found celery and courgettes easy, but both need a lot of water. That’s never a problem up here in Orkney!
  • Courgettes are good as they come in different colours - yellow or black as well as green.
  • I find mangetout peas easier to deal with in the kitchen than the usual sort that you have to shuck. Different coloured ones might be easier to see.
  • I prefer fruit to vegetables. I’ve planted gooseberries and currants with red fruit as the contrast should makes them easy to pick.
  • Rhubarb is easy to grow. It’s not that popular, but it’s easy to prepare and turn into rhubarb crumble or rhubarb chutney.
  • You can buy bright orange, fluorescent fabric tape to pin into the ground and then sow your seeds along it. I'm not very good with seeds. I’ve resorted to buying plug plants instead.
  • To help me get around the allotment, I have made several small plots and edged them with pallet timber nailed to stakes. As my macular degeneration worsens, I will be able to feel the paths as well as see them.
  • I've just planted up a flower border in my garden. Some of the perennials, like michaelmas daisy and monkshood, tend to spread. I've cut the bottoms out of some large buckets and containers, dug them into the soil and planted these tricky spreading plants in them. Hopefully it will save me a lot of digging up stuff in the autumn!
  • I look for items I can reuse in the garden or allotment. I recently found a discarded black plastic dustbin. I’ve now turned it into a rhubarb forcing cover!
  • Fluorescent orange one-sided sticky tape is useful for marking your tool handles. This way you can see where they are. It’s also good for wrapping around the tops of canes/stakes so you don't poke your eyes out.

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