Hello!

My name is Stanley and I am your Cushie Gardener.  What that means is that I am disabled by Cushing's Disease, a disease which causes an overproduction of a group of hormones called Cortisols which are a form of anaerobic steroids with somewhat similar results to long-term intake of steroids or steroids therapy, such as prednisone therapy which can cause a form of Cushing's Syndrome called Exogenous Cushing's Syndrome.  So I am massively overweight with muscle mass loss, a degenerating back, diabetes, and many other ailments.  this severely limits my ability to do manual work, yet I do garden, but more on that in a moment.

Those are some of the Beefsteak Tomatoes I grew my first season still on the vine in the fall  which brings me to how I became a vegetable gardener in the first place.  As I mentioned in my introduction I'm disabled by Cushing's Disease, something you can learn more about at http://originalzebra.blogspot.com/ if you want to.  Because I do have a medical background because of a short career as an LPN before I became disabled I make myself available on a number of forums for informational help.  One night a bunch of us were up complaining about how little money we had for food after paying the bills on what the government gives us to live on and the fact we just cannot afford quality food such as fresh vegetables for our health when a counsellor who makes herself available online made a suggestion. 

She suggested we grow vegetable gardens within whatever limitations we have to work with in respects to money, physical, and space limitations.  Well, you can imagine how that went over!  But while others were giving their reasons why they couldn't I asked myself why not?  My dad raised me to do that and to be as self-sufficient as I could.  So I went to the front of the house where my housemates had a few packets of vegetable seeds they'd bought a few years before but never planted and grabbed some unused planters and an unused raised bed and the Cushie Gardener was born! 

Peekaboo!  The first pepper this year is in there if you can find it!  hit, it's still green!

That start was three years ago and in that time God has blessed my efforts.  I did research online, made contacts with folks through both Facebook and Youtube who know what they're doing and were glad to hand out advice that works.  The needs I started out with and continue to have are a garden that will produce all the fresh vegetables and fruit I need all year-round and within both my physical and monetary constraints.  So the garden needs minimal care,  It must be low in cost on both long and short terms, and nutrient dense and healthy.  That is one tall order!  But i now have more than faith in the fact it can be done and I'm going to share how with everybody in hopes I can inspire others like myself to get out and do what they can to provide what the Government won't.  It doesn't owe us, so we owe it to ourselves.  I'll even show you how the government actually encourages folks to grow their own vegetables, though it isn't exactly widely advertised

So please join me on this journey with both this blog and the youtube channel I plan to start so you can help yourself, or get into gardening for yourself whether disabled or not and here's to blessings in your own garden!