Whenever I have a flare up of symptoms it tends to make me low. A combination of frustration, painkillers and poor sleep due to worsened pain don’t make for a happy bunny.

It takes me a few days to recover a positive attitude and carry on, and having a hobby or passion about something helps me to get going again.

The fact is that gardening gets me out of bed some days when I’m bad and I need to get out to feel happy again. Music helps too, so blasting my ipod outside is a double whammy!

I’ve come up with the tips below to try to avoid aggravating my joints too much wherever possible.

If you suffer from an arthritic condition and you’re keen to get in the garden, you need to try and pace yourself as much as possible. I hope the tips help!

1. Enlist some help – your partner, a family member or friend or even neighbour might be willing to help you out, you could offer to give them some of your home grown produce in return for the favour.

2. Short bursts are best! If there’s lots to do I try to do it in short bursts of activity rather than spend the full day working outside. It’s better to have short rests, or even a nap inbetween planting up, even if you don’t think you’re really exerting yourself. The few times I’ve slipped with this have taken a long time to recover from so I know what I’m talking about here!

3. Leave it a few days if it’s too much. Most plants will forgive you if you can’t give them everything they want every day. Unless there’s a run of hot sunny days, then you might want to resort to the hose, it’s less effort than a watering can.

4. Plan a low maintenance plot where possible – my ‘cut and come again’ crops are all close planted to prevent weeds taking over and are within close walking distance for me (or OH if I have a really bad day) for both watering and picking. Keep plants requiring more attention nearer and easily accessible.

5. Hanging basket crops – Nice because they don’t require bending down to maintain and slugs can’t reach! My tomato experiment didn’t work so well last year so haven’t bothered this year but strawberries and herbs do very well. I’ve got quite a few strawberry troughs around the walls.

Strawberry grows well with fushia and petunia in hanging baskets