Once I get attached to a pair of jeans for the garden, I just go ahead and reinforce the knees. First a patch on the inside and once I have that properly broken in, a patch on the outside (imitating the reinforcd jeans I used to buy for my son when he was a little boy). You can use iron-on....I usually zigzag. My MIL makes fancy calico "decorator" patches for my "good" jeans which get holed in a surprising number of ways. Some of my clients have less than clean surroundings and I can end up crawling around trying to track down cables or open computers or just figure out if the dang things are plugged in appropriately. You'd be astonished at how often I end up with holes in my jeans AND my knees.

I know what you mean! I am cutting grass in the pine thicket & removing diseased pines. My son will use the small tree in a bonfire for graduation party. Well he is cutting most of the grass & we are mulching between the beds, about 4-6 inches deep. I have no rock, wish I had that problem, but the ground is softer with the dry & green clippings on it. When they dry out, I may compost them, but for now they are great weed control.

got it :-) Lucy

babylou, I can't speak from experience, but my wife has one replaced knee, and here is her take on the matter. Pat says she can get down on her knees and work for short periods of time. She has to get down using the good knee, then kneel on a foam pad while working (she can sift weight to the good knee from time to time if necessary). Getting up is the problem, and the good knee plays a vital part in that exercise. With both knees replaced, she says it would be extremely difficult at best. HOWEVER....... comma.....there are low stools available on the market that we see lots of folks using. We drove by a friends house and saw him working in his Iris beds, sitting on a stool. Pat commented that it was the first time she had seen him using the stool. We both suspect that although it might not be as up close and personal to the job at hand, it sure beats not being able to dig in the dirt at all. I think I would opt for the awkwardness of a stool instead of living with the pain of bad knees, and having to give up the gardening you love. Just being in pain all the time would make me not want to go outside to do anything, and if the replacements can reduce/eliminate the pain, then surely you will feel more like going outside and wrestling with the stool. Don't let this thing get you down.... Bill