Become an adaptive gardener!
Gardening is an activity that most of us do because we want to. We do it because it’s pleasurable, healthy, puts fresh produce on the table, beautifies our environment – and the list goes on.
However, when the breathing gets more difficult or the knees or back give out, many gardeners call it quits, hang up the trowel and retreat to the indoors. Instead, why not become an “adaptive gardener”? Adapt your garden and gardening to accommodate your changing capabilities.
Here are some of the ways senior gardeners are adapting:
- Take Pressure Off Your Knees & Back
Knee and back pain are the most common problems senior gardeners experience. Making the following ideas part of your gardening routine now, regardless of your age can relieve pain, or even prevent it.
Exercise to warm up or cool down. If you’re under a doctor’s care, talk to them before starting. If you belong to a gym, ask the trainers for a regimen.
Wear strap-on knee pads. They’re inexpensive at home and garden centers and won’t impair your maneuverability.
Look into one of the wheeled seating or kneel and sit products. Even better and less costly is a five-gallon bucket. It’s a seat when turned upside down, and it can also double as a tool caddy and debris bucket. When you choose to work kneeling down, it’s a good aid for helping you stand back up.
Use raised beds, elevated planters or containers. Be sure the planting height is comfortable for you to work standing or sitting.
Use lightweight containers and consider buying or planting your plants in nursery pots that can just be slipped into the decorative container.
Lift with your legs, rather than bending over and lifting with your back. Don’t lift any further than your waist in one motion.
Don’t carry heavy objects. Put them in a wheelbarrow (preferably two-wheeled), garden cart or coaster wagon. It’s easier on your back to pull rather than push.
- Breathe Easier
If breathing and temperature sensitivity limit your time in the garden, here are some easy adaptations to consider and they won’t cost you a penny:
Plan your garden work in small blocks and don’t garden beyond your limit. Begin the day with the most strenuous work and move on to progressively easier projects as the day goes on.
Take frequent rest breaks between each work block. Select or make a cool, shady spot in the garden. A shade tree’s ideal but in the absence of one, a patio umbrella and comfortable chair will do.
Stay hydrated! Keep a cooler of water at your rest area and drink during every rest period. Dehydration can cause balance problems, and falling is the last thing you want to do in the garden.
If you can’t stand the heat, garden in the morning before it gets too hot or in the late afternoon or early evening when it’s starting to cool down. If you’re always cold, then the afternoon may be the best time to do your gardening. On oppressively hot days, stay indoors in the air conditioning. Your work will wait for you.
- Dress Garden Comfortable
Many skin problems we senior gardeners are experiencing now got their start in our invincible youth when sunbathing was the thing to do. Today, taking precautions can reduce the number of trips we have to make to the dermatologist and the seriousness of the treatment.
Wear a wide-brimmed hat that will cover the tops of your ears, and the back of your neck and will shade your face. A baseball cap will shade only your face.
Wear loose-fitting, lightweight clothing, preferably covering your limbs.
Slather sunscreen on all exposed skin and reapply every couple of hours.
Wear sunglasses. The sun’s rays can exacerbate age-related macular degeneration and contribute to cataracts. Both conditions should be of concern to senior gardeners.
A cell phone and/or medical alert device should be an accessory for every gardening outfit. You never know when you might fall and have to call family, friends, neighbors or first responders for help.
- New, Lightweight Tools
If your current tools are getting too heavy, too difficult to operate or hard to hold with arthritic fingers, the tool manufacturers have you covered.
Lightweight cutting tools with gear assist are now available. These include pruners, hedge clippers and loppers. Ratchet pruners are even easier to use.
Replace your wood-handled shovels, rakes and hoes with the new lightweight tools with fiberglass handles and lightweight metal blades.
Make long-handled tools easier to grasp with arthritic fingers by installing foam sleeves over the handles. Use pool noodles or pipe insulation. Hint: Pool noodles are colorful and easy to spot if you tend to forget to take tools back to the shed or garage when finished.
- Make Your Garden Accessible
As time takes its toll, you may need a mobility aid like a walker. Incorporating these recommendations into your next garden renovation may save you money and time.
To accommodate a walker or wheelchair, widen your paths to four feet for one-way traffic or seven feet for two-way traffic.
Replace steps with gentle slopes of no more than 5%.
Make your path surfaces smooth using material like flagstone or bluestone set in concrete, and use a distinctive edging material so a person with low vision can feel the edge of the path.
For low vision, install a handrail on each side of the slopes or steps. Start and end it well before the slope or steps.
Distinguish each intersection to help orient people with vision or memory challenges. One way would be to have a plant with a distinctive fragrance at each intersection. You can also use distinctive sounds like wind chimes.
Light your paths, sidewalks, patio edge and pond with stick lamps. Low voltage lights don’t depend on the sun shining as solar lights do. They can also be plugged into a timer.
- Make Gardening Easier
Here are some quick tips for making gardening easier for you:
Use more containers on plant caddies. The only downside: containerized plants have to be watered more often than in-ground plants.
Replace perennials that need to be divided often with shrubs and/or dwarf conifers. (Shrubs may need an annual haircut while dwarf conifers seldom need any pruning.)
Seek help when you need it. Ask family or friends or hire a professional gardener.
Plant your garden naturally rather than formally. It’s easier to maintain.
by Duane Pancoast, author of “The Geriatric Gardener: Adaptive Gardening Advice For Seniors”
This post is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. For the full article, visit https://ngb.org/2022/08/18/become-an-adaptive-gardener-how-to/
