How To Future-Proof Your Garden So You Can Keep Growing Comfortably For Years To Come
Getting older doesn't mean you have to stop gardening! Make a few adjustments now so your garden grows with you.
We are often young when we buy our first homes and have little thought about gardening for seniors. But planning for the future is important especially if you want to age in place. A wildly complicated, heavily maintained yard might not be a good choice for your golden years.
Instead, consider how you can ease your chores and make gardening accessible for all stages of life. Creating gardens for senior citizens is more important and accessible than ever. This may start with purchasing gardening tools for elderly use or creating stable walking spaces.
Considering your future needs now can help your enjoyment and management years down the road.
The Aging Gardener
Gardening has been shown to be very beneficial as we age. The aging gardener should be able to safely access all parts of the landscape. They will require resting sites, special tools, accommodate different abilities, and create a landscape that is enjoyable but not laden with difficult chores. In the United States, the numbers of elderly will represent 20 percent of the overall population by 2030. The numbers are similar in the UK.
This means there are more and more retirees enjoying their homes and living longer than previous generations. The day to day gardening chores may require help. Simple tasks like taking out the garbage can be simplified with well built pathways. Consider switching from a lawn to a lawn alternative to avoid having to do all the mowing and other maintenance a traditional turf creates.
Cast your eye forward and start planning now for a manageable landscape when you are ready to retire.
Benefits Of Gardening
Gardening offers numerous benefits to people at all stages of life. When we are young it is an opportunity to learn and connect with nature. As we age, the benefits are less curricular and more physical and mental.
Gardening reduces stress which can dim the effects of cortisol and help decrease inflammation. It provides exercise and fresh air. Being outdoors provides exposure to Vitamin D and benefits the immune system and science says that dirt makes us happy. Studies have shown the practice also can lower your blood sugar, decrease the risk of dementia, increase heart health, help with weight loss, and boost cognitive processes. When you garden to grow your own food, there are further benefits.
Access to fresh and nutritional food can help make eating a balanced diet more appealing. Seniors often have issues feeling hungry, but harvesting a bounty of goodies from your own plot can help increase appetite.
Changes To Make
- Replacing your turfgrass with a lower-maintenance lawn alternative is just one suggestion to enhance easy gardening for seniors. There are many things you can do in your garden to help transition to an older version of you. Select groundcovers that are low maintenance and suitable for the site and get rid of that sod that must be tended to often.
- Make sure you have ease of access with benches to sit on or handrails for extra stability. These areas should have solar or wired garden lighting to help you safely navigate the areas. These top-rated solar pathway lights from Amazon will help illuminate the night. Our editors love a garden kneeler to help save their knees.
- Creating raised beds is another idea. Higher workspaces to weed or tend your veggies are easier to reach than beds on the ground. You can build your own raised beds or purchase ready-made ones. Our editors love the Vego raised bed system because it is versatile and extremely durable. Vego makes an extra tall raised bed, available on Amazon, to make it even easier to garden.
- Consider investing in adaptive tools that are made for easier use like ergonomic garden tools. Gardening tools for elderly folks can help reduce strain on the back, hands, and other muscles. A garden cart, like this one from Amazon, can help reduce the strain of lugging bags of mulch and one side easily tips up to dump out its contents.
- As you develop your landscape, plan for a simple set up that doesn’t need heavy work to maintain.
- Make sure you have accessible sites to store tools, lawn furniture, and other items. The goal is not only a tidy garden but to reduce debris and items that can cause incidents.
Low-Maintenance Planting
What you put in the garden can be as helpful down the road as purchased items to ease your duties. Install only trees that are low litter. Crape myrtle, Japanese maple, and dogwood are examples of low litter trees that don’t produce a lot of debris. Avoid plants like oak, cranberry, or chestnut.
Install shrubs and hedges that don’t need pruning. Instead of a laurel hedge, use Arborvitae or boxwood. Use flowering plants that don’t require much work like lavender or begonia.
Rely upon living mulches like groundcovers to keep soil cool, prevent weeds, and protect plant roots from cold weather. Creeping thyme and sweet woodruff are easy to manage and useful as beautiful groundcovers.
Hiring Help
As we age our expenses change. Begin budgeting now for the assistance that may be required in the future. For instance, if you opt to keep your lawn, install a timed lawn irrigation system to make watering easier. (There are even lawn mowing robots available these days!) Research lawn care companies and be prepared to need to hire such a business. If the garden already has high litter or maintenance plants, bring in the professionals now to remove these and install better options.
If you lack the skills to build raised beds, either make a simple domed and un-bordered bed or bring in a contractor or gardening professional who has the skills to build a bordered bed.
Using professionals now can help with maintenance later. And when the time comes, use reputable Better Business Bureau-rated companies to help with any chores you can no longer perform.
Other Considerations
Gardening is a physical task and as such it has the potential to cause injury. To reduce harm, always wear sunscreen, sensible shoes, long sleeves and pants, and have good gardening gloves. A sunhat and sunglasses will help with visibility and reduce the chance of sunburn.
As the older gardener works in the yard they should take breaks frequently and make sure they are hydrating adequately. Before going out into the yard it is a good idea to perform some stretching exercises to limber the muscles and help with bending.
Instead of working on one chore for a long time, you can reduce strain by moving to another task after a short period of time. This will minimize the strain on certain muscles and prevent pain afterwards.
Senior gardeners can reap the benefits of working in the yard with some pre-planning, occasional help, and the right tools.
