These tips help aging gardeners keep up their hobby
Dear Savvy Senior: What gardening tips can you offer to older seniors? — Older Gardner
Dear Older: There’s no doubt that gardening can be hard on an aging body. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up your hobby. You just need to garden differently, add some special tools and know your limits. Here are some tips that may help you.
● Limber up: With gardening, good form is important, as well as not overdoing any one activity. A common problem is gardeners often kneel or squat, putting extra pressure on their knees. Then, to spare their knees, they might stand and bend over for long stretches to weed, dig and plant, straining their back and spine.
To help protect your body, you need to warm up before beginning. Start by stretching, focusing on the legs and lower back. And keep changing positions and activities. Don’t spend hours weeding a flowerbed. After 15 minutes of weeding, you should stand up, stretch, and switch to another activity like pruning the bushes or just take a break.
It’s also important that you recognize your physical limitations and don’t try to do too much at once. And, when lifting heavier objects, remember to use your legs to preserve your back. You can do this by keeping the item close to your body and squatting to keep your back as vertical as possible.
● Get better tools: The right gardening equipment can help, too. Kneeling pads can protect knees, and garden seats or stools are both back and knee savers. Lightweight garden carts can make hauling heavy objects much easier. And long-handled gardening and weeding tools can help ease the strain on the back by keeping you in a standing upright position versus bent over. There are also ergonomic gardening and pruning tools with fatter handles and other design features that can make lawn and garden activities a little easier. Fiskars and Felco make a number of specialty tools that you can buy. Also check out Gardeners.com and RadiusGarden. com, two online stores that sell specialized gardening tools and equipment helpful to older gardeners.
● Make watering easier: The chore of carrying water or handling a heavy, awkward hose can also be difficult for older gardeners. Some helpful options include lightweight fabric or expandable hoses instead of heavy rubber hoses; soaker or drip hoses that can be snaked throughout the garden; thin coil hoses that can be used on the patio or small areas; a hose caddy and reel for easier hose transport around the yard; and a self-winding hose chest that puts the hose up automatically. There are also a variety of ergonomic watering wands that are lightweight, easy to grip, and reach those hard to-get-to plants. To find these types of watering aids, check with your local lawn and garden supplies stores or go to Gardeners.com.
● Bring the garden to you: If your backyard garden has become too much to handle, you should consider elevated garden beds or container gardening — using big pots, window boxes, hanging baskets, barrels or tub planters. This is a much easier way to garden because it eliminates much of the strain.
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