4 Ways To Make Gardening Easy For Seniors

April is National Garden Month and there’s no better time for seniors to start planning their garden for spring and summer. But some seniors who are aging in place might not be able to do the kind of intensive backyard gardening they used to do. Age, medical conditions, and other problems can force seniors to limit how much gardening they do. Or, seniors may need to find alternate ways to garden. Luckily there are plenty of ways that seniors can enjoy the many benefits of gardening if they can’t spend hours on their knees in the dirt in the backyard anymore. Four ways to make gardening easier for seniors are:

Rely on Home Care

Home care is great for seniors that are aging in place because home care provides a wide range of services to seniors. Seniors with home care have help from a professional caregiver with things like cleaning up, doing the dishes, cooking meals, and even doing some outside work like gardening. Seniors who have home care will have someone in the home to help them move plants around, dig holes for planting seeds, arranging the garden, and getting to and from the garden supply center when they need new plants, tools, or soil.

Set Up Container Gardens

Container gardens are fantastic for seniors. They allow seniors to have all the fun of gardening but they are easy to maintain. And seniors can arrange the containers however they like. Seniors who have trouble bending over or getting on the ground to work in the soil can use raised container beds that can be places anywhere outdoors to grow plants, flowers, or vegetables. Then they can garden without having to bend over all the time or get down on the ground. Container gardens also make it easy to keep pests and animals out of the garden beds.

Use Planter Boxes On The Patio

Digging in the dirt planting pretty flowers can be fantastic for a senior’s mental health. But gardening can be physically difficult. Seniors can enjoy the benefits of gardening without the physical pain of gardening by using planter boxes on the patio or the deck to grow flowers. Large planter boxes make it very easy for seniors to create stunning curated gardens full of gorgeous blooms or grow enough tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and other vegetables to provide the entire neighborhood with fresh produce all summer.

Get Professional Help

Seniors who like to putter in the garden but don’t want to do any hard labor can also hire professionals to till the soil and get it ready for planting, clear an area for a garden, help plant the seeds that will become flowers and vegetables, and weed the entire garden once the plants start to grow. Professional gardeners and landscapers can also help seniors create a custom designed garden plan that will make the best use of the sun available in your senior parent’s backyard or wherever they want the garden to be.

References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6977207/

If you are considering home care in Manhattan, NY, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Touching Hearts At Home of NYC today at 516-788-8322.