Gardening: You Are Never Too Old To Garden

 If house and yard maintenance have become more than you can handle, you have probably already entertained the idea of moving into a place with a smaller yard.  Love of gardening versus the amount of work involved makes this a big decision, but maybe you can figure out a way to combine the better of two worlds.  Dean Fosdick (Herald, Thursday, July 29, 2010) wrote an article called “You’re never too old to garden,” based on observations and implementations by author Sydney Eddison.  Ms. Eddison is 78 and wrote the book “Gardening for a Lifetime,” and feels that older people can remain active in their gardens as long as they recognize their limitations.

 

Nothing ever stays the same.  Creaky knees and replacement surgeries makes life a little more difficult, but turning your back on all of life’s challenges isn’t the answer either.  Yet something has to give.  The author faced the challenge by figuring out how to keep her big yard and her garden by researching ways to “garden wiser as you grown older.”

 

A few things she has learned and shared include:

 

• Everything doesn’t have to be perfect.  Every dead leaf in the fall doesn’t have to be racked up and bagged.  Dead leaves left under shrubs serve as nature’s mulch.

 

• Thin the perennials:  Perennials are a lot of work and demand more time and energy than the rest of your yard work put together.

 

• Switch to shrubs:  More value and less work and the birds and other wildlife love them.

 

• Shade gardening:  Shade tolerant plants are easier to maintain than sun worshipers.

 

• Miniaturizing your efforts:  Container gardens are nothing to be ashamed of. You can derive much of the same pleasure without the heavy labor involved with in-ground gardening.

 

Gardening and lawn care can be physically and emotionally rewarding.  Ms. Eddison relates a few other ways to overcome the physically taxing chores.

 

• Failing vision?  Use tools with brightly colored handles.
• Fear of falling?  Avoid uneven paving stones or hoses lying across your path.
• Back aches?  Consider ways to grow things vertically so that you don’t have to stoop.  Put things on wheels to avoid having to push and pull.
• Garden closer to your house so you don’t wear yourself just coming and going, and place some garden furniture at intervals so that you can rest, and pace yourself.

 

You don’t have to give up everything as you grow older.  If you have always enjoyed being surrounded by beauty, this is not the time to give up on yourself.  You don’t have to be older to appreciate the concept of streamlining your gardening chores, and her suggestions can be embraced at any age.  I am fascinated by the yards that have been certified as wildlife sanctuaries and think that they would lend themselves to the carefree look.  I have already ordered the book “Gardening for a Lifetime,” and am looking forward implementing some of her ideas about gardening as you grow older.