With the arrival of spring, millions of Americans are digging out their spades and hand rakes in preparation for gardening season. Gardening is helpful to everyone, but it is especially useful to elders. Gardening is one of the finest low-impact hobbies for seniors, especially those with mild physical restrictions, cognitive impairments, or who require various sorts of senior care, because it provides a range of physiological and emotional advantages.
In this post, we will discuss several gardening safety tips for your aging parents.
Raised Garden Beds
Make raised beds to help with drainage and harvesting. If required, lightweight plastic landscaping timbers can be piled to construct raised beds at waist or wheelchair height. This reduces bending and straining, which is especially good for your parents who suffer from back and joint problems. Make them as thin as possible so that everyone may easily reach the center of the bed.
Accessible Grounds
Reevaluate your aging parents’ yard or garden spaces with the purpose of reducing overall upkeep. If regular mowing is difficult, remove the lawn and substitute it with ornamental groundcovers, mulched beds, and concrete sections or walks for better accessibility.
Change outdoor steps to broad, curved, gently sloping walkways whenever feasible. Instead of hefty wood chips or river boulders, line these walks with pavers or fine gravel. Paths should be at least four feet wide to accommodate walker and wheelchair access, and broader at either end to allow your parents to maneuver their mobility devices and turn around.
Creating Vertical Gardens
Vertical gardens are created by growing vining plants vertically with the help of trellises, tomato cages, bamboo posts, fences, walls, or arbors. This is good if there is not a lot of outside areas, and it can make harvesting simpler.
Join the Community Garden
If your loved ones do not have sufficient space for an outdoor garden, try asking them to join or start a community garden. Many cities also feature botanical gardens or well-kept parks where your loved ones may enjoy the foliage even if they are unable to plant their own. A visit to a nearby gardening shop or home renovation store is another alternative.
Bringing Outdoors Inside
Bring the outside inside for your aging parents who have restricted movement or are bedridden. Planting a mini-garden in pots on a windowsill or making a maintenance-free terrarium in an old glass or plastic container are two simple gardening hobbies for seniors. Having some greenery nearby will undoubtedly brighten their mood.
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