Tools for Older Gardeners
Dear Savvy Senior,
Can you recommend some good equipment and pointers for senior gardeners? My 77-year-antique mom loves to work inside the lawn; however, over the past few years has been plagued by injuries. — Concerned Daughter
Dear Concerned,
Aches, pains, and accidents are not unusual among older gardeners. Because gardening is this kind of bodily hobby that frequently requires quite a few bending and stooping, squatting and kneeling, gripping and lifting, it can be extraordinarily taxing on an getting older frame.
Back pain and knee accidents are maximum common amongst older gardeners, at the side of carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow. Here are some tips and gardening equipment thoughts that could make gardening a touch less difficult to help keep your mother harm-unfastened this summer season.
Warm-up
With gardening, the accurate form may be very crucial and now not overdoing someone’s pastime. A common hassle is that gardeners regularly kneel or squat, placing more strain on their knees. Then, to spare their knees, they may stand and bend over for long stretches to weed, dig and plant, straining their back and spine.
To assist your mother to protect her frame, she desires to warm up before starting. Start via stretching, focusing on the legs, and decrease returned. And maintain changing positions and activities. Don’t spend hours weeding a flowerbed. After 15 minutes of weeding, she should arise, stretch and switch to any other hobbies like pruning the bushes or simply taking a break.
It’s additionally critical that she recognizes her physical barriers and doesn’t try to do an excessive amount of all at once. While lifting heavier objects, she desires to recall to apply her legs to keep her again. She can do that by preserving the item close to her body and squatting to keep her return as vertical as feasible.
Labor-saving tools
The right gardening equipment can assist too. Kneeling pads can protect knees, and lawn seats or stools are both returned and knee savers. Lightweight garden carts can make hauling baggage of mulch, dirt, plant life, or other heavy objects plenty less difficult. Also, lengthy-handled gardening equipment can help ease the strain at the lower back by maintaining your mother in a status upright role versus bent over. There is also the ergonomic gardening gear with fatter handles and other layout capabilities, making garden and garden activities a little less complicated.
Easier watering
The chore of carrying water or handling a heavy, awkward hose also can be difficult for older gardeners. Some beneficial options include lightweight material hoses instead of heavy rubber hoses; soaker or drip hoses that can be snaked during the garden; thin coil hoses that can be used at the patio or small regions; a hose caddy and reel for simpler hose delivery across the yard; and a self-winding hose chest that puts the hose up robotically. There also is a selection of ergonomic watering wands that are lightweight, easy to grip, and can attain the one’s tough-to-get-to plant life.
To find ergonomic gardening tools and the endorsed watering aids, take a look at nearby retail shops that sell lawn and lawn elements or try online outlets like Gardeners.Com or RadiusGarden.Com.
Container gardening
If your mom’s outdoor garden has become too much for her to deal with, she should recollect elevated lawn beds or box gardening — the use of massive pots, window containers, putting baskets, barrels, or bath planters. This is a miles less complicated manner to the garden as it gets rid of tons of the bend and stress of gardening but gives her the pride of creating things grow. Trellises are another quality choice that could allow her to garden vertically in place of horizontally.
9. The Peace Pagoda and Peace Temple Gardens, Milton Keynes, UK
Founded by way of Nichidatsu Fujii, a Buddhist monk from Japan who worked with Gandhi on finding nonviolent ways of opposing the government’s wrongdoing. After the Second World War, he campaigned strongly towards nuclear weapons. He lived to be one hundred, and his motion constructed 80 Peace Pagodas and Peace Gardens, all spherical the sector. In the beautiful gardens surrounding the pagoda are 1000 cherry timber and cedars planted to remind us of all wars’ victims.
To the left of the pagoda is a small Japanese lawn of rocks, moss, bushes, a water lily pond full of carp, and the Temple’s right is a touch moss garden. Behind the Temple is a regular Zen lawn of rocks and gravel. Finally, on the rear of the Zen lawn is a stupa.
10. Wenshu Monastery Gardens, Chengdu, China
This Zen Buddhist monastery changed into construction between 605 – 617 at some stage in the Tang Dynasty and is the best-preserved temple in Chengdu. This Buddhist Temple is set inside top-notch landscaped gardens containing examples of religious Chinese architecture in addition to a top-notch vegetarian restaurant.
The landscaped park in the Wenshu Monastery is lovely and serene and beautifully maintained and clean and has many bushes and shrubs and magnificent water capabilities. The courtyards and gardens seem to soften into each different, making for a tranquil and contemplative surrounding.
