Gardening As We Age (landscape, grow, seeding, trees)

[guidoLaMoto]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

The only other hint I can think of is to make sure you can get back up .....

Good post....Good point here-- I used to tell older pts to practice getting up off the ground. Every day or two, get down on the floor in front of the couch, and work on rolling over, getting up to hands & knees, then standing. The couch is your safety net in case you need to crawl up in stages. Before long, you'll be rising without the need to use the couch. ...

Like the old joke about the tourist that asks the cop "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"....".Practice Practice Practice"

We all need to make compromises with aging, but not to concede to it.

[webster]

I'm old, no doubt about it. (Though despite my great niece's belief, I did not know George Washington.) Gardening has always been a passion, now its more of an obsession. I have trouble walking and standing for extended periods. What I find helps is a 1' stool for weeding. The other trick is just do a little bit - an hour or two - a day. The other thing is being bent over requires straightening out after. I use a foam roller for that. My neighbor is over 90 and has dementia, yet he is out in his yard every day under the watchful eye of his caregiver. I hope to be in my yard when I am 90.

Foam roller:

https://www.healthline.com/health/fi...rolling-how-to

Regarding getting up, since walking is a problem now, I find that doing squats helps with my getting up and down. It even makes getting in and out of the vehicle easier.

[twinkletwinkle22]

I tried to read the transcript but don't have that amount of time at my age haha

The hardest part of gardening for me this year was getting bags and bags of potting mix home, in the end had 2 deliveries made and happy spouse who didn't have to help load/unload our car with bad back.

Newly moved last year our in-ground garden was heavy clay I thought would grow nothing so purchased 25 gallon woven poly bags to grow veggies. Also planted in the heavy clay which was located on a steep hill (North Carolina also new to us from Florida lol).

EVERYTHING grew, clay soil and grow bags.
Going up and down that hill got easier as the season went on.
2021 will be way easier with all growing supplies already in-house.

In 2021 my in-ground spot will be a no-till garden per Ruth Stout's method. She discovered this way of growing way back in the 60's which eventually became called "permaculture." She just called it "lazy gardening" and she was actively gardening into her 90's I think.

I wish I could find my grandparents photo of them in their huge garden at the age I am now 60-something. They were lifelong gardeners having been teens in the Depression.

My winter project is building planter boxes to make my container garden look nicer so HOA doesn't come down on me.
Woodworking is my other hobby and that also keeps me in shape, hauling wood around.

Anyone wanting an inexpensive way to grow without a lot of bending should look into straw-bale gardening. I did one bale this year and wow very productive and inexpensive. $7 bale will grow a lot of veggies, no planter box required. I'm doing more straw bales next year.

[webster]

A friend of mine uses straw bales with great success. It is amazing how much moisture they will hold in the summer months. Like me, he doesn't compost since it seems to attract rats and others, but with straw bales he has no problem sprinking over them the left over coffee grounds - seems the critters are not attracted to them.

[silibran]

My adjustments to advancing age include a kneeling cushion, good hand tools, a really easy to wheel Rubbermaid garden cart, and only working when the soil is soft. I flirted with buying a kneeling bench last spring but put off buying one. Maybe in the new year, I’ll buy one.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by Zoisite

I'm light weight and still pretty nimble but am at that stage now with my arthritis that I don't dare get right down on the ground because it's next to impossible for me to get back up without assistance. So if I have to get that low to the ground I use an upside down milk crate to sit on. It's only 12 inches high but it's sturdy and easier to brace myself with my hands on it and push down against it to steady myself when it's time to stand up. I can stand on it too if I need to get a bit higher to reach up to prune things. Of course I have to be on level ground to do that but everything is reasonably level here anyway, so no problems.

.

That's a good idea! Even a little plastic stool, just something to use to push yourself up and also so that you are not actually sitting way down low on the ground. I may only have a tiny garden now (will not mention my age; am from the generation where "ladies don't mention their age", lol) but even the shepherd's crook that stands there holding flowers gets used as something to hang onto as I wade my way through the jungle of perennials.

[deadwood]

Does it say anything about winter gardening? Best way to garden when you get older since you don't have to water and needs less care than summer gardens which have to be constantly cleaned from weeds. A number of vegetables can be grown over the winter. The best broccoli I ever grew was over the winter, harvested in March. Planted from seeds in late September and grew broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts as well as other vegetables. Live in zone 8, Texas. Less work and almost no need to water after getting seeds established.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by deadwood

Does it say anything about winter gardening? Best way to garden when you get older since you don't have to water and needs less care than summer gardens which have to be constantly cleaned from weeds. A number of vegetables can be grown over the winter. The best broccoli I ever grew was over the winter, harvested in March. Planted from seeds in late September and grew broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts as well as other vegetables. Live in zone 8, Texas. Less work and almost no need to water after getting seeds established.

For winter gardening, you're lucky to be where you are. Winter gardening here, lol. About all we can do is indoor container gardening. With a little indoor greenhouse, I've got parsley and also an onion growing in a pot. That's it, tiny greenhouse. May try to grow some lettuce in there though. If it's not in the greenhouse, the house air in winter is too dry for any other vegetables I can think of.

[kygman]

A former coworker always told me he used to enjoy gardening until he passed 65. Then he said his idea of gardening was going to the produce section of the local grocery and say, wow, those tomatoes are looking good today!

[charlygal]

Originally Posted by bobspez

Last year we finally decided that weeding was too much for us. Removed two raised flower beds, about 160 sq ft. total and planted grass. Just wasn't worth it anymore.

Aw. You could have tried commercial strength weed fabric. That works great.