Tips For Mature Gardeners

If you’ve lived long enough to seek out an article like this one, then you already know there’s something new to learn every day. If you’re a life-long gardener, then you also know just how true this is when it comes to growing things. From one mature adult to another, I’m here to tell you that there is no reason whatsoever to stop gardening now.

I’m not going to lie – bending, lifting, pulling, digging, pruning, and weight-shifting can affect your body differently than it did even 10 years ago. This might be so, but please don’t for one minute think about giving up on gardening! For many of us these are our best gardening years, as we actually have the time to pursue our growing passion!

The Many Health Benefits of Gardening

How beneficial is gardening to your health? You may have already discovered the health advantages that digging around in your garden provides, but let’s go ahead and count the ways.

Physical Health Benefits

• Gardening promotes healthy bone density. According to a *study by the University of Arkansas, gardening chores rank right up there with weight training and jogging, with the significant difference that yard work is easier on the body than many sporting activities.
• Along with the bone-building workout in the yard, gardeners get plenty of exposure to the sun and absorb vitamin D, which aids in calcium absorption.
• Gardening promotes both hand strength and dexterity. For new gardeners, always ease into repetitive hand work in the garden, or it might work in reverse and encourage problems such as tendonitis. Switching hands while digging, pruning, and weeding will give both hands a turn at a workout and rest. By the way, the hand-switching technique also helps keep the brain on its toes! Both hemispheres of the brain are activated when we use our non-dominant hand as opposed to only one hemisphere working when we use our dominant hand.
• While your hands are digging dirt they will come into contact with Mycobacterium vaccae, a beneficial strain of bacteria found in soil. Whether absorbed by the skin or inhaled through the nose, M. vaccae supports the immune system and also triggers the release of serotonin (the “happy” chemical neurotransmitter in our brains). Caveat: Please consult your doctor before going without gloves while gardening since some microbes can be dangerous for someone who is immunosuppressed or has been diagnosed with another serious medical condition. There’s more than one kind of bacteria in the soil.
• Not to state the obvious, but growing fruits and vegetables in your home garden will have you eating healthier than ever.

Mental, Heart, and Soul Benefits

Try this experiment: just before you attempt a stressful task/situation/appointment, spend thirty minutes gardening. Why is gardening a natural de-stressor? Is it the sunshine and fresh air? Sensory stimulation? The satisfying feeling of a job well done? The physical exercise? Creative activity? Digging into life-giving soil? Whatever the answer, gardening as a mood-lifter never fails.

Modified Gardening Strategies

You may have already discovered that some garden activities are challenging and can affect your knees, arms, shoulders, back, hips, etc.

Here are some no-excuse gardening modifications for people who want to garden smart.

• Make gardening safer. Talk a walk through your garden and look for potential dangers. You’re looking for rocks, uneven ground, protruding roots, and loose stepping stones. Better yet, bring along a friend who might spot something that’s been there so long you don’t notice it. Take an afternoon to fix the problems you find.
• Protect your skin from the sun’s rays by wearing a hat and sunscreen. Long sleeves, long pants, and gloves will protect thin skin from sharp foliage and thorns.
• Use raised garden beds. Raised garden beds are a no-brainer when it comes to smart gardening, especially with older adults. Go for a bed that’s waist-high, if possible. Even one that’s 2′-3′ tall is helpful. Raised beds are easier to plant, weed, water, and harvest because kneeling and squatting is not necessary, plus they offer excellent water retention and drainage. Bonus points here because few weeds show up when you fill a raised bed with your own mix of bagged soil and compost.
• Practice vertical gardening. Gardening while standing reduces the pressure on your back, hips, and knees. Vertical gardening isn’t just about climbing plants or raised garden beds, but includes tiered and hanging containers that make any plant easy to reach.
• Plant a container garden. From personal experience, I can tell you that most plants can be grown in containers, from flowers to vegetables to fruit. Container gardening keeps things manageable yet bountiful. As with vertical gardening, containers raise the plants up a bit for easier maintenance. When looking for the perfect container(s), keep your eyes open for portable raised beds that hold more plants than a typical planting pot.
• Plant a no-work garden. By “no work,” of course, I mean less work. For example, gardens created with native plant species are highly adaptable to your zone and are drought-tolerant, and therefore require substantially less tending by the gardener. The bonus is birds, butterflies, beneficial insects, and other wildlife naturally drawn to native plants.
• Perennials are your friends. When plant shopping, seek out the perennial plants that return year after year on their own. An added perennial perk is that after 3-4 years the roots can be divided, giving you new, free plants.
• Avoid the hottest part of the day. Heat can zap your energy and leave you feeling unwell or worse. Avoid it by gardening in the early morning or early evening hours.
• Plant a shade (or low-light) garden. Who says you can’t garden if you’re sun-sensitive or prone to heat sickness? You don’t have to have full sun to garden. There are tons of plants that prefer light shade including many herbs and vegetables!

Just a few adjustments and smart tools will make gardening easier for a body that has served you well for five decades or more. Whether you are a lifelong gardener or are new to the hobby, gardening offers benefits to the body, mind, and soul.

1. http://news.uark.edu/articles/10028/got-weeds-university-of-arkansas-researchers-say-yard-work-builds-strong-bones
2. http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/aging.html
3. http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/raw-data-is-dirt-the-new-prozac

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