Gardening has tremendous health benefits for your senior. She can spend time in the sun, which is a great way to get vitamin D, and gardening is linked to maintaining muscle tone, reducing stress, and even lowering blood pressure. A container garden might be just the right size garden for your elderly family member.
Consider Raised Beds if Your Senior Has Trouble Bending Over
Container gardening is so fantastic because your senior can use a variety of different containers for her soil and plants. Raised beds, including ones that are at least waist high, can allow your senior to continue to care for her plants and to enjoy her garden without having to bend over. This is especially important if she has mobility issues that keep her from bending and moving the way that she wants.
Choose Favorite Plants Together
Take some time to brainstorm a list of plants with your senior. Planning out this garden together gives you both something to bond over and can help your elderly family member to remember the planning stages fondly. Keep in mind things like how much care the plants need, how much sunlight and water they need, and other details so that your senior knows how to care for her new garden. It might be a good idea to choose plants that have staggered blooming dates so that your senior has a beautiful container garden from spring through fall.
Help Her to Collect Necessary Materials
If your senior does have mobility issues, it might fall on you to help her to gather the items that she needs for her new container garden. Potting soil gets very heavy very quickly, so she may be able to move small planters by herself, but the bigger bags may be a problem. When she’s got what she needs, it will be a lot easier for her to work toward getting her garden in shape.
Put the Containers Where They’re Easy for Her to Access
Make sure that the final plant-filled containers are placed where they’re easy for your senior to access and to care for now that they’re ready to go. A garden that is difficult for your elderly family member to access and to use might be one that she forgets about or ignores. That sort of defeats the purpose of having put it all together.
You can still do this with your senior even if you’re a long-distance family caregiver. Hiring a caregiver who can help with some of the errands and with the hands-on tasks can help to keep your senior active and safe.
