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What activity do you refuse to give up? How do you adapt to age?
I spent the afternoon in my favorite place - my yard and garden. I have gardened since the age of 9, had my own gardens for 54 years, been a Master Gardener volunteer for over 20 years and in two very different climates. I'm not "old" at 74 but I have a lot challenges with arthritis, bad shoulders, bad lungs, occasional vertigo...
While "removing winter" and preparing for the new season, I thought a lot about how to simplify 8 very different garden beds so I can manage them going forward.
Here are my ideas so far:
Simplify:
Replace annuals with tough perennials and attractive ground covers. Replace aggressive perennials with low-care shrubs.
Replace high-maintenance plants like roses with natives and other easy-care plants.
Use natural mulch and ground covers to keep weeds down, instead of wood chips that need to be replaced often.
Adapt:
Use mulch, Preen and ground cover to reduce weeds.
Hire help for the heavy work, and for intense seasonal tasks like "putting the gardens to bed." Even once or twice a year is a big help.
Put heavy patio pots on wheels for ease in moving.
Reduce:
Smaller gardens. A few vegetables in pots instead of a big garden (after all, you can get produce to can or freeze at the local Farmers' Market and support small businesses.)
Shrubs, decorations and landscape rocks in place of dozens or hundreds of plants.
Plant an "esy care" lawn rich in native clover or other ground cover and tough low-need, low-growing grasses.
Automate:
Irrigate with drip lines set on timers, or and irrigation system. The initial investment pays off over time.
What is your favorite activity, and how can you adapt as you go forward?
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Agree with you. My kids are not here to share my aging with so they won't be ones to tell me when I need to stop driving.
My freedom machine is mine.
Good for you.
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7 ReactionsBringing this great discussion back on topic, I've started shifting the design of my garden to adapt to aging. I just simply cannot imagine giving up gardening. The perennials are nice and established, but some of them need more tending than others. As I tweak the garden, I'm adding more structural plants, bushes, etc to give the garden a pleasing form and source of enjoyment, but eliminating some of the fussier plants and giving them to my niece who moved into the same town and is starting her garden.
@sueinmn, since you are a Master Gardener, I will most certainly turn to you if in need of tips and advice. 😉
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5 ReactionsI am in year 3 of this process, but with many new homeowners and emerging master Gardeners nearby, I have ready homes for my plants.
One thing I do is to have the recipient dig the plants, give them a label with both common and Latin names then talk about light, water, height and how well-behaved the plant is or is not.
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5 ReactionsI admire your firm resolve. Always stay free!
I've been loving reading about gardening here--who knew so many people care! Since I've been disabled for my adult life my garden is totally in raised beds and containers. And since it is very arid here--yet prone to hail and wind--containers are the way to go, even if sunk into the ground and the size of beds. After decades of trial and error things look pretty great and I'm very lucky to have a son-in-law who advises and improves things. My veggie ambitions don't extend much beyond greens, herbs, and tomatoes...but it is a thrill to make a salad. Mostly I love flowers. Here in the high desert roses do well and are blooming right now next to their cactus cousins, who are crimson, pale yellow, and pink. My grandfather lived with us when I was a child and my mom had a small greenhouse built for him so he could garden year round. She kept it going until she was in her late eighties.
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4 ReactionsAt 78, I'm still doing long bicycle rides. My Significant Other and I go out on our bikes every other day. It helps us relax mentally while exhausting our muscles.
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3 ReactionsJim Fixx was an overweight two pack a day smoker as a young man. His dad had his first heart attack at 35 and died of another at 43. Given that Jim had an unhealthy lifestyle with a family history of heart disease, it could be argued that turning to running might have extended his life. Did he die too soon? Sure, but don’t we all. ✌️
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1 ReactionPainting! Experimenting- playing with color texture etc etc - some finished some not so much! My muscles are wasting so it’s harder and harder recently (78) and I drop brushes, tape, papers, boards etc - I stubble to pleinair locations - but I am still at it . Almost every day now! Keeps me alive!
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4 ReactionsHi Sue,
I’m on the Bronchiectasis/ntm group also. Like you, gardening is something I refuse to give up. I would be miserable without it, so even though dirt is a possible carrier of mac (or mabs which is my bacterial nemisis), I just do what I can and keep on going. I wear a mask in the yard only when I’m doing something especially “dirty” though, because a mask takes some of the joy away. I’m 65 and the only thing I do differently than I did when young is that I get hubby to lift heavy things. I also don’t fret when I don’t get everything I want to do done in one day!
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