You Can Garden Indoors As Well!
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When you cannot manage to garden outside, you can grow
houseplants and herbs indoors on your windowsill.
Feeding the birds and watching them from indoors is a good
way to enjoy your garden when you cannot get outside.
Many gardening tasks can be done indoors all year round on
your tabletop using a plastic potting tidy tray.
You can sow seeds, prick out seedlings, pot on plants and
plant up small containers at a tabletop gardening session.
You can be creative and use plants from the garden to make
floral displays, scented sachets and festive decorations.
You can even get together with friends and enjoy a tabletop
gardening session with a cup of tea and a chat!
For more information
Come and visit our backyard garden! Try out a range of easy-grip gardening tools
and look at ways of growing flowers and vegetables in containers for easy access
and low maintenance.
Age UK North Yorkshire, 33 High Street, Northallerton, DL7 8EE
Telephone 01609 771624 www.ageuknorthyorkshire.org.uk
Contact Thrive to find out more about their tips for easier gardening
Telephone 0118 988 5688 www.carryongardening.org.uk
Suppliers of adapted gardening tools include Peta UK
Telephone 01376 573476 www.peta-uk.com
Age UK North Yorkshire is a Registered Charity (number 1124567) and Company
Limited by Guarantee (number 6456185) Registered Office: 46-50 East Parade,
Harrogate, HG1 5RR. 10/15
GREENAGES Growing Together Project
How To Garden More Easily
How can I manage my garden more easily as I get
older?
As people get older gardening can become more difficult, perhaps
due to illness, sight impairment or reduced mobility. However,
gardening can maintain and improve your physical health and
emotional wellbeing and so it is important not to let practical
difficulties stop you from gardening.
The gardening charity Thrive has identified many tips to help you to
manage your garden, and just some of them are listed here (Source:
Thrive, 2015).
Access in the garden
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Ensure easy access between your house and parts of the
garden you use regularly.
Keep plants cut back from paths to avoid a trip hazard.
Clean paths affected by slippery moss, algae or debris.
Re-lay any loose or unevensurfaces to avoid a trip hazard.
Consider widening narrow paths to 1 metre and replacing
steps with a non-slip ramp.
Consider building freestanding handrails or attach them to
existing garden structures.
Avoid trips and falls by installing lights where you need to
access parts of the garden when it is gloomy or dark.
Garden maintenance adaptations
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Remove fiddly areas of lawn and add a brick edge to reduce
the need to trim the lawn edges.
Replace lawns with lower maintenance areas such as a gravel
garden.
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Reduce the width of wide borders or add new paths to help
you to reach into them.
Use a mulch of bark or gravel over a membrane to suppress
weed growth and conserve moisture in the soil.
Use ground cover plants between larger plants to cover the
soil and reduce the need for weeding.
Containers and raised beds can be easier to manage as they
lift the soil off the ground and reduce the need for weeding
and heavy digging.
Line containers and baskets with plastic and use water
retention gel in the compost to reduce watering needs.
Tools
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Specialised tools with long handles, easy-grip handles, arm
support cuffs and interchangeable heads are available.
Try out tools before you buy them. Consider their weight, the
strength of your grip, your posture and your balance when
using them. The lightest tools with the widest handles are
easiest to grip.
Stainless steel tools slide through soil more easily and are
easy to clean.
Plants
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Choose plants that will grow well in the conditions in your
garden and that are less susceptible to pests and diseases.
Choose plants that can support themselves and do not need
regular tying up or staking and choose shrubs that do not
require a lot of pruning.
Avoid or reduce seasonal bedding plant schemes as they are
short-lived and labour intensive.