Gardening With Mobility Issues – A Helpful Guide
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As we get older, it’s not unusual to experience less flexibility, strength and mobility. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the best of your hobbies – you may just need to implement some adjustments.
Gardening is among one of the best forms of exercise for anyone, including older individuals. That’s because it grants you fresh air, proximity to nature, and you can go at your own pace. The gentle movement, work and lifting of gardening can also be fantastic for your overall sense of comfort in this space.
Better yet, community gardens allow you to connect with other people in your area, sharing the joy and passion of getting out into the elements and growing what you can. It’s not just all hard work, but fun conversations about the marrow someone is growing, invitations to further community events, and donations to food banks or good causes.
To sustain such a wonderful hobby, learning to balance it around your mobility difficulties can be a wise idea. We hope the advice in this post helps you continue to enjoy your passion.
Ride-On Mowers
Mowing the lawn can be one of the more demanding tasks in a garden, but a ride-on mower makes it so much easier, and they don’t take a huge amount of maintenance save replacing the lawn mower battery. They also save you from pushing a heavy machine around as you can sit back and steer, getting the job done with far less effort. It’s a huge help if walking long distances or standing for too long isn’t ideal anymore.
Some even have cruise control, or let you adjust the seat for better comfort, and if you’re dealing with a larger lawn, the time and energy you’ll save is well worth the investment. That way, you can focus on the parts of gardening you actually enjoy without tiring yourself out too much.
Ergonomic Hoses and Sprinklers
Dragging a heavy hose across the garden can be more effort than it needs to be especially if you have plants at different heights or a long, steep garden. That’s why ergonomic hoses and sprinklers are such a good option. They’re usually lightweight, easy to grip, and often retractable, and thanks to that they take the strain out of keeping your plants hydrated.
Sprinklers can also save you a fair amount of time, as instead of standing there holding a hose, you can set them up to cover the areas you need, then sit back and relax while the work is done for you. Some even come with timers, so you don’t have to remember to turn them off.
Handrails
Stairs might cause you trouble, but perhaps you can’t install a ramp right now. Handrails are worth putting in place, as they give you something sturdy to hold onto when stepping up, down, or over uneven ground, helping to reduce the risk of slips or falls.
Better yet, you can install them near steps, along pathways, or anywhere that feels a little unstable underfoot. Some gardeners even add them around seating areas to make getting up and down easier, and that might suit you also.
Greenhouses
If chilly mornings or rainy afternoons make it harder to get outside, a greenhouse lets you keep up with your gardening without worrying about the elements, and again you also have tables and vertical grow spaces here to help you. Some greenhouses even come with automatic vents and watering systems as before, which makes plant care easier than ever, and it can be a nice investment in your garden space on top of that.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily garden even with mobility issues to think through. After all, physical constrains shouldn’t have to limit you from something you love.
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