Even with increasing age, you don't have to do without your beloved garden. Heed our tips and make gardening easier for yourself.
For years, even decades, have you found not only hard work and effort in your garden, but also relaxation? Have you always loved caring for plants, but physical ailments and lack of energy are making it increasingly difficult? Then it makes sense to rely on easy-care plants that require less attention and are still great fun. But even apart from that, there are tricks that reduce the effort and that are presented to you here.
1.
Less work with ground covers
One of the gardener's greatest enemies is all kinds of weeds. But how can you minimize the tedious and small-scale weed plucking or prevent the emergence of weeds? The simple answer to this question are the so-called ground covers. A pleasant additional effect of these plants: They protect the soil. Late summer is perfect for planting, as this is when the weeds stop sprouting and the ground covers have enough time to penetrate the soil until winter. Use compost to improve the soil for this and choose wisely between different ground covers. Best species include
- Fat Man
- Small Periwinkle
- Elven Flower
- Blood Cranesbill
Of course you can distribute ground cover according to your own ideas. With some varieties, however, you should be aware that they could compete with each other for space! If you have already laid out ground cover, be sure not to hoe between them. In the worst case, you damage the root system.
2.Quality Lawn
As for the lawn, it's better to invest a little more in seeds, as they often grow more slowly. This saves you the hassle of mowing, which is hard on your back. If you use a robotic lawnmower, you can save yourself almost all of this work.
3.The right bed selection and planting
Equip beds with low-maintenance, slow-growing shrubs and some perennials that create a beautiful, harmonious and calm garden picture.The big advantage of perennials is that you don't have to replant them every year because they root in the ground and cope better with drought than many summer flowers. For example, enclose beds with clinker bricks so that they do not lose their shape even after a long period of time without your attention. You can find more inspiration and tips for edging beds with clinker bricks in MyHammer Magazine.
» Easy-care plants
They may have a funny name, but delphinium and fat hen are real alternatives to high-maintenance plants. Both are relatively undemanding and produce beautiful, amazing buds. A nutrient-rich soil is ideal for delphiniums.
- Lelkspur
Larkspurs grow to between 120 and even 180 cm. Their flower color varies between shades of blue, purple or even white. Some breeds surprise with other colors like pink or yellow. - Sedum hen
There are 500 species of sedum hen, and their big advantage: You don't even have to cut them in autumn, because the black-brown infructescences even tolerate snow cover . But that's not all: most varieties can withstand temperatures down to minus 20 degrees Celsius and do not need any winter protection. However, watch out for ornamental sedum hens! These will not survive a single winter. Incidentally, you can propagate the sedum very easily: simply break off one or two cuttings with the thickness of your thumb and dry them. Then into a pot with a peat-sand mixture, cover and wait.
Roses without claim
If you don't want to do without the beautiful roses despite the short investment of time, you are well advised to use varieties that bloom more often. Types like
are suitable for this.- Sedana
- Gardener's Delight
- Utopia
- or Heidetraum
especially good. They also bless the gardener with new flowers well into October.
5.Effortless Vegetables
If you don't want to grow vegetables on a large scale, this is easily possible. If, for example, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs or kohlrabi are placed in large planters away from snails, the vegetables will thank you by extending their season into autumn. Transplanting and maintenance is also very easy.
6.With more relaxation in the garden
Say goodbye to the idea that the garden must always look perfect and accurate. That's not the case! Having a garden also means using it only to a limited extentcultivate and to a certain extent give way to the unpredictable that nature can come up with. So don't do too much, but marvel at how the environment naturally affects your garden.
7.Wood instead of hedges
Going to the hedge with the hedge trimmer is necessary up to three times a year, depending on the weather, and given the considerable physical exertion that goes with it, it is not particularly suitable for seniors. Better to erect one-off wooden screens that only have to be painted every few years. Wire baskets filled with stones, called gabions, are a good alternative because they don't require any maintenance at all. The "hedge replacement" is available in specialist shops or made to measure at Gabiona.
8th.Allow help in the garden
Gardening doesn't get any easier for hobby gardeners as they get older, on the contrary. The bones and joints have been doing their job for decades - signs of wear and tear are the norm. We recommend, for example, electric hedge and garden shears, devices with particularly ergonomic handles and hoes or rakes with long handles so that you don't have to bend down so deeply.
But especially in hot summers it can happen that every device is no longer useful. The cycle and the effort make seniors to create. Therefore, it is advisable to get help from a professional nurse if you can no longer do the work on your own. There's no shame in admitting that you can't work like you did when you were twenty. Nursing staff, for example from the German Senior Care Service, can provide a great deal of support not only in the household but also in the garden and make everyday life easier for seniors - and they too are sure to be happy when gardening tools make their work easier.
Conclusion
Even in old age, a beautiful garden can be well preserved. But think carefully about what you dare to do and when you need support for the work. There's no shame in not wanting to do everything yourself. Follow the tricks and tips in this article and you'll see how many tedious steps will become fewer.