[Community_garden] Accessible Garden for Seniors

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Saturday, November 4, 2006
Gardening can be big part of life for seniors
Nursing homes seeing how involvement keeps up spirits of residents


By Dean Fosdick
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


ST. PETER, Minn.
One of the last things my mother, Gladys Randolph, did earlier this month while saying farewell to independent living was take a long, lingering walk around her house in Le Sueur, Minn.
She pinched spent blooms from a few front-entry geraniums. Yet despite her new nursing-home surroundings, my mother, who is 97, won't have to give up gardening.
"You're never too old to do anything that's of interest to you," said Nancy Haas, the activity director at Grandview Good Samaritan Center, the southern Minnesota community where my mother now lives.
"You may have to make special adaptations so you can participate. That might mean giving advice to others, doing the digging yourself or simply admiring the flowers when they're grown."
About 1.5 million people live in the nation's 16,000-plus nursing homes, said Dr. Bill Thomas, a specialist in geriatrics and an AARP visiting scholar.
Thomas has developed a concept called "the Eden Alternative" as a way to blend nature and medicine with nursing-home care.
"I tell them to imagine they're living in a garden," he said. "That's the figurative side of the approach. But I also believe people need to physically be around things that grow. And that's the literal.
"When people open themselves up to caring for something else, it improves their health and general well-being," Thomas said. "They've found a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to continue living. Gardening fills some of that need just as children and pets do. That's a vital connection."
Gardening has been playing a larger role in nursing-home care over the past 10 years. It's challenging, provides exercise, and serves up rewards both edible and visible.
Adaptive tools and ergonomic techniques make things easier for the dedicated cadres of disabled gardeners. They can work at wheelchair-accessible tabletop growing beds and use such things as long-handled bulb planters, pistol-grip-operated "reachers," kneeler-style benches, wrist braces, golf carts and riding mowers.
Victoria Rosendahl of Warner, Va., has chronic back and neck pain and stiffness as a result of two major car accidents. But thanks to some inventive tinkering by her husband, Matt, she hasn't had to give up gardening.
She uses a GardenRack, which her husband designed.
The freestanding GardenRack is small enough for decks, balconies or rooftops. It also is portable and can be raised or lowered. Its two trays are deep enough for bulbs, and the platform is waist high, which keeps many foraging insects such as cutworms, from reaching the leafy plants.
Other common-sense ways to ease gardening chores include:
• Build your raised beds narrow and small. Narrow beds eliminate hard-to-reach plants. Small means not needing as much potting soil.
• Wait to weed until after a rain. A good soaking loosens the soil. And mulch liberally to keep weeds from getting started.
• Use aromatic markers. Choose flowers and herbs with bright colors and distinctive scents. This can help gardeners with vision problems.
• Pathways should be wide enough for power chairs, wheelchairs or walkers. Add handrails, benches and pullouts so physically impaired gardeners can pause to comfortably enjoy the fruits of their labor.
• Grow vertically if you find it difficult to stoop. Choose such vegetable varieties as pole beans and tomatoes, or plant morning glories, clematis and other flowering vines
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