Gardening is such a wonderful activity for seniors. It can help them to be more active, it offers sensory benefits, and seniors can enjoy the fruits of their labor, too. Making gardening a social activity can be as easy as enlisting the help of a companion care at home agency.
What’s really important is making sure that seniors are as safe as possible while they’re gardening.
Watch Out for Tripping Hazards
Obstacles and potential tripping hazards are never a good idea for seniors. In the garden, seniors need to make sure that pathways are clear and that items like gardening tools, hoses, and plants are not left in the way. Seniors who use assistive devices, like a cane, need to be even more careful about tripping hazards in the garden.
Gardening in small containers might be an even better idea, especially if seniors are new to the activity and want to gain strength before trying for a bigger garden.
Use Easy-to-see Identifiers
Seniors with vision problems might want to pay careful attention to labeling plants with easy-to-read markers. Labeling the edges of pavers and stairs with brightly-colored tape or other obvious markings can help seniors avoid tripping hazards more easily. Using raised garden beds can also help seniors to keep specific plants contained to areas where they are easy to find.
Consider a Simplified Watering System
Carrying heavy hoses or watering cans may be too much for seniors as they take care of their garden. Water is an essential piece of caring for plants, though, so putting together a simplified system for keeping plants watered is a good idea.
Solutions like sprinkler systems or soaking hoses that don’t cross pathways could be the right answer.
Access Information at Libraries and Community Gardens
Learning more about any subject is a powerful way to stay safer while engaging in related activities. Companion care at home providers can help with transportation needs, ensuring that seniors get to community resources like local gardens, libraries, and clubs or groups that can help with gardening knowledge.
The more seniors learn about gardening, the easier it is for them to have the success they want to have in caring for plants.
Keep Gardening a Social Event
Avoiding gardening alone gives seniors another layer of safety while they spend time with their plants, too. The best part about this idea is that seniors get social interaction that they need for a variety of reasons.
Companion care at home providers can be there to spend time with seniors, making some tasks easier in the garden in the process. Companion care at home caregivers can also just spend time with seniors in the garden, listening to seniors talking about what they’re doing and how their gardens are progressing.
Starting a garden helps seniors in so many ways. They experience a sense of accomplishment as their plants grow, and they can get a decent workout from their activities in the garden. But the easy pace of gardening is equally helpful for social activities.
Companion care at home providers can be there to offer seniors a friendly face and someone to talk to as they spend time tending to plants.
If you or an aging loved one is considering Companion Care at Home in Glenside, PA, please contact the caring staff at Better Care Home Health Services today at (267) 766-5218
Better Care Home Health Services is a Trusted Home Care Agency serving Philadelphia, Germantown, Glenside, Elkins Park, Bryn Mawr, Roxborough, Wyncote, Broomall, Upper Darby, Yeadon, Lansdowne, Narberth, Wynnewood, Penn Wynne, Fairmount, Ardmore, Chestnut Hill, and the surrounding areas.
Better Care Home Health Services is a family-owned agency dedicated to providing excellent and comprehensive home health care to individuals and families of Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks counties. We are honored that God has blessed us with the opportunity to positively impact and change people’s lives. It is our mission to ensure that we provide the very best of care to our clients.
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