April 29 Column: Adaptive Gardening

When I conducted my reader survey last fall, I asked which topics would be the most useful. One subject request I saw over and over was to write about how to continue gardening as we age. And why not? We’re all getting older (with some of us getting older than others, LOL). So the subject of both my garden column today and this week’s video is adaptive gardening. Here’s a link to the column in The Spokesman-Review: With careful plotting, gardeners can stay active as they age.

I want to give a huge shout-out to two Spokane County Master Gardeners, Cathi Lamoreux (in photo to left) and Sue Plummer. Cathi is a speech language pathologist who also holds a certificate in horticultural therapy. She works with patients and residents in institutional settings, nursing homes and assisted living centers. Sue is a member of our local Master Gardeners’ “Gardening for Life” committee. This group gives talks on adaptive gardening through the use of adaptive tools that make gardening much more comfortable and accessible. 

I interviewed Cathi for my article, and Sue graciously agreed to let me video her while she demonstrated various types of tools. Thank you, ladies!

In my article, there are all sorts of wonderful tips that I hope you will find useful. I also wanted to add my two-cents’ worth about working comfortably in the garden, without injuring yourself!

1. Instead of carrying around big bags of potting soil or fertilizer, consider transferring a manageable amount into a small bucket. We typically don’t need all of that material for general gardening chores and your back will thank you for being kind to it.
2. Also, whenever you are carrying any load, NEVER twist at your waist! That is a very good way to blow out a disk in your back.
3. Always carry loads right in front of you, next to your body. The farther away from your body that you hold the load, the heavier the load becomes and the more torque you put on your spine.
4. Try not to do tasks (such as pruning thick branches) that require strength with your arms overhead. Our shoulder joints are amazing in that they have so much range of motion. But the downside is that because of that flexibility, our shoulders are one of the most unstable joints in our body. They weren’t meant to have stressed put on them when they’re at their end-range.
5. Remember to push a load instead pulling it. Pushing is easier, pulling puts pressure on your back and neck.
6. Try to keep you spine (including your neck) aligned when lifting or carrying loads.
7. And like Cathi said, do a good job of cycling through a variety of tasks, rather than repeatedly doing the same task for a long period of time. Doing the latter is the easiest way to give yourself tendinitis, which is no fun at all.