Benefits of Gardening for the Elderly

Today you can hear the newfangled word “garden therapy.” For our retirees, this is a particularly relevant topic. Taking care of plants, a person normalizes the nervous system. Their breathing becomes even. The elderly quickly calm down when they take up the usual chores of gardening and gardening.

Communication with nature has a therapeutic effect. In private clinics, garden therapy programs are specially developed, taking into account the season and climate. It is worth noting that not all retirees have the necessary skills because many people are interested in flowers with age. Training takes a minimum of time; people quickly master the skills of cultivating the land and caring for flowers.

The main benefits of gardening:

• Improved mood;
• Improving health;
• Development of motor skills;
• Normalization of muscle tone;
• Improving joint mobility and manual dexterity;
• Improving immunity.

Flower therapy is widely used for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive impairment, dementia, cancer. People work in the fresh air and get healthier. With a tendency to depressive conditions, this is excellent prevention. Usually, in sanatoriums, guests work in a team – they are happy to take care of the plants. Such a pastime contributes to adaptation, the development of friendly relations.

Recommendations for seniors gardening

Very often, aging of the body brings some limitation of mobility and a decrease in energy. Therefore, before you start enjoying all the benefits of gardening, you need to consider essential but straightforward recommendations:

1. For people using a cane or wheelchair, the garden should be within walking distance with seating or resting areas and in a protected area surrounded by a fence or safety barrier. It is also advisable to grow natural plants resistant to various climatic conditions, pleasant to the touch and smell.
2. Use an indoor grow tent. It is a special tent for growing plants, easily assembled from a type-setting frame and an awning covered with reflective material. Does it make sense to budget for increasing activities such an expensive thing? The main reason for buying a Growtent is to increase the light intensity of your plants. The awning material is covered from the inside with the patented Mylar surface. It reflects more than 95% of the rays falling on it and refracts them at an angle directed downward to the tops of the plants. In this case, the illumination becomes uniform and more intense (the readings of the lux meter, placed at a distance of 50 cm from the lamp, are doubled!).

The uniformity of illumination favorably affects the growth and development of the plant’s genetic potential since the tops of the plant and the side branches of the plant placed in the tent are illuminated. In addition to the light intensity, the grow tent will allow you to create an ideal day/night regime. With completely closed zippers and awning inlets, the grow tent is entirely opaque. External light radiation does not get inside the awning. Therefore, the plant is fully resting, which significantly improves its metabolism.

1. Before starting gardening work, you need to purchase a set of other long-handled tools designed to facilitate plant growth. A portable bench will prevent constant bending or long squatting, significantly reducing stress on your joints. And a small garden trolley will help you to transport weights over any distance.
2. Elderly people are encouraged to engage in physical activity in the morning and evening, leaving most of the day to rest without redoing all the planned activities in one day. Also, older people should have a charged cell phone or whistle with them while gardening to notify loved ones in time about any emergency.
3. When going out into the garden, you should wear loose clothing made from natural materials. To protect your hands, you must have garden gloves with you, and it is recommended to wear a bucket hat to avoid direct sunlight.

The therapeutic benefits of gardening are varied and by no means limited to the elderly. For example, these methods are applied to children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities or socialization problems. I hope our recommendations were helpful to you. If the article turned out to be beneficial to you, do not forget to rate it and share the information with your friends and acquaintances.