National Garden Month occurs every April and it’s a great time to think about starting a garden and planning it. For seniors, gardening is a really fantastic activity to start engaging in regularly, even if seniors have a small space to devote to container gardening. Companion care at home providers can be a lot of help to aging adults who want to start gardening, especially if they’re mostly offering encouragement.
Easy Exercise
The biggest reason to consider taking up gardening is that it’s easy exercise for aging adults. Seniors bend, lift, walk, kneel, and much more while they’re taking care of their plants. They can moderate the exercise with periods of rest, and because they’re doing something they enjoy, seniors might not realize that they’re getting a lot more activity than they did in the past.
Budget Extender
If seniors decide that they want to try their hand at growing produce to eat, they might find that they save a bit of money, too. Growing vegetables and fruits that they can eat allows seniors to stock up on foods that they enjoy eating and that they want to have easy access to. They can also learn about food preservation like canning, freezing, or even dehydrating foods.
Nature Exposure
Spending time outdoors does a lot of good for seniors. They get fresh air, they get to hear the sounds of nature in their own garden, and they can get a little bit of sun as well.
Companion care at home providers can help seniors remember to wear sunscreen and to pace themselves so that they stay safe while gardening. But that time outside can refresh seniors mentally and physically.
Social Occasion
Gardening can be a terrific way for seniors to spend time with other people. Whether they have companion care at home there to spend time with them while they garden, or seniors decide to reach out to friends and neighbors to offer them bounty from the garden, this is a social activity.
There may also be community gardens where aging adults can tend to a plot around other people. Companion care at home can help with transportation and ensure that seniors have help when they need it.
Sense of Purpose
Creating their own garden out of a spare piece of the yard does something else for aging adults. It helps them to feel that they’ve got a sense of purpose and that they’re doing something that matters.
Even if the garden they create is one that is primarily flowers, that brings a lot of joy to everyone who sees those plants, especially the seniors who tend to them. That matters quite a bit and can help seniors remember that what they do matters.
Starting a garden doesn’t have to be super complicated, either. Simply scattering some wildflower seeds in a clear patch of space could be the barest start. From there, seniors can get help from companion care at home to branch out and consider what else they might want to grow as they learn more and get more excited about the idea of gardening.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Companion Care at Home in Glenview, IL, contact the caring staff at Companion Services of America today at (847) 948-0860. Our home care service area includes Northbrook, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Evanston, Des Plaines, Skokie, Lake Forest, Wilmette, and the surrounding areas.
