Publications - AHS TAG - May/June- 2000 Millennium Focus

Lifestyles and physical abilities may change with age, but these changes needn't keep you out of the garden. Many seniors have discovered that by adopting a few modifications in garden style and using some innovative new tools designed to accomplish tasks without causing excessive strain, they are continuing to find great rewards in the garden. Gardening, after all, is about growing

Time is a critical dimension in a garden. With a vision of future shade, we plant a sapling, tend it while it's young, and forget about it while we move on to other projects. Then one day we find ourselves resting beneath its wide-spreading branches. Looking around we notice that our once sunny border has become a shady bed. The shrubs we planted years ago could use some renewal pruning. And our ground cover has encroached on the path, obscuring the definition of both path and bed. Just as gardens evolve over the years and require adjustments, gardeners too must adapt to changes wrought by time.

As we grow older, we may find certain tasks more difficult. Tools we cavalierly wielded a few years ago may seem cumbersome and awkward now. Our years of experience, however, afford us a profound advantage over the beginning gardener-guiding us toward practices we know are reliable, helping us avoid the mistakes of the past, and suggesting new styles that suit our abilities and interests. And perhaps retirement has provided us more time to devote to our horticultural pursuits.

Adopting styles that minimize the impact of diminished physical strength or flexibility helps many gardeners to continue enjoying their avocation when traditional gardening methods become difficult. And a wide range of adaptive tools have been developed that make tasks more comfortable and less of a challenge.

For both the garden and the gardener, the key is adaptation. Why should we continue gardening as we grow older? What are the benefits and rewards? How do we adapt our gardens to accommodate changing needs and abilities? We asked these questions of some long-time gardeners. Their perspectives offer insight and inspiration to us all.

Frances Jones Poetker, 87-year-old plant ecologist, florist, and gardener, points with obvious pride to the four southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) outside her windows that overlook the Ohio River and beyond into Kentucky.

She planted the trees, she explains, in the late '50s, despite neighbors warnings that Cincinnati was too far north-not to mention on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line-for growing that species.

Today, the trees stand two-and-a-half stories tall. Their success can largely be attributed to Poetker's understanding of gardening, microclimates, and plant adaptations; their endurance mirrors her long and continuing interest in gardening and floriculture.

Poetker could easily have retired years ago to rest on her laurels, so to speak. She owned and operated her family's florist business for 44 years, wrote a syndicated column called "Fun with Flowers" for 68 major newspapers, was the first woman director on the board of the Society of American Florists, and served as a board member of the American Horticultural Society for nine years; these are just a few of her many and varied accomplishments.

And she gives no indication of slowing down; in fact, her schedule is rather daunting. In addition to taking care of her garden, she continues to lecture, participate in and judge flower shows, design weekly floral arrangements for her church, and is currently writing a book-her second-that she hopes will inspire people to take a fresh look at how they view flowers in their lives. How does she accomplish so much?

Her youthful vitality, instantly apparent when you talk to her, must be part of the answer. She surmises that it is gardening and her interest in flowers that has kept her feeling young. "And I don't look my age, isn't that convenient?" she quips. Her advice to older gardeners includes sharing their gardening knowledge and experience with youngsters. "Excite them with your enthusiasm," she challenges. "Enthusiasm is so provocative; it just carries you on."

And it is the best way, she believes, to develop a love of nature in children. Another suggestion is to humanize plants-grow plants that hold memories for you. With a smile, she explains that the ordinary cosmos she grows in her yard was her husband's favorite flower. "If you can get sentiment going, hard work won't seem very hard." Sage advice from one who continues to bloom.

When Maxine and Bill Schuler moved to rural Washington, Missouri, from their suburban home outside of St. Louis, they made a deal: If after five years either decided that the larger property, with the expansive gardens they planned, was too much for them to take care of, they would return to suburbia without argument.

Twelve years later, the Schulers are still in Washington. Rather than consider moving, they have adapted the garden to suit when problems arise. The 10-acre property includes forest, rolling hills, open fields, and a marsh.

The Schulers created a series of gardens that takes advantage of these varied sites: a large terrace garden, a vegetable garden, and a native wildflower garden that includes Bill's native aster collection. They transformed former corn and wheat fields into a meadow garden and a native grass garden where, Maxine laughs, "everything is labeled so we can remember them!"

Together Maxine and Bill make quite a gardening team. In addition to their current garden and one in St. Louis, they have gardened in Oregon, California, and Minnesota. "Bill really got into gardening after the kids were grown and he had more time," explains Maxine, who has been gardening for 45 years.

Fortunately, both at 72 are in very good health, though Maxine's vision has begun to deteriorate. The Schulers have adapted their gardens to accommodate their needs in both simple and dramatic ways.

They have reduced the size of their vegetable garden. "I'm not raising corn for squirrels any more," laughs Maxine. When her eyesight began to limit her ability to tend the huge perennial border, she converted it into a deciduous shrub border, leaving only low-maintenance perennials as ground covers.

The slippery slope that led to this garden was a nuisance for her, so Bill constructed an easily navigated boardwalk with large stone steps. The adaptation that has had perhaps the greatest impact on both the look of the gardens and their ease of maintenance is the series of raised beds that Bill constructed.

Nine separate beds range in size from four-by-eight feet to six-by-26 feet-plus two barrels to contain invasive mint. These allow Maxine to work with her herbs, perennials, annuals, strawberries, raspberries, and vegetables at close range.

With so many plants, the Schulers find it helpful to keep a written account of their gardens. Maxine jots down ideas as they occur to her, and, she says, "I always keep a record of what I've ordered...I keep notes of new plant acquisitions, where I've located them, and how they do."

In addition to gardening on their own property, the Schulers share the knowledge gained from their experience with others. Maxine is a long-time Master Gardener volunteer at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and Bill volunteers at the garden's Shaw Arboretum in nearby Gray Summit. The fruits of their labor are widespread.

Polly Hill believes she was born with a passion for gardening. And, 93 years later, her interest continues to grow.

Her family purchased an old sheep farm on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts in the 1920s for a summer home. When she and her husband assumed ownership in the '50s, she decided to "grow an arboretum from seed," and, with family and friends, set off to accomplish just that.

Before that time, the variety of plants grown on Martha's Vineyard was rather limited. Hill considered it "horticulturally impoverished" and wanted to find more plants that would adapt to the rigors of the island environment. Starting plants from seed, she decided, was the surest and most economic way to go about it.

Today the Polly Hill Arboretum, which opened to the public in June, 1998, consists of nearly 2,000 different plants on 60 acres, 20 of which are under cultivation, with the remainder in native, second growth woodland. While she no longer actually digs in the garden, Hill is intimately involved in its activities and lives on the property for about six months of the year. "When she is in residence," explains arboretum director Steven Spongberg, "she is in the collections every day in her golf cart undertaking various projects -helping us decide what should be de-accessioned from the collection and where new plants should be incorporated, keeping detailed records of flowering and fruiting, collecting seeds, and otherwise offering suggestions and providing historical details of importance."

She also conducts special tours of the property and hosts the arboretum's most popular public course, "Conversations with Polly." Over the winter months, when she is not at the arboretum, Hill still maintains almost daily contact with the staff. "My fax machine stays very busy," she admits. She is kept apprised of the goings-on in the gardens-from the sightings of birds to the conditions of plants-and during the off-season she works with the staff to coordinate plans for garden modifications that can be accomplished when spring returns.

While she says that it hasn't exactly kept her young-"I'm getting older every minute!"-Hill believes gardening has been good for her health. She advises gardeners to keep up with their interest as they get older. While you may not be able to do everything you once did in the garden, "you go along with what you can do and what's available," she explains. "I was told that you had to be patient when you grow plants. I'm too busy to be patient," she counters. "There is always something to do, something going on."

And so she keeps busy with her garden: appreciating every change from season to season, recording the details of the plants' growth, looking out for potential new selections, directing necessary adaptations to garden layouts, and sharing her bountiful knowledge with both the arboretum's staff and its visitors.

Avid gardener and garden writer Gerald Taaffe describes his property, centrally located in Zone 4 in Ottawa, as "about half the size of a football field and surrounded on three sides by a tall cedar hedge."

His garden includes several different habitats that accommodate a wide variety of plant taxa. Along with sunny mixed borders, there are wooded, shady areas, a large peat bed, a lily pool and marsh garden, pergolas providing support for a wide variety of climbers, a sunny cactus bed, and a large rock garden.

Taaffe, who began gardening when he was 12 years old, moved to his current garden in 1995, and since then has incorporated "patios, benches, arbors, an amusing clockwork fountain, and other features to encourage entertaining, creative loafing, and just looking at the green life from different angles." Given the extent of his garden, it is difficult to imagine that much loafing-creative or otherwise- actually occurs!

But Taaffe is concerned with minimizing garden maintenance, and one way he accomplishes this is through careful plant selection. "Converting some areas to low-maintenance flowering shrubs and small trees and ground covers takes a little advance planning, but the results can be very nice indeed," he says. He observes that Southerners are often skilled at making the most of woody plants, while northern gardeners sometimes overlook their value. "Rhododendrons, magnolias, witch hazels, daphnes, bottlebrush buckeye, for example, require almost no work once established," he explains, "and a big, multi-colored carpet of heath and heather is the most effective of weed-smotherers."

Other low-maintenance plants that rate high on his list are hellebores, epimediums, and the newest hosta and pulmonaria hybrids. "As for tinkering-time, even a small rock garden offers a great field for propagating a wide variety of unimaginably lovely and interesting plants," he suggests. And once set up, with a good stone mulch, he finds it is relatively easy in terms of labor.

When asked why we should continue to garden as we grow older, Taaffe replies, "One reason to keep up the good work is the way gardens change and surprise, offsetting the 'been there, done that, got the tee-shirt' mindset that tends to go with advancing years." He reflects that his garden displays significant changes throughout the year, "Every winter and early spring there are a great number of plants or even areas that are due to show what they can do for the first time."

He cites a fair-sized patch of Himalayan blue poppies that grew strong and vigorous in 1999-and that he anticipates will explode into bloom this year. "There is always a feeling that the best is yet to come."

Do you have an adaptation-a style, tool, or technique-that has made your gardening easier or more comfortable? Send your story to us at The American Gardener, 7931 East Boulevard Drive, Alexandria, VA 22308, or e-mail to editor@ahs.org. We'll select the best ones to share with other members in the magazine or on our Web site.

Where to look for ideas? You needn't look far to find examples of garden adaptations that could make tasks easier and plants more accessible in your own garden. Raised beds and container gardens enhance many airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants, and shopping malls. While these may be filled with indoor plants, the same style-planted with flowers, vegetables, and herbs-can be employed for your yard or patio. Many public gardens have focused considerable attention on adaptive or enabling gardens, including the following: n Denver Botanic Garden n Brooklyn Botanic Garden n Enid A. Haupt Glass Garden at the New York Botanic Garden n Minnesota Landscape Arboretum n Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario n Chicago Botanic Garden's Buehler Enabling Garden (see our story on this garden beginning on page 48).

TIPS FOR TOOL SELECTION

1. Look for good balance: The tool should fit your grip comfortably and not require great hand strength to use.

2. Look for light-weight tools that are strong and evenly balanced.

3. Look for good construction: Poorly made tools are tiring to use and can be dangerous as they bend and break easily. Check the spot where handle joins tool; cheap tools often break here.

4. Look for adaptability. Hand grips (like BackBuddy or Motus D-Grip) attached more readily to wood shafts; other tools can often be changed in minor ways to accommodate arthritic fingers or aching backs-by padding handles or adding handle extensions.

Accessible Gardening: Tips and Techniques for Seniors and the Disabled by Joann Woy, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, 1997.

Accessible Gardening for People with Physical Disabilities by Janeen R. Adil, Woodbine House, Bethesda, Maryland, 1994.

Easy Gardening: No Stress-No Strain by Jack Kramer, Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colorado, 1991.

Easy Lifelong Gardening: A Practical Guide for Seniors by John Pierce and Roland Barnsley, Trafalgar Square Publishing, North Pomfret, Vermont, 1993.

The Enabling Garden by Gene Rothert, Taylor Publishing Co., Dallas, Texas, 1994.

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, 1992.

American Horticultural Therapy Association, 909 York Street, Denver, CO 80206-3799. (303) 331-3862. www.ahta.org

A.M. Leonard, Inc., P.O. Box 816, Piqua, OH 45356. (800) 543-8955. www.amleo.com. BackBuddy

The Calais Co., Inc., P.O. Box 355, Mendham, NJ 07945. (973) 543-5665. calaisco@aol.com. Fist Grip(tm) tools

Green Goods, 54 Range Road, Suite #7, Windham, NH 03087. (800) 688-9594. OccuMitts

Langenbach Tools, P.O. Box 453, Blairstown, NJ 07825. (800) 362-1991. www.langenbach.com

Lee Valley Tools, P.O. Box 1780, Ogdensburg, NY 13669. (800) 871-8158. www.leevalley.com. Telescoping tools

Motus, 39 Nanton Boulevard, Dept. TH298, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3P ON1. (204) 489-8280. Motus-D Grip

Stillbrook Horticultural Supplies, P.O. Box 600, Bantam, CT 06750. (800) 414-4468. www.stillbrook.com

Walt Nicke Co., P.O. Box 433, Topsfield, MA 01983. (978) 887-3388. www.gardentalk.com. HandForm