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Gardening for the Elderly
AverageNoodle
Posts: 8
Hi all,
I was hoping for a bit of advice so I can spruce up up my grandparents garden please. It's currently a bit neglected as my grandparents can't manage much gardening these days. My mum mows the lawn fairly regularly but doesn't get much time do to other gardening tasks.
The garden is on a slope and south-west facing, with chalky soil. It's in the Kentish coastal south east, but the garden is up on the cliffs so it can get a bit chilly and windy. I forgot to write down my measurements (d'oh!) but I know the patio in the photos below is 4m wide and the bank between it and the fence is around a metre wide. There's currently hollyhocks, Japanese anemones, a climbing rose and a few clematis already in the garden, so I was thinking of cottage style planting.
My thoughts are to remove the useless strip of lawn between the patio and fence and plant it up, plus create a proper border along the back fence. Any suggestions of really low maintenance plants?
My concern is that, in my enthusiasm for making the garden look pretty with plants, I'll just be creating more gardening maintenance which my grandparents won't be able to manage.
My nan used to love gardening but she can't kneel or bend down. I think she'll able to sit in a chair and dead head / weed etc plants edging the patio on the raised slope / any raised planters that I put in, but any other plants need to be able to get on with things on their own.
Any advice on making the garden beautiful without adding too much work would be greatly appreciated. My budget is fairly low, so I can't afford to do anything too radical with the hard landscaping. I do have a very handy partner who is good at making wooden planters and raised beds cheaply however
I was hoping for a bit of advice so I can spruce up up my grandparents garden please. It's currently a bit neglected as my grandparents can't manage much gardening these days. My mum mows the lawn fairly regularly but doesn't get much time do to other gardening tasks.
The garden is on a slope and south-west facing, with chalky soil. It's in the Kentish coastal south east, but the garden is up on the cliffs so it can get a bit chilly and windy. I forgot to write down my measurements (d'oh!) but I know the patio in the photos below is 4m wide and the bank between it and the fence is around a metre wide. There's currently hollyhocks, Japanese anemones, a climbing rose and a few clematis already in the garden, so I was thinking of cottage style planting.
(there's around another metre of the garden to the left of this image - mostly planted / overgrown weeds along the fence).
My thoughts are to remove the useless strip of lawn between the patio and fence and plant it up, plus create a proper border along the back fence. Any suggestions of really low maintenance plants?
My concern is that, in my enthusiasm for making the garden look pretty with plants, I'll just be creating more gardening maintenance which my grandparents won't be able to manage.
My nan used to love gardening but she can't kneel or bend down. I think she'll able to sit in a chair and dead head / weed etc plants edging the patio on the raised slope / any raised planters that I put in, but any other plants need to be able to get on with things on their own.
Any advice on making the garden beautiful without adding too much work would be greatly appreciated. My budget is fairly low, so I can't afford to do anything too radical with the hard landscaping. I do have a very handy partner who is good at making wooden planters and raised beds cheaply however
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Posts
Are you willing/able to help them out with maintenance at all, say once a month ? Cottage style planting is lovely but it does involve deadheading etc. Shrubs would be lower maintenance .
Edited to add that raised beds are a good idea, if your partner can make them with quite wide edges that could be used as a seat, if your grandparents can manage that. If you planted scented things such as lavender, they can smell the scent more easily.
I would also see if you can get all those empty looking tubs working again and fill them with decent planting compost and some annuals that will give bright, seasonal interest and just need watering and maybe dead-heading.
Something else you could consider is making just a few planting holes next to the fence and planting a climbing or rambling rose or another clematis trained along wires you can stretch between vine eyes screwed into the fence posts. These would provide colour and interest for them to look at and maybe perfume too depending on what you choose.
Think about it, consult and then let us know which options you prefer and we can offer more specific help and advice.
If your nan likes a bit of "pottering", she could deadhead things such as marigolds, or petunias don't need deadheading .You can use water retaining granules so that less watering is required . If she finds it difficult to lift a heavy watering can, she can then use a small one now and again.
I would be interested to see what you come up with, if you don't mind posting some photos.
I would start modestly and see how they get on, so something nice up the fence, and cleaning and tidying up the patio and redoing the pots.
And if you do want to turn the grass strip into a shrub boarder make sure you use weed suppressant fabric so they don’t have to weed it!