Relax and enjoy retirement gardening

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 10

Relax and enjoy retirement gardening

ness” area in my owm garden which is at the ment filled with daffodils.

If you find bending difficult, the raised planter can be an extremely useful aid. The planter should be approximately 400 mm to 500 mm high and preferably be- constructed to enable you to comfortably

sit on the edge while tending the garden or simply relaxing. Providing the bed depth is not too great, it is possible to sit while weeding or picking flowers from the garden. Steps can be a problem for many people as they get older, and where

changes of level occur ramps are more desirable. When constructing ramps make sure that the surface is non-slip. In fact, any paving used in the garden should be of a type which is textured to provide a good foothold if it is wet. Pathways should be a

minimum width of 1.2 metres so that there is plenty of room to wheel the barrow or push the clothes trolley along. Keep your layout as simple as possible, in general avoiding high maintenance features such as pools- The planting should be simple too with ground-cover plants and soil mulches such as pinebark or sawdust to reduce the gafden work to the minimum. '

Odd pockets can be left to grow special flowers. If these become difficult to manage they are easily removed.

Avoid large areas of bedding plants, or rose beds because these are labour-intensive. Vegetable gardens are another area requiring a lot of backbreaking labour. Reduce these to narrow raised planters, tubs or as odd pockets in a permanent shrub border. Lawns can be reduced by enlarging garden.areas covered with weed sup-> pressing mulches and ground-cover plants, thus reducing a lot of mowing. The garden should be a place in which you can relax and enjoy its subtle pleasures without having the. feeling that there is some little chore or other that needs to be done. With correct and careful designing it is possible to obtain a garden which will need very little looking after.

However, it is not possible to avoid some routine work, which any garden requires from time to time — such as the removal of dead branches and foliage, spraying for pests, and watering.

Even watering can be made easier to manage. A fairly extensive range of automatic and semi-auto-matic systems axe available.