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Home » When Gardeners and Their Gardens Grow Old

When Gardeners and Their Gardens Grow Old

by Ilona Erwin Filed Under: the REAL world

Photo by: Coley Christine
Weeds grow, and so it goes

It is a fact of life. Like weeds. You don’t even notice how it creeps up on you, but suddenly it is there and it must be dealt with:

Age

Two things begat this post, the fact that the heat has forced me to stay indoors and updating a post that had very good advice for older gardeners.

Advice that I must now seriously take for myself.

Heat

The heat advisories would have been laughed at and lightly dismissed in my younger years as a gardener. Today I did not even venture out in the morning because yesterday’s piddling work was too much and I don’t want to repeat the experience.

Yes, I had to recover from watering my containers in the high humidity and 90 degree temps that feel like triple digits.

Weeding and tending the vegetable garden will have to wait for more reasonable temperatures.

I’m Old

If I was thinking of “getting the garden ready” when I wrote that post of garden advice for older gardeners, that day has now arrived.
When gardens and gardeners age, change comesOld Gardeners Should...

I hate the idea of giving up my large yard and dreams of flower gardens, but reality is that something MUST change. It doesn’t help my state of mind that I saw the movie, ‘Iris‘, starring Judy Dench. It drove home the fact that aging people too often procrastinate necessary changes to their living.

Even when health problems or losses don’t necessitate such changes, other circumstances often do.

A List Of Garden Changes

Things I see that must change:

  1. I need more help- hired help must be found next year. For the first time in my life I think I will need to engage someone to occasionally do some of the chores.
  2. Spring is more a time to pay attention to pruning than planting. A mature garden looks unkempt if bushes are growing will-nilly.
  3. A more permanent solution to the fieldstone walk. Polymeric sand  for the cracks between the stones.
  4. Redesign garden space near the house.
  5. Lots of other things that I will need to brainstorm this winter.

Are you planning for the day when the garden demands more than you might be willing to give it? Has aging interfered with how you dreamed your garden would look?

What’s going on in your stage of life and how does that affect the way you plan to landscape?

 

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About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

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Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

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