Tips for Golden Age Gardening

   As we age, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weaker...when it comes to gardening. The good news is: we have the experience and wisdom to garden smarter as we get older.

     Our enjoyment of growing fruit, flowers and vegetables seems to increase as the years fly by. Maybe it's because we've come to better appreciate how nature works. Maybe it's because we enjoy doing things closer to home. Or, maybe it's because plants don't talk back. 

     Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain: we don't bend down into a flower bed, lift bags of fertilizer and pull weeds as easily as we used to. As a result, we know that a few hours working briskly in the yard may result in an evening of moving slower.
   
    Still, there's no reason why you can't enjoy the good exercise of gardening (burning up to 7 calories a minute!). Just get rid of those tasks that are monotonous or excruciatingly difficult. Here are some tips for implementing an easy-care garden for the Golden Years, advice that can be summed up in four words: automate, elevate, eliminate, delegate.

• Automate. Provide your garden with an automatic watering system. The efficiency of an automated sprinkler or drip irrigation system protects your plants from the summertime heat when you're away from home. And, a good drip system reduces water usage, unwanted weed growth and plant diseases. Replace your old irrigation control system with a model that can control more valves with more flexibility. For example, the Hunter line of irrigation control systems automatically adjust water run times based on the season and the weather. And it will automatically turn off your sprinklers if it senses rain. 

Consider installing battery operated water timers at distant faucets to control the watering of garden beds. The better ones not only turn the water on and off, but offer extended run times (perfect for drip irrigation) as well as multiple cycles per day (perfect for watering container plants on hot summer days).

Install low-voltage night lighting, equipped with sensors, to automatically come on at sunset throughout the yard.

• Elevate. Build raised planters for your flowering plants and vegetables. Not only do raised beds reduce the amount of stooping and kneeling that are a necessary part of gardening, raised beds provide better drainage for plants that don't like "wet feet". Built of wood, concrete or brick, a raised bed, 18-24 inches high, gives you a place to sit while weeding, pruning or harvesting. Make the raised beds any length you desire; but keep the width less than four feet across for ease of reaching into the middle of the bed. And lining the bottom of these beds with quarter-inch mesh hardware cloth will keep gophers from sampling the fruits of your labor.

• Eliminate. Life is too short to put up with a problem plant. Why waste time fretting over a habitually under-performing perennial, shrub or tree? Why tolerate tree litter or plant roots that are upheaving concrete? If it is growing awkwardly or is consistently pest infested despite your best efforts, get rid of it. Purchase another plant that will do better.

Although the attempt to totally eradicate weeds is an exercise in futility, adding three or four inches of mulch, such as a walk-on bark, can dramatically reduce the amount of time you spend pulling weeds.

If you really want to cut down on a monotonous garden chore, save money and time...get rid of the lawn! Mowing, edging, weeding a lawn can average an hour a week. Replace that ongoing chore with a garden area that is beautiful, uses much less water (with the right plants), and eliminates most weeding (thanks to several inches of mulch).

The area you see above was 1200 square feet of a bermudagrass lawn in nearly full sun. It was an area that was a lot of work to maintain and keep irrigated, and offered none of the benefits of a real garden. 

We replaced that lawn with what you see here: a fountain (that attracts birds and beneficial insects), dwarf fruit trees (such as the Garden Gold peach) and blueberries in containers, as well as native plants such as California buckwheat that attracts beneficials and pollinators. The best part? That area now uses 88% less water than the former lawn. And although it may sound heretical coming from me, there's nothing wrong with ripping out an underperforming turf area and replacing it with...an artificial turf putting green (top picture).

• Delegate. Somewhere in your neighborhood, there is the teenager looking to pick up some spending money doing yard chores (I know, that's like searching for the Holy Grail!); but there may also be the guy or gal who has that tractor, front loader, chipper-shredder, backhoe or whatever that could accomplish in a fraction of the time what you are attempting to do with a shovel, small mower or saw. Ask your neighbors for recommendations for professional landscapers and arborists. Check your home owner's insurance for coverage...and then seek them out. Parceling out yard work to others is tough for gardeners; but grit your teeth, open your wallet...and save your back.