Accessible Tools and Gardens Grow Local Food

Nations are aging. The baby boomers are starting to move into their senior years. Still active, the boomers want to continue gardening, and gardening needs to move with them. To grow local food, baby boomers need accessible gardens.

Taller raised beds can provide easy access for seniors. These raised beds reduce the amount that seniors have to kneel, which reduces back and knee pain. Gardening shouldn't be painful for seniors, because this will reduce the chance that they will want to grow their own food. Accessible or adaptive gardening tools allow seniors to prune, weed, and dig without pain. These tools are specially designed to require less physical strength, bending and lifting than other tools might require.

For the elderly or those with physical disabilities, wheelchair-accessible gardens provide access so that people can grow their own local food. High raised beds and large pathways with good wheelchair support allow users to move amongst the garden beds. The Dowling Community Garden in Minneapolis is a good example of a community garden that has integrated accessibility into their site. The web site even features a PDF version of accessible raised bed instructions so that others can create them as well.

Care homes are recognizing the need to integrate growing food into their daily routines. Food gardens are springing up at care homes, where seniors can go to relax in the garden, listen to the wind, enjoy the weather, and get their hands dirty. Many people grew up with a garden and enjoyed their gardens at home before they moved into a care facility, and this allows seniors to retain a connection with the land, even if they do not have their own garden to maintain. At Sunshine Care in San Diego, kids and seniors garden together. They even have their own fruit tree orchard to maintain. This program creates connections that move local food into the realm of social sustainability, turning food gardens into a venue for sharing between generations.

To continue to grow local food and to share knowledge between the generations, those who create care centers, seniors programs, and community garden spaces need to come together to create food-growing spaces that suit the burgeoning ranks of seniors. These senior gardeners come with a deep knowledge of gardening techniques, many of them transplanted from countries around the world. Their knowledge can enrich local food gardening culture, but only if community gardens and seniors' programs adapt and embrace their unique skills.