Is Gardening Safe?

[ photo by Anna Shvets ]

Is gardening safe for my aging parent?

Well it seems like Summer has finally arrived here in Indiana after a cold and dreary past few weeks. I have seen a lot of lawn mowing and landscaping happening throughout my neighborhood. This got me thinking about past patients who specifically asked about returning to their outdoor lawn care and gardening routines.

There were two particular patients that came to mind when I started thinking about those in the aging or impaired population who continue to do yard work and gardening. One of these individuals I will call John. John had a stroke.

Lawn care after a stroke.

Fortunately for him, his deficits were pretty mild, so his stay in inpatient rehab was fairly short. Each day I would go into his room, he would be looking out his window and would comment on how tall his grass was likely getting. He proudly told me about his two and half acre lawn that he meticulously kept for the past 45 years of living in his home. 

Because it was early summer when he had his stroke, he knew his grass was growing rapidly, and he just couldn’t help but worry how it was looking. He told me the first thing he planned to do when he got home would be to get on his riding mower and give the yard a good mow…insert record scratching sound right here. I am a huge proponent of staying active, as you might be able to tell from reading my blog, but getting onto a lawn mower right after receiving rehab from a stroke is not the best plan. 

Gardening after spine surgery.

I also thought about my patient, let’s call her Donna, who just loved to plant and work her vegetable garden every year. She told me how she grew tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, and on and on. She would can her produce every fall to get her through the winter and still have enough left over to give to her neighbors.

Unfortunately for Donna, she had very severe lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing of the space for the spinal cord in the lower back) that worsened to the point of causing weakness in her legs. Her only option was a surgery to decompress and fuse her spine. Her surgery had gone as good as it could, but she was far from her usual active self. She opted for a stay in inpatient rehabilitation to give her a jump start on her recovery. The unfortunate side effect of her surgery was the limitations she was going to have after the extensive fusion she had undergone. This biggest limitation was her ability to bend and twist. She would be much more limited than she was accustomed to. 

(Related blog post: What Happens After A Spinal Cord Injury?)

Both of these patients had different diagnoses for their rehab stay. Both did very well in their rehabilitation stays, but both were leaving rehab with deficits that would limit their usual outdoor activities.

(Related blog post: Where Do You Go After Acute Rehab?)

You may have aging parents who still live in a home that requires ongoing outdoor care. For many, outdoor lawn care or gardening is something they just are not willing to give up. In so many cases, I say this is okay! Is there risk? Absolutely.

Like so many of the things we enjoy, the risks and benefits need to be pitted against each other to determine which outweighs the other. If the benefits outweigh the risks, then let your loved one continue to do the activities outside that he or she loves. It might be what is keeping her from sitting in her chair all day watching television becoming more and more deconditioned. 

(Related blog post: Combat Aging Parent Deconditioning)

Conversations about safety and deciding what can be done.

So how do you handle those conversations and make those decisions? As you might have guessed, there is no one size fits all answer. Every situation is different.

Let’s circle back to my patients, starting first with John. John and his family were fortunate that he was coming from the rehabilitation environment and had a good rapport with his therapy team and myself. He was willing to listen. We discussed what could possibly go wrong if he were to immediately try to get onto his lawn mower.

The first hurdle he would come to was to be able to actually get onto the lawn mower. It takes a pretty decent sized mower to manage a lawn the size he had, and he started to realize that might be an issue. From there, we talked about the weakness in his right foot that might make it difficult to control the accelerator and brake of the mower. The weakness was quite mild, but it did worsen as he fatigued (a common occurrence in one experiencing weakness after a stroke). He was able to further see some of the issues that could arise from this.

(Related blog post: Recovery After Stroke)

I do want to add that I felt that John would eventually be low risk to return to mowing his lawn, I just didn’t think it was a good idea to start right away. I really wanted John to be able to return to mowing his lawn. I knew that was something he loved, and any time I can keep a patient doing something he or she loves, it is a major win.

We discussed the situation further, with me making it clear I felt he would ultimately be able to return to his lawn care routine. We eventually came to the agreement that he could start by using his push mower that had the safety release that would shut off the blade if he were to fall or become too tired. He agreed to let his son, whom he had personally trained, use the riding lawn mower to complete the large portion of his lawn. The plan would then be to go on a week by week basis of discussing with his therapist how he was progressing to determine when he would be safe to move to the riding mower. All in all, John was okay with this plan, and by the end of the summer, he was doing a large majority of the yard work himself!

Moving onto Donna. The discussion I had with her was a bit different. She could see the writing on the wall. She knew she physically could not bend over the way she used to. I had noticed she was pretty down one day, so I asked her what was upsetting her. She told me she was sad that she was not going to be able to put out a garden this year.

We talked for a while about this, and after some troubleshooting, we both realized gardening would in fact be possible for her again. The trick was going to be keeping her from needing to bend over, and that would be able to be solved with the building of elevated garden boxes. Fortunately, her son was quite handy and agreed he would be able to build the boxes at the correct height for her. Her garden would not be as big as it once was, but she was elated to know that she would still be able to grow enough fresh vegetables to meet her needs. 

Seek solutions based on desires and a dose of reality.

Both conversations with my patients started a bit tough. Just as with any conversation in which you are going to possibly tell someone they will not be able to do what they once did, the talk must start with gentleness.  Going into a conversation with an iron fist stating “this is going to be how it is” rarely works.

Instead, the conversation was approached with a combination of facts and openness to determine some alternative solutions. Let me encourage you to approach your loved one with a similar mindset when you begin to discuss what he or she might need to change as the outdoor lawn season approaches.

Feeling overwhelmed with the process?

Afraid you may not make the right decision at the right time? This stage of life for you and your aging parent often brings more questions than answers. Reading information from a trusted source like me can help guide you in the process. However, if you still feel overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I am happy to help with a personalized plan for your unique situation.

© 2022 Jessica Kluetz, DO