Hello everyone,
I wanted to post here to get feedback from my fellow gardening community about gardening as you age. I've found that my mobility has decreased over the years, and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or products they recommend for reducing strain on my body while still trying to enjoy my favorite hobby, gardening.

Thank you, an I hope everyone's getting excited and prepared for the warmer months ahead!
- Kathy Gallanis

Raised beds help some people by reducing the need to bend over.
A garden tractor helps haul heavy loads
I've found a oscillating/stirrup hoe is much easier to use than the traditional hoe
I reduced my need to haul water around by installing drip irrigation

But the best thing is a local teenager who wants to make a little cash by doing your weeding, hoeing, tilling, etc

I use a small bench that can be used to kneel on; when turned over can be used to sit on.

When I do all my planters for the summer, I usually do them in the garage where I have a decent padded folding chair, so I can sit in the shade and plant them all and without bending over. I can also make a mess there, the smooth concrete floor is much easier to sweep up than the patio concrete.

To move them in place, I have a flat dolly (basically it's a rectangular frame with wheels that I put a 1/4" board on it) that holds multiple planters and I can just pull it where it needs to go with a cheap attached chain or rope. If you have a planter too heavy to move, just move the chair to the planter, I make sure the area is in shade if I have to do that.

I have one of those benches that you can sit on when doing pruning or weeding for long periods of time instead of standing and bending in the hot sun. They usually have pockets to hold your tools as well.

One thing that requires a lot of time and bending, when I have to remove a lot of grass to make flowers beds or widen them, I just sit on the grass and do it. It goes so much quicker and so much easier. When I first decided to plant perennials and had to pull up grass I thought it was going to take me years for about a 65' x 3' wide length whenever I tried to tackle it. Then I tried just sitting on the grass and doing it and I got it all done in 2.5 easy days with a tool that just cuts through grass and roots.

Change your standards. Simplify everything. Go slow.

Don't fall down! Don't try to do two things at once.

Try to remember what it is you were going after. If you can't remember, then it wasn't worth going after.

Used to be, I'd keep everything neat and tidy; straight edges for the beds, no weeds whatsoever! Perfect pruning. Now, I relish chaos.

I spend more time watching the garden than in controlling it, enjoying it as much as ever. The changes, I have changed. But just the being, out there, is enough for now.

Agree with everything greenriverfs said. If it takes me 7 days or even 2 weeks to plant what I used to do in 3 days, I'm fine with that. Don't pick out plants that require constant work and attention. If flowers need deadheading, I pass those by and pick another variety that doesn't. I also set up drip irrigation to all my planters along with a fertilizer tank, so once I get them set up in spring, I spend the rest of the season relaxing, reading and watching them grow and the hummingbirds they bring.

I don't get any weeds in the planters, and very few in the perennial areas, so it's easy enough to just walk around when I notice a weed there and pull it. I've also been sprinkling Preen on the perennial areas, I'm sure that helps keep the weeds down.

Ditto to riverfs!

Eliminate "have to's" and replace with "wish I could", or just drop it!

Enjoy all your efforts from previous years.

I've switched to light weight battery op hand clippers, small battery op chain saw, reciprocating saw-battery op. Also use a garden tractor and a large John deer tractor with scooper and to mow the pastures and various other chores plus hauling.

I have several acres and a pretty good size pasture to manage, horses, moles, voles, gophers, raccoons, bobcats, bears… just keeping cameras around the property is a huge help.

Also using 'Mindfulness' before tackling any project is absolutely the most important step. Think ahead plan out projects …like using leverage with other objects to move heavy objects instead of lifting.

Wearing elastic supports for back, knees and shoulders. Dressing for gardening isn't just a pair of gloves any more.

Also been downsizing the garden lil by lil. Keeping the garden with in easy manageable spaces .

Keep the core muscles strong and understanding my personal limitations is key to successful gardening as we age. Add always drink a protein shake to help maintain energy for a lil better endurance rate.

Pay attention to slight back twinge, stop the action, get and stay in shape with some basic stretching and as mentioned core strength. Stay hydrated.

Ditto to the raised beds or planters, vs. "flower beds." It's so much easier to water pots than pull weeds. Or, like Nancy, setup a drip system and take pics of hummingbirds while the plants are being automatically watered. : )

I can't spend hours squatting to pull weeds like I used to. I've mostly given up on herbaceous perennials to concentrate on bigger shrubs and re-seeding plants that are taller than the weeds. If I can't get rid of them, at least they'll be under other plants that I do want to see.

I can't dig up baby trees like I used to either - and they're almost always near the base of a shrub where I don't want to dig anyway. Now I snip them @ ground level and put 1-2 drops of brush killer on the stump with a tiny paintbrush.

I have one area where berry vines have snuck in and established. I'm completely giving up on that spot for this year and am going to start over from scratch with a cover of several layers of heavy cardboard, a LOT of mulch, and just put some pots there until until next year.

There has been some down-sizing too. I've given up on shady areas with trees above. So many more mosquitoes in those areas anyway, I was never able to enjoy those spots except to constantly pull weeds. Now concentrating more on the views out of my windows and my walk from the carport to the house. Garden areas that I have to go outside to see are the lowest on my priority scale.

I've also learned to not squander the beautiful winter and spring weather days and to do as much as possible then because when it gets hot, heavy outside chore are just not doable. If I'm gonna stroke-out, it's not going to be because I was pulling weeds.

Some weeds are just easier to zip over with a string trimmer than try to completely eradicate. If the "good plants" get a chance to grow above them, that helps. Ideally I trim often enough so weeds don't drop any new seeds. Usually easier said than done.

Great points, Tiffany.

Concentrating on views is so worth the effort.

It depends on whether the strain comes from lack of use, or true debilitating corrosion of the biological parts.
The latter, all ideas here are good.

The former, avoiding aches and pains that come with getting older and back in shape is the worst thing any one who is a "mature" citizen can do.
I had an Aunt I was taking care of, who was in her late eighties, and who was becoming increasingly immobile due to, simple a fact; Her attitude was, I will not do it because I do not want to.

She had a chair, the only one she would sit in, that was labor, for me to get out of when I was in my fifties; Her therapist told me that my continuing to use that chair for her was the best thing I was doing; it was forcing her to use , and maintain, muscles, to stand-up, she would not use any more due to her abandoning of normal house hold chores, by choice. (There was unknown medical psychological reasons causing her change, also, but she was still a stubborn German.)

I will never stop using my gardening muscles as much as I can. Gardening is such a rewarding form of exercise for me. I've been outside for hours today in fact.

Take a 5 gallon pail with you to help you up. I'm new to this aging and inflammation thing (hate it!) and found when everything stiffens and to get off the ground, a 5 gal pail is a huge helper to standing back up again.

The hardest for me is when my mind would like to get it all done and I used to weed all day long. But I'm slowly getting it through my noggin that a bit each day is where it's at. A bit each day is more productive than all at one shot and not being able to move for days later because I bullheadedily pushed myself.

Pacing can be your friend!

Ditto to someone who said sit right on the ground to weed. I have a sharp, Korean made curved tool that makes it easy to dig in and pull, to uproot the weeds.

Sally, that sounds exactly like what I have, curved blade with weird teeth that aren't really teeth. It slices into the hard ground easily and just rips up the roots it passes. It's one of my favorite gardening tools that I wouldn't live without. I let my neighbor borrow it once, he ended up buying one for himself he loved it so much.

I won't remember!

I now record everything- however I choose to- sometimes I email myself, or
I record things by phone camera pictures, knowing the picture records both the date and the subject, or I make an online calendar event standing in the garden- like when I plant seeds and another event when I see them sprout, or when I start harvesting an item-
So I can scroll back next year to see those events as a record of my timing archived as it was this year.

Screenshot or printout the seed orders- double-seed-buys are a thing!

I won't remember!
I now tag everything. Plant a row of peas? Tag it.
Divide a perennial? Tag it.
Up-pot those tomato seedlings?
Try two varieties of beans on the same row?
Fertilize some pots this week, but waiting till next for other?
Tag-Tag-Tag.

Did I ever remember all these details anyway?

another change that has hit me is not having the perfect recall of everything I did in the garden last month, or last week or yesterday

RpR said:avoiding aches and pains that come with getting older and back in shape is the worst thing any one who is a "mature" citizen can do.

YES !!! I am assuming all of us posting here are older (I'm only 65), but remember how when we were younger, we might work extra hard and get muscle aches. Isn't it obvious that that was a good thing for body strength and health in the long run?

Certainly age is a factor, but if you don't adhere to the saying if you don't use it, you lose it, then you will be a goner. Of course you can't do all that you use to, and you can't push yourself as intensely as before, but you can still push. Simple things can force you to exercise more:
-- the chair seat at my computer is at its lowest position - 16 inches high. (Use those leg muscles, getting up and sitting down!)
-- the bottom of my monitor is 40 inches. (It forces me to sit up straight.)
-- use a stool instead of a chair with a back.
-- Stretch every morning! (Even so, whenever I climb a tree, I still get sore 1-2 days later.)
-- Eat more nutritiously. Us older people eat less and often require more nutrients because we don't digest and utilize food as effectively. Muscle cramps are not just "there". They are there for a reason: maybe telling you you need more water, electrolytes, magnesium, potassium, etc. I know my body requires more water than it used to.

---- Know your body and listen to it! ---- but if you just give in, it's a slippery slope to more and more physical (and mental) inability.

Reading the above post are all great reviews in time to remember before spring comes.
The biggest helper in my garden are reachers. They are available yeah you know where the big 'A' amazon…drug stores pharmacy's. 4' long and I can pick up things as small as a pill outside a big help when moving small piles of ? Or picking up plastic pots etc. I have one everywhere.