If you have an elderly loved one that isn’t yet living in a retirement community, they likely are still responsible for the yard maintenance around their home. And while this may be something that they enjoyed when they were younger and a bit more spry, as they continue to age, doing yard work can become very difficult. Luckily, there are things that you can do to help them make some adjustments so that their yard can still look great without having to put quite as much work into it.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for helping your elderly loved one reduce their yard maintenance.
Offer Or Hire Help
For those who live close enough to their elderly loved one that they can stop by regularly, offering your own help with the maintenance of their yard could be a good option. Not only will this help to take a lot of the work off of their plate, but it can also be a good excuse for you to visit often and check on your loved one. And if you’re looking for a way to get a bit more physical activity in your day, this could be an awesome way to kill two birds with one stone.
If doing this manual labor yourself isn’t a possibility, you could also either suggest that they hire regular or occasional landscaping help or even hire someone for them. This way, the work is still getting done, just not by them.
Help Add More Hardscaping
If your loved one’s yard takes a lot of time and work to maintain right now, you may want to suggest having them add more hardscaping so that the actual greenery is reduced.
By adding walkways, borders, and rock or mulch to areas in the yard that might currently be grass or other plants, there will be far less to actually have to maintain on a regular basis. And with the right hardscaping, the yard can still look great even with less green.
Consider Some New Plants
If your elderly loved one likes the idea of having real plants in their yard but can’t handle the maintenance on their own anymore, you may want to help them find plants that are going to require less maintenance in and of themselves.
Replacing shrubs that need pruning with shrubs that are naturally smaller, like elderberry plants, can help to cut down on the time your loved one needs to spend out work in the yard. Putting in some native plants can also help cut down on maintenance so that they can essentially just let their yard go and still have it look like it’s being well maintained.
If you want to help your elderly loved ones have less yard maintenance to worry about, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you know how you can guide them in this process.
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