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Gardening is a wonderful hobby, and it is something that keeps us fit and healthy. Young gardeners can work all day doing chores, and get up the next day and start all over again.
As we age, these same chores can take their toll on our bodies, making gardening more difficult and sometimes less enjoyable. Enjoying plants doesn’t have to be hard work, or even a hobby for those with a large outdoor space.
If you love gardening but find it hard to do what you used to do, try these gardening project ideas for seniors to keep doing what you love.
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1. Start an indoor herb garden
One of the easiest projects to start with is creating an indoor herb garden. Herbs are easy to grow and perfect for indoors or small spaces. You can also have one on a patio or deck, or even place one on your windowsill inside the kitchen for easy and close access.
Herb gardens are great for the elderly as they also have positive dietary effects, so you get the love of growing plants and access to fresh food.
Here are some handy tips for a successful indoor herb garden:
- Provide plenty of light. Direct sunlight through a window can sometimes be too much, but indirect sunlight is perfect. Herbs like six to eight hours of sunlight.
- Herbs prefer temperatures around 65-75ºF, but a little warmer is fine too. Herbs are forgiving.
- Do not overwater the herbs. Let the top two inches of soil dry out before watering again. If the herbs seem to be struggling, give a little more.
- Use separate pots for each herb inside. Make sure you have good drainage from the pot and use saucers or the like to catch water leaking from the bottom.
- Try basil, thyme, cilantro, oregano or sage.
2. Grow succulents
If you like the look of plants but don’t want to go through too much trouble growing them, succulents may be for you. You can grow succulents from as little as a leaf of another succulent, so the expense should be minimal other than pots and succulent medium.
You can always buy succulents or, if you have access to certain plants, propagate your own by following these simple steps:
- Remove a few leaves from the bottom of your chosen succulent. Gently twist the sheet so that it comes off whole.
- Place the sheet on a dry, warm surface for about three days. They need to dry out a bit. You want a calloused shape at the bottom of the sheet where it broke off.
- Use a cactus or succulent mix as the growing medium in your container.
- Lay the sheet on the backing and gently push the bottom part of the sheet just below the surface. Place a number in the same pot if there is space between them.
- Water daily with a spray bottle, and in about 45 days the plant will be rooted and you can transplant it into individual pots. It really is that simple.
Propagating succulents is so easy and such a fun gardening project, you could use it to make gifts for friends and family.
3. Start a terrarium
If you want a small, easy gardening project for seniors, try starting a terrarium. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a miniature garden of moisture-loving plants sealed in glass bottles or large jars. There are also open versions.
Follow these easy steps:
- Get a large jar with a wide opening. You can buy specific terrarium pots at garden centers, as well as growing media.
- Place a thin layer of horticultural charcoal in the bottom of the jar, followed by a thin layer of lava rock.
- Then add a layer of moss before adding a medium type orchid mix.
- Add your plants and any decorative items like seashells or driftwood.
- Use plants like baby’s tears, button ferns, hen and chick succulents, and sphagnum moss for water retention. Talk to your local garden center for help with the best plants for your size terrarium.
4. Grow microgreens
Microgreens just take up a little space, they grow quickly and are healthy additions to salads, stews, soups, egg dishes and sandwiches. Microgreens take little effort, but you get a lot.
Use gardening pots or containers or even old pans. You can use plastic trays from a garden center or aluminum baking trays. Just make sure they are shallow and have drainage.
Fill them with seed growing medium just below the rim.
Sprinkle the seeds over the surface and cover lightly with more seed growing medium. Spray regularly with a water bottle mister.
Let the greens grow to the desired height and harvest them as needed. You could try:
- pea shoots
- Radish sprouts
- sunflower shoots
- Micro kale
- Micro Rocket
You can also purchase a mix of microgreens, making this senior gardening project even easier to get started.
5. Regrow vegetable scraps
A fun and economical gardening project for seniors that is easy to do is to regrow vegetables from scraps. It’s also fun to do with the grandkids.
You can grow a few vegetables from leftovers, and none are easier than romaine lettuce. Simply put the butt in a few inches of water in a cup or bowl, and within a few days new leaves will begin to grow.
Take the tops off the carrots and place them in a shallow container with water and harvest the vegetables when they sprout. You can do the same with beets, parsnips and turnips. Also try:
6. Make a Japanese moss garden
If you have an adventurous spirit, you can create a Japanese moss garden. It’s basically a miniature moss garden that you can put on a table or use as a centerpiece. There are several types of moss gardens, including simply growing moss indoors decoratively.
Or, there is the practice known as kokedama. It is a bulb wrapped in foam and held together with string or thin wire. To start, use a daffodil or tulip bulb.
Gather what you need first to make your job easier.
- A 12 inch square of foam sheet
- Soil mixture consisting of 60% peat soil and 40% garden soil
- A lightbulb
- Rope or twine
The foam sheet should be double the size of the bulb, and you need enough twine to wrap the bulb around 20 times.
Saturate the foam in water. Add a little moisture to the soil mix to form a ball that stays together.
Create a hole in the ball, insert the bulb, then tamp the soil around it with your hands. Squeeze excess water from the foam and wrap it around the ball.
Place the middle length of the twine over the ball and start wrapping it around in a criss-cross style.
It is now ready to hang or place in a decorative bowl. Sit back and watch it grow.
7. Plant bulbs indoors
Some people like to plant bulbs outdoors, but can’t do it physically anymore. Did you know that some bulbs grow just as well indoors as outdoors? It’s a perfect gardening project for anyone who likes a little color and fragrance indoors.
Paperwhites grow exceptionally well indoors as they don’t need a specific chilling period to flower.
Use good quality seed soil in a large jar or vase. Plant the bulb with the top quarter sticking out of the ground. Water moderately so as not to saturate the soil and the bulb.
Another way is to put a deep layer of decorative stones in the jar or vase and place the bulb in it, keeping the top quarter above the stones.
Water and watch for root growth and plant growth and then flowering. It’s a great way to plant bulbs and enjoy the flowers just like outdoors in the garden.
8. Raise moisture-loving plants for your bathroom
So far we have talked about plants for the kitchen and other rooms in the house, but not for the bathroom. Don’t neglect the toilet with your senior gardening projects.
Plants in the bathroom can turn a dull, boring room into an exciting and comfortable place to relax in the bath or shower, but they have to be the right plants or they won’t survive. Most bathrooms are reasonably dimly lit, hot and humid.
To try:
- snake plant
- ZZ Factory
- Maidenhair fern
- Spider Plant
- lily of peace
- Heart-Leaf Philodendron
Once you master growing plants for bathrooms, you may be able to sell the extras or give them to your friends.
9. Grow cacti
Cacti are low maintenance and thrive in dry conditions. They are therefore the ideal gardening project for those who want to have plants but do not want to deal with complex needs or too much work.
There are many varieties of all shapes and sizes. You can have lots of small ones or a few big ones.
Provide at least four to six hours of sunlight each day. Place them on a bright windowsill and rotate the containers several times a week to ensure the plant receives equal amounts of light and warmth from all sides.
Start small. Choose a bunny ear cactus and scale up from there. Just be sure to keep pets and grandchildren away from the spikes.
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