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Gifts for the Disabled and Elderly Gardener

© Diana Pederson

This week, let's look at some very practical gifts for your favorite gardener. Each of these gifts is designed to educate or to make gardening tasks easier. To speed your shopping, many of these gifts can also be purchased over the Internet. What could be easier?

MY PICK FOR GARDEN GIFT OF THE YEAR

Do you know a gardener ready to give up this hobby because of a disability? One company, Cubic Gardens has created some very unique cubes for growing plants vertically. These were invented out of necessity and the story of their creation and samples of their use will be in a future column. Take a careful look at these and dream of an indoor or outdoor garden using this unique concept.

TOOLS

Earthmade sells many ergonomically designed tools. Look at their long-handled weeders and cultivators. These could be used by a person sitting in a wheelchair to reach into the garden bed. EZ Reacher Pick-up Tool could easily be used both inside the home and in the garden to assist a person in picking up objects wiithout having to bendover. This would be convenient for anyone on your gift list this year.

Another Earthmade product is their KneeChaps Knee Pads which protect sore knees for those still able to kneel in the garden. For the person unable to stand, the Kneeler Seat would be ideal.

Fiskars is well known for their ergonomically designed hand tools for gardening. Take a look through their catalog for many ideas. I'd love a pair of their micro-tip pruners for indoor gardening. Take a look through their catalog for many other tools designed to make gardening easier.

Another tool that would benefit all gardeners is a pair of long-handled pruners. These can be used to cut down perennials at the end of the growing season or to prune shrubs or trees. FLORIAN® Ratchet-Cut® mini or maxi-lopers would serve the purpose well. Note that one of their design changes was to lighten the weight of the pruners — definitely a plus if lifting is a problem. Self-watering pots of all shapes, sizes and designs would be most welcome by the indoor gardener. These reduce the amount of time needed to water and fertilize plants. Check with your local garden stores for large self-watering containers and hanging baskets suitable for use outdoors.