Gardening with seniors -- March Unity newsletter

By Laureen Fagan

This week, I listened to an NPR story about families struggling to have shared dinner meals together, and how hard it is to prepare healthy, home-cooked meals every day. They want to, because they know about the nation’s obesity and other diet-related medical problems. They want to, because meals are about conversation and relationships too. They want to, but the world is so busy and it’s hard. 

Hard on limited incomes, hard in underserved communities with limited access to fresh produce and local food. Harder still for some Indiana seniors, living on fixed incomes with a SNAP card for food assistance. According to recent figures, a senior living alone among us gets on average $1.23 per meal. 

Take a minute and count that as if it were change in your palm. That’s $3.69 per day, or $25.90 for your weekly shopping trip. Forgetting for now, hard that trip can even be to make if you don’t drive. And not even talking about how nourishing those meals are without friends, family and shared conversation.

The thing is, our seniors are often a treasure of gardening knowledge and expertise. Many of them remember their farms and their Victory Gardens. Anyone who’s 75 years old today? Was born before “food” was new and improved, packaged or processed or convenient. It’s true that some products, like packaged salad greens, are easier for some seniors to use in an adaptive sense. But it’s more true that seniors can benefit from having garden access, while the rest of us are blessed by their friendships.

Unity Gardens plays a huge role in making free, fresh food available to our senior neighbors. For Unity gardeners, committed to community building and food justice in gardening, seniors are among our favorite volunteers, partners and guests. So as you begin cold-weather planting and seed-starting  – yes, it’s time – you may wish to think about ways you can include seniors in your gardening season plans.

Here are a few ideas that can work in your own garden, your neighborhood or your Unity-network site:

·         Reach out to senior neighbors, and invite them to help you on the basis of their ability. There’s lots of gardening tasks that don’t involve digging potato trenches or filling wheelbarrows. When they share in the bounty, they’ll know they were key contributors active in the garden’s success.

·         Consider creating a space for seniors! Raised beds at the right height can be weeded by anyone who’s more comfortable sitting. Container gardens and watering cans can bring joy at home. A cool, shady spot in August is just the right place for a picnic table when seniors come to visit.

·         Think Meals Without Wheels. Growing food in the garden only makes sense if we eat it, so think about meal planning and preparation. For seniors? This can really stretch $1.23, add such rich variety and texture to the nutrition, and limit the salt and sugar in packaged items that seniors are so often restricted from having. Garden together – and then help a senior cook and freeze.

·         Learn the secret many seniors taught us: Slow food is actually faster, and “Cooking Day” is a real timesaver. I often prepare 10-15 meals at a time, on one afternoon. It’s crazy in-season fun, on a rainy day when the garden’s too wet to work. Freeze them in reusable containers and pop them out each day for lunch at work, or into the microwave when you come home. Per $1.23 meal? It takes more time to drive, wait in a fast-food line, order from a stranger and pay more for less. 

·         Listen to seniors’ gardening stories and gardening advice. We all benefit from work that’s been done by Latino migrant workers, former Mississippi sharecroppers and our Depression-era friends. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet them, and honored to learn from their experience.