Not With Arthritic Gardening Aids

There are a host of adapted aids to help arthritic persons around the house. Many are familiar — from special kitchen aids like lipped plates to grooming and bathing aids such as elevated toilet seats and hand grips for the bathtub.

But to many people who suffer from arthritis, the garden is a completely different place. Just thinking of the garden may be enough to cause pain and discomfort. After all, if it’s hard to button a blouse, how could one expect to sit in the dirt and trowel the garden?

Kneeling? Digging? Clever Arthritic Aids to Get You Into the Garden

Arthritic persons often feel more comfortable in the house. After all, the house is a controlled environment. No surprises here. The house might already be adapted to make it easier to eat, sleep, and bathe. The house is safer. As a result, many arthritic persons start to feel cooped up, caged-in…imprisoned.

No wonder. When it’s Spring, who wouldn’t want to be outside planting seeds for flowers? When it’s Fall, why not gather leaves? Gardening isn’t just a difficult task to be surmounted; gardening actually helps ease the pain of arthritis.

Yes, a report by ABC News demonstrates that gardening helps with joint flexibility and bone density–both essential for people with arthritis. In fact, research has shown that gardening develops bone density as well as does weight training. Not to mention, being outside in fresh air and sunlight provides an added mood boost to arthritic persons accustomed to spending most of their time indoors.

Enter adapted gardening aids, a newer category of arthritic aids developed in response to a more mobile generation of arthritic persons. Have difficulty holding a garden trowel? Manufacturers have designed a new type of trowel that allows you to hold your hand in a natural, upright position–some even with wrist straps for added stability. Sitting and moving around causing you pain in your legs? A neat garden seat caddy will keep you off of your knees–so that you can move from the petunias to the begonias with greater ease and comfort.

Aids for Indoor Gardening, Too

Not all gardening happens outside. Potted and hanging plants provide a welcome burst of green and bright color to staid indoor environments. Or perhaps outdoor gardening, despite all the clever gardening gadgets and tools, is still too difficult for you. Then it’s time to tend to the indoor plants.

Before anything, you need to be able to reach the plant or spray bottle. Imagine if it’s a hanging plant that needs to be turned. Reaching high is out of the question. Lightweight reachers and grippers are available to help you grasp whatever you need to start taking care of your indoor plants.

Once you have taken hold of that water sprayer, how do you expect to pump it without causing hand and wrist pain? It’s a snap with inexpensive battery-powered sprayer bottles that work just like the real thing—but better. They spray your plants faster and more evenly than any hand-pump sprayer bottle ever can.

Never let it be said that the garden–whether indoor or outdoor–is off limits to arthritic persons. Because of great new advances in arthritic aids, arthritic persons can sit, trowel, plant, water, and spray to their heart’s content.