I am 67 years old and can not bend or carry more than ten pounds due to back problems. Other than deadheading and pruning most gardening procedures are difficult.

Getting up from the ground is tough. Pruning is hard on the hands as is weeding - anything that involved repeated squeezing.

Check out how disabled gardeners meet challenges for their wonderful gardens. The Resources page is full of information that will help you with your project. accessiblegardens.org has plans for raised beds as well as designs to make all gardening easier.

Constant bending after back surgery it wasn't too bad, the SAH did me in and everything has to come up now.

I am 75 fast nearing 76 [Dec.28th] I am a professional gardener plant scientist in a way. I was pensioned off from HM. Gov. in 1984 due to gross degenerative disease of the spine Bye the bye, I live in the UK. It is a surprise that folks outside the UK also suffer so much from back pain etc. I would love to exchange thoughts and feelings and experiences. Big problem. Here in the UK. I have fallen foul of some. Stop the 'Me-ism'. I am an honest person. Yes I have a vast experience in horticultural sciences.

What is the SAH?

For me, it's anything that puts pressure on back, knees or elbows - pulling weeds is the worst because it involves all my pain areas.

btw, I do have some weed pullers, picks, hoes, a rolling seat, and other things that are supposed to get weeds out without bending, but some weeds just have to have the hands on approach.

WOLF-Garten tools from Germany pride themselves on their innovative, ergonomic garden tool designs. They have developed "Stand-Up-Straight" Gardening engineered with their Interlocken system of Garden tools. Tool heads (hoes, weeders, cultivators, rakes, trowels, etc) all click together with handles (available in 11 different lengths, styles, etc.) creating a customized gardening experience. As the US reseller of WOLF-Garten products, I can tell you we have a large customer base of people with chronic arthritis, various physical challenges and disabilities, as well as some customers who garden from a seated position, in a wheelchair. Just recently WOLF-Garten Germany shared with us a link from Niki Preston "The Two-fingered Gardener" (Twitter: @NikiJRP) on her experience in the garden with WOLF-Garten tools. It's worth checking out for sure. I'll post the link to her blog below.http://www.wolfgarten-tools.co.uk/blog/niki-preston-review-oct

I have to agree with the above post. Please forgive me if I ramble on a bit. More and more companies have discovered a niche in the market, that being to concentrate on, forgive for saying so, but the less fortunate. I quote just two examples. Diabetics and gardeners. viz. Diabetics. The weekly shop. Has does this contain sugars etc. At the check out, you pay much more for a product that contains less.

In the garden industry. Thankfully many tools are now made from lighter metals, plus many have aluminium handles and shafts, even carbon fibre shafts. This all comes at a cost, basically due to supply and demand.

For us who suffer back pain and associated disorders. WEEDS... At times these can be got rid of by careful application of weed killers, even dab on types. No, I am not a lover of chemicals in the garden. For the average annual weed production, I prefer this method. Using a Dutch hoe, bye the bye, keep a sharp edge to it. Remember to work backwards. So cut the weed below the soil surface. Then literally using a back and forth movement, cut the weed into pieces. This will also bury the vegative parts below the soil. This save loads of waste and also returned goodness to the soil.

Might I suggest, next time you are in your local park, observe how the gardens go about it. Hope this helps.

Mike.

Joanna. Author of this thread. As so often happens Joanna we have deviated from your subject.

IMO perhaps, starting with a potting trowel/fork. For some gardeners who have wrist probs. Perhaps a slender rod emanating from the boss where the handle is joined to the metal work, say a rod that would extend past the wrist and have a cup like lateral left and right, similar to crutches. This would IMO give strength to the users wrist.

Then for digging. Perhaps some type of cantilever fork and spade. For reaching up and pruning cantilever designs already exist, perhaps carbon fibre to keep the weight down. Regarding as one member mentions, gripping and squeezing is a problem. Once again cantilever and perhaps some kind of air pressure assistment.

I have arthritis in my dominate hand and wrist which is aggravated by gardening: especially pruning, deadheading and hand weeding. The hand aches, swells and the wrist becomes sore. Massage helps. I have often wished I could find a glove that would fit "tightly" so as to massage my hand and steady/support my wrist while I worked. I tried some hand pruners and loppers that were supposed to require less grip strength, but found the individual pruner handles too far apart for my small hands and the loppers opened so wide I could not get them into position for cutting many of the branches I was after. The grip strength of my dominate hand is much less than that of the other and the wrist becomes painful doing anything that puts pressure/strain on it: making a planting row with a hoe, lifting a loaded shovel. I also have 3 bulging discs, severe arthritis and spinal stenosis from L2 to S2. Repetitive bending of course causes aching/pain. I have raised rows in the vegetable/flower garden and a rolling seat. This works fairly well for hand weeding and harvesting, but it must be positioned so close to the rows that it makes moving it along a problem. If I do get down on the ground it is hard to get up as I cannot push off with my right hand at all. If my husband is not around to pull me up, I bear crawl to someplace I can pull myself up. I hope some of this is the type of info you desired. And "Go Bucks"! I'm a 1975 grad.

Keysell. Oh my friend. How I feel for you and share your problems. In an attempt so as not to bore or offend other forum members. I feel that we have so much in common. Amongst my many studies, I along with my late wife and daughter, studied homeopathy. Strange but this form of treatment worked for Val and I, but ,daughter Amanda NO.

Not wishing to offend members. I offer my email address. Perhaps we can continue this via email. mikeallen.a@ntlworld.com

On the other hand, Joanna, I personally find your premise that over 50s are a category of people who are likely to be physical wrecks rather patronising. How about categorising your clientèle by what they can do rather than how old they are? 50 is a long way in the past for me and I have just spent three hours mowing (with a reel mower), shovelling compost and rebuilding a compost bin. That was after an aerobics class and a few games of badminton. It really infuriates me to be ghettoised by age rather than ability. I realise I am lucky to have no physical issues but, please, change your brief to anyone who has gardening issues, not over 50s. That label will turn off both youngsters who might benefit from your ideas and older people who don't.

"and I am currently working on a research project focusing on gardening problems for people ages 50 and older."

Rather than be ageist, focus on specific functional issues, regardless of cause, and how they can be alleviated.

"bad knees" that make kneeling and rising painful or impossible could be in a 20 year old who had one too many ski accident or a spry-for-her-age 80 year old

When I was 30 I had the same wrecked wrists that I do now at "older then 50".

Categories to consider are ... weak grip strength, tendonitis/inflamed joints, overuse and repetitive stress injuries, bad knees, weak upper body muscles, shoulder problems, lower back problems and lifting issues.

I agree. There are people who ages 50 and older who can still manage to do gardening without any health issues at all compare to a young adult who is not used to do some backyard gardening and was asked by his father to help with some gardening, tends to experience back pain and knee problem due to lack of exercise or exposure to work.