National Garden Month Activities for Seniors with Dementia

April is National Garden Month which makes it a great time to get your senior more involved in gardening-related activities, especially if the senior is someone with dementia. The benefits of gardening for seniors with dementia are many. Not only is it a great way to get some exercise but it is also a huge mood booster as it will get the senior outdoors.

Advantages of Gardening for Someone with Dementia

Gardening is something that involves all the senses—sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. When you sit in a beautiful garden, you are surrounded by plants and flowers of all shapes, sizes and colors. It's a cornucopia of visual beauty that anyone of any age can appreciate. But it can be particularly helpful to someone with dementia because this condition, many of your senses are affected.

Someone with dementia might have trouble seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling something through the sense of touch. But when you put them in a garden, all their senses are stimulated.

• They see plants and flowers of various colors and can watch the bees buzzing around them. They can see the leaves and petals blowing in the breeze.
• They can also smell the lovely fragrances emanating from the flowers or just take in the fresh smell of the earth, especially if the garden has just been watered.
• If they actually have the strength to do some gardening, then their sense of touch will also be stimulated as they will be touching the earth, the plants etc.
• And if they are growing fruits or vegetables, then they might end up harvesting them and using them to cook something nutritious in the kitchen, in which case their sense of taste will also be stimulated.

For someone whose sense may have become a little dulled due to dementia, a garden can help them to experience the sense of joy we feel when our senses are stimulated.

Gardening Gives a Feeling of Accomplishment

If gardening is an activity that your senior has always enjoyed, then they will already have a lot of knowledge about gardening and can put it to good use. This will help them to feel like they are accomplishing something and that's always a good feeling for someone who doesn't work full-time anymore.

Gardening with the Help of an In-Home Caregiver

If you're worried that gardening will be too strenuous for your senior, you don't have to be. An in-home caregiver can help them out with the parts that seem too strenuous. The senior can then use all their knowledge and direct the planting of the garden, as well as its maintenance and the harvesting of any fruits and vegetables they might have planted. They don't need to do all the hard work themselves; their in-home caregiver will be there to help out.

For example, if getting on their knees and planting something is too difficult for the senior, then the in-home caregiver can take care of it. But if the planting has to be done in a pot and all the materials can be put on a table, then the senior can do it themselves. In this way, the senior can work with the in-home caregiver and create a beautiful garden.