Let’s face it, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the outdoors is good for everyone, regardless of age or health status. It enables us to top up our Vitamin D levels (an essential nutrient to support immune health and for absorbing calcium for healthy bones), get our body clocks working efficiently, and raise our serotonin levels which generally helps improve our mood and our outlook on the day ahead! For those living with, or supporting someone with dementia, spending outside can be even more rewarding.
Gardening is a particular activity loved by so many of us and is the perfect pastime to enjoy as light relief from a caring role, or together with a loved one – no matter the type of dementia being navigated. In this article you will learn:
- The associated benefits of gardening for people living with dementia and carers
- Suitable garden activities for people living with dementia
- How families can get involved in gardening when visiting a loved one at a care home
- Real-world gardening activities enjoyed in our homes for inspiration and tips
The Benefits Of Gardening For Someone With Dementia
If you have a garden, you’ll recognise that there is always a job to do, no matter the season. Even if you do not have a garden, or have limited space, a few pots on windowsills, hanging baskets outside the front door, or a small herb planter on your patio are all activities that can still provide great pleasure and reward.
Pottering in the garden can help:
- Provide distraction and engagement
- Provide calm, particularly in moments of distress or over stimulation
- Add routine
- Get you moving, boost mood, and provide a focus for physical activity
- Spark memories and conversations
- Stimulate all the senses from listening to the birdsong and touching the flowers, to smelling herbs, sampling the fruit and enjoying all the colours, shapes and (hopefully) sunlight!
- Improve dexterity sills and exercise through potting, planting, digging, sweeping, weeding, pruning, watering, topping up bird feeders, and picking fruit and vegetables.
The list is endless, and all activities are hugely beneficial in the realm of dementia.
Suitable Gardening Activities For A Person With Dementia
The type of activities that someone with dementia can join in with will vary depending on the type and stage of dementia they are living with, as well as their preferences and taste in what they will enjoy, find engaging and stimulating. It will likely need some trial and error to find the tasks they enjoy the most.
Here are some of the gardening activities our dementia residents enjoy at Aria Care homes:
Planning And Preparation
If physical ability is limited, choosing what flowers to plant and discussing where to place them, can be great fun. Many of our residents enjoy organised trips to their local garden centre for inspiration (and some obligatory tea and cake of course!). Our Southborough Nursing Home residents thoroughly enjoyed their recent visit to their favourite garden centre, perusing the rows of plants and choosing plants.
Flower Arranging
Many residents put their green fingers to good use with a spot of flower arranging. This is often done as a group activity and is a great way of getting conversation flowing and sharing memories of special times spent in their own gardens before moving into care.
Tending Flowers: Potting, Transplanting, And Deadheading
Tending flowers is a lovely summer activity that is great for stimulating the senses, as well as engaging residents to help maintain independence and increase socialisation within our homes. Dementia residents love sowing seeds both indoors and outdoors, and repotting seedlings. Planting them out is often a shared task, as it requires dexterity and possibly kneeling (if not planting in a raised bed). Once they are flourishing, deadheading them throughout the summer is a task for all abilities.
Residents at our Knowle Park Nursing Home in Cranleigh recently enjoyed planting up some spring pots while listening to their favourite songs and chatting with friends.
“It made my afternoon so much brighter, the sun felt lovely.”
Resident Shirley at our Knowle Park Nursing Home
“Feeling the warmth of the sun on their skin was a truly refreshing experience that lifted their spirits”
Janika, Health and Wellbeing Coordinator at our Knowle Park Nursing Home
Garden Maintenance
Whether it’s sweeping up, watering, some light weeding, or topping up the birdfeeder, maintaining the garden can be fun. Often, it’s the smallest tasks that can create the biggest sense of achievement in our daily lives, particularly when it comes to dementia.
Building Sandcastles
Why not add a sandbox to the garden? It’s a great summer sensory aid, as well as lots of fun. Our Wytham House residents love partaking in sandcastle competitions when the sun is shining!
Getting Crafty
If being active in the garden isn’t suitable or desirable, then getting crafty could be an option.
You could try:
- Drying flowers for creating cards and pictures
- Making plant labels
- Assembling bug/bee hotels – hollow stems or bamboo shoots tied together are ideal for this.
- DIY birdfeeders
- Making fat balls for birds during winter
- Enjoy sketching a scene whilst sitting in your favourite spot in the garden.
- A spot of painting is always fun. If the thought of getting the paints our is too daunting, you might try something simpler instead – you can have great fun painting shapes and patterns on a brick wall or patio using just water and a paintbrush (it dries quick but fun while it lasts!). Coloured chalks are another winning alternative to paint.
Harvesting Fruits, Herbs, And Vegetables
Enjoying the fruits of your labour (literally!) is always popular. Once you’ve enjoyed picking the fruits, veg, and herbs you’ve grown you could:
Grow pumpkins for Halloween and potatoes for potato salads.
- Make smoothies, cakes, ice lollies, and other delicious snacks
- Have fun with a blind taste test
- Enjoy strawberries and ice cream on a hot day
- Freeze fruit and herbs in ice cubes to enjoy in drinks
- Dry herbs to hang as decorations in bunches. Dried lavender is particularly versatile – use to freshen your home, repel insects, soothe sleep or to add a unique touch to your cooking and crafts.
- Herbs are great for using in salads and for making pesto – create a special meal using them in all the dishes.
- Grow pumpkins for Halloween and potatoes for potato salads.
Create And Enjoy Sensory Experience
A well placed water feature near a seating area can have a very calming effect on a person’s mood and behaviour. Residents living with dementia can become agitated and anxious, so having a peaceful spot to enjoy the sound of a water feature and take some time out to reflect and be at peace, is very valuable.
You could also consider using plants of varying textures and fragrances in your garden, as well as plants that attract pollinators like birds, bees and butterflies. Wind chimes, solar lighting, and birdsong are all very conducive to a great garden sensory experience.
Enjoy Games And Competitions
Why not introduce a little healthy competition to your gardening efforts? Whether it’s growing the tallest Sunflower, growing some cress on a windowsill, or something a little more challenging, some competitive spirit is a great motivator and conversation starter!
Failing that, playing flower bingo, gardening quizzes or even watching a ‘Gardener’s World’ with some likeminded friends, can be lots of fun.
Some of our garden enthusiasts at our Bourne House Nursing Home recently enjoyed the results of a gardening project they started back in autumn. Read all about it here.
How Families Can Get Involved in Care Home Gardening
If you are visiting a loved one residing at a care home, there are plenty of ways you or your family can get involved. Here are some of our ideas:
- Visit during National Gardening Week – the majority of our homes have lots of fun gardening activities and events on during this time which are great for sharing with visitors.
- Bring photographs of your garden, or of your loved one’s garden over the years. It’s a great way to evoke memories and encourage conversations.
- Donate seeds, plants, garden tools.
- Help with garden projects or undertake tasks together with your loved one when visiting.
- If grandchildren are visiting their grandparents, have a colouring/drawing competition
- Bring a picnic/cream tea to enjoy together in the garden
- Volunteer/help out where you can
Aria Care Team’s Advice For Gardening With Dementia
- Be Safe – ensure plants are non-toxic and that the garden is accessible and hazard free.
- Keep things simple – start with small, manageable tasks and gradually build up to more challenging activities if suitable.
- Tailor activities to the person’s interests, abilities, and likes.
- Be patient – Being patient and supportive is essential when spending time with someone living with dementia. Encouragement is important but try not to push them beyond their abilities and choices.
- Focus on enjoying the art of gardening rather than the end result.
- Keep activities varied to retain interest and engagement.
If you are looking into dementia care for yourself or a loved one, why not visit one of our homes to see how we can help? Alternatively, contact us to chat your situation through. Our team are always happy to help.
Don’t forget to follow our Facebook page to keep abreast of all the fun activities we get up to across Aria Care communities.
