Already this growth in the number of retirees is bearing fruit. Third Agers have become the fastest growing market in the western world, and they now find themselves being wooed (and even occasionally catered for) by insurance companies, holiday tour firms, land developers and publishers alike. The field of geriatrics, too, has become of much greater interest to health workers, both professionally and, presumably, personally. While still not quite 'flavour of the month', gerontology has become at least respectable, and our knowledge of the ageing process has grown accordingly.

A further consequence of the swelling number of superannuees is an increased awareness that retirement has much to offer. We can expect to spend as much as a third of our lives postretirement, and thus there is a strong need to plan for, and take charge of, this stage of our lives.

For many of us as we grow older, gardening becomes of great importance; a good many of us will experience a veritable explosion of gardening activity upon retirement. Time can now be found for those things that we could never quite get round to before, be they bold new schemes or modest improvements. A number of us will move from the homes in which we raised our families; new gardening adventures will take place in smaller, more limited spaces.

Most of us will retire in possession of good health and a fair degree of strength. We will, however, be aware that we may need to make some changes, for most by then will have found it necessary to make some concessions to the passage of time. Advances in modern medicine mean that we are living longer while enjoying better health. Today we have a clearer understanding of the influence that lifestyle has on our wellbeing; there is much that we can do for ourselves towards preserving health and vigour.

Despite these advances, there is still some loss of abilities that occurs as we age. These commonly include a loss of strength, endurance and flexibility, while problems with vision and balance frequently occur; we become more vulnerable to extremes of temperature and have difficulties with fluid regulation. As well, there is a higher incidence of chronic disease in the elderly, and a greater susceptibility to infection. Some of these changes may ultimately prove to be preventable; certainly the effects of a number of them can be allayed by a sound diet and regular exercise. At present, though, the majority seem to be unavoidable; we have no choice but to learn to live with them.

The way that we garden will inevitably be affected as we grow older; but gardening itself brings many and varied benefits, some of which are quite apparent, while others may surprise. All make a contribution to our quality of life, and together can have a profound effect on the way in which we age.

Gardening as Physical Exercise

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of gardening is the exercise it provides- `use it or lose it' is an adage which contains much truth. In our society, ageing is generally associated with reduced physical activity. This is a real 'Catch 22' situation, for a good deal of the loss of function seen in the elderly is a consequence of a particular bodily part or system not being used.

Disuse may be associated with joints becoming painful, or some temporarily debilitating disease. Bedrest itself can result in a general weakness that can make it more difficult to resume normal activities.   This, in turn, means we miss out on the health benefits associated with the curtailed tasks such as a brisk walk to the shops, a stroll around the park, or a day at work in the garden. It is easy to see how, once started, this vicious cycle can fuel itself.

Exercise affects both our individual component parts and the way our overall system functions; it affects the bits we can see and bits we cannot.It is a powerful preventative for many of the less desirable aspects of ageing, able to arrest and in some cases reverse loss of function. Exercise benefits the elderly just as much as it benefits the young, and while a lifetime of physical jerks will stand us in good stead, benefits are gained even if we have never exercised before.

Exercise experts now recognise the contribution that everyday activities make to our physical fitness. As well as recommending some regular fullon exercise, modern exercise 'prescriptions' contain a component of these less demanding everyday exertions. Some of the more radical sport scientists are even of the opinion that we should enjoy our choice of exercise! Thus gardening is to be valued for its contribution to our own and personal exercise programs.

Unfortunately, it is this very aspect of gardening that causes many older gardeners to come unstuck, for it is in the physical demands of gardening that their difficulties lie.

Physical strength

Some loss of physical strength is seen as a normal part of the ageing process. Muscle strength peaks in our third decade, then it's downhill after that! It seems that the amount of muscle that we have as well as the strength of muscular contraction decreases as we grow older. Muscles do, however, respond readily to 'training' and those who have engaged in well designed muscle training programs throughout their adult lives maysuffer little decline while these programs are maintained. Those of us whose 'weight training' has been of a more informal nature (lugging the laundry to the line, carting consumables from the car, or doing a day's digging on demand) are more likely to experience some losses. This loss of strength may be little more than a nuisance in itself, but it may lead to further problems by predisposing us to muscle strain by 'overdoing it', and may lead to more loss in function if it further downgrades our level of activity.

Forward planning is the key to successful gardening as we age, as with other areas of our postretirement lives. There are several strategies we can adopt to deal with the effects of this loss of strength when gardening.

We can:

1. Embark on a well designed training program under the guidance of a professional. This may enable us to reverse the decline in strength to a degree and will stave off further losses. It must be stressed that the program should be conducted by someone with an understandingof both ageing and  any specific medical problems we might have. All of us over fortyfive should seek the advice of a health professional such as a doctor or physiotherapist before commencing such a program.

2. Redesign our garden tasks so that they are appropriate to our physical capabilities

3. Modify the garden environment to minimise the physical stress involved in working within it.

4. Invest in some specially designed tools that can be used to help to compensate for the effects of loss of strength when performing particular tasks.

5. Introduce warmup exercises that can be done before gardening to ensure that we do not damage our muscles by working them while still cold.

These approaches are not, of course, mutually exclusive and any or all of them can be tried simultaneously. The choice of options will vary from one individual to the nextit will depend on our degree of disability, financial flexibility and personal disposition. While the option of the exercise program is beyond the scope of this book, the remaining aspects are dealt with in detail in later chapters.

Endurance

The cardiovascular system, that is, our heart and circulation, will undergo certain changes as we age. It seems that the actual constituent materials of the tissues are altered in a way that is regarded as part of normal ageing, with the result that many of us are unable to sustain demanding activities for as long as we previously could. However, our cardiovascular system, too, responds wonderfully well to training, and our heart and general circulation improves readily as we (carefully) increase our level of aerobic activities. 'Aerobic' here refers to anything that will raise the amount of oxygen that we burn up, and includes walking, swimming, jogging, and most exercise workouts.

These activities need not be high tech or done at a frantic pace to improve our health status; even something as apparently undemanding as bending and straightening the arms has proved useful as a daily workout for frail individuals who are chairbound. An elderly 'elite' athlete with a lifetime of training could well have a higher level of cardiovascular fitness than an untrained younger individual, and furthermore, low intensity exercise can improve our cardiovascular health at a similar rate to high intensity programsthe more 'aerobic' aspects of gardening have an excellent conditioning effect.

Heart disease remains the major cause of death worldwide for the over sixtyfive age group. For  individuals with cardiac complaints, gentle exercise may be the only form of exercise that is safe; everyday activities take on a particular importance as a means of physical exercise. Gardening can, to a large extent, be made as easy or strenuous as we choose. By careful design, gardening can provide us with our own custommade exercise regime.

Heart disease often goes undetected until serious problems arise, and everyone over fortyfive years of age should consult their doctors before initiating any change in their level of physical activity.

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a common and frequently debilitating disease which affects mainly the elderly in our society.

The loss of bone that is the hallmark of osteoporosis can lead to a loss in height and to curvature of the spine. Lower back pain is another symptom, caused by ultrafine microfractures of the backbone; these microfractures are also responsible for much of the disfiguration associated with the disease. Bones thinned by osteoporosis are easily broken and may fracture without any apparent trauma, such as a knock or a fall. Of course, a fall will do even more damage, and can be devastating to someone suffering from osteoporosis.  When these fractures affect mobility, the consequences for our overall health care can be dire.

We reach our peak bone mass at around thirty years of age. After that, bone loss occurs gradually in both men and women, but increases abruptly in women after menopause. The first step in protecting ourselves against the disease is to make sure that we develop the best set of bones that we are capable of in the first place. While heredity has a large say in the matter, factors such as diet, exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption will all affect our skeletal health.

Loadbearing exercise such as walking, stair climbing, dancing and weightlifting (but not swimming) will help us develop our bones to their maximum potential. Maximising and maintaining our skeletal wellbeing throughout adult life through an adequate diet and regular weight bearing exercise will help offset the effects of later bone loss. The walking and moving, carrying and carting that are a normal part of a gardening activity have a significant role to play in guarding us against the deleterious effects of osteoporosis.

Flexibility

Most of us will develop problems with our joints as we grow older. It seems that changes in the chemical components of the joints are an inevitable part of ageing: these changes prevent the components from performing their normal cushioning functions, causing pain and discomfort at the joint. Many of us will also develop joint disease; osteo-arthritis in particular is extremely common in older people. Some eighty per cent of people over sixtyfive will show signs of this disease, which is considered by some to be a universal part of normal ageing.

Add to this the number of older people suffering from other forms of arthritis, and the loss of agility that we see in the elderly would seem to be explained. However, again, disuse makes a contribution to joint stiffness, for an unused joint will soon 'seize up'. Those in need of convincing should take note that although elderly people are generally thought to be unable to perform fast, precise finger movements, many musicians perform perfectly well into old age. Arthur Rubinstein was still playing highly demanding Chopin piano concertos at eightyeight, while Andre Segovia was giving concerts on classical guitar at ninetytwo! While talent no doubt comes into it, it is the daily practice that is largely responsible for sustaining the expertise of these artists into advanced old age.

The effects of any training are highly specific exercising one's left arm will not do a thing towards improving the right one so we need to include a smorgasbord of activities in our daily routine. Gardening, with its combination of gross movement (walking, bending, reaching up and out) and fine control (planting out, taking cuttings, sowing seeds) is an excellent means of achieving the desired variety in movement modes, thus maximising our chances of retaining flexibility. However, those suffering from joint disease must take care not to aggravate the condition by over doing things and a bit of a juggling act will be necessary to balance the benefits of exercise against the dangers of excess. The simple but often overlooked principle of pacing yourself is to be observed religiously in such cases: this will be dealt with in a later chapter.

Unavoidable Changes as We Age

Gardening as exercise can be of benefit in helping to overcome some of the problems that beset us as we age; this I find a most comforting thought. There are, however, agerelated changes that do not respond to exercise. A number of these will affect us in the garden.

Changes in vision

There are some changes in our vision that will occur in all older individuals. The vast majority of us will need spectacles for reading, and while a good many will retain good long distance vision, some agerelated changes in our eyesight will affect us in an outdoor environment. The rate at which our eyes adjust to changes in light levels gradually lessens as we age; this means that it becomes more difficult for our eyes to cope with an abrupt change in illumination, thus either suddenly stepping into bright sunlight or entering deep shade can temporarily blind us.

Many older people, perhaps ten per cent over sixty years, experience Centre Field Loss of their eyesight. This results in their being able to only see things in the periphery of their vision while the image formed will be blurred and largely drained of colour. This reduction in colour vision is associated with an increased general sensitivity to light, experienced as glare; cataracts too are highly light sensitive in their early stages of development. This heightened sensitivity to glare can prove problematic, especially if there are highly reflective surfaces, such as concrete or lightly coloured bricks. Difficulties in interpreting contrasts in colour and in light and darkness also arise, and can confuse our perception of depth.

These effects may seem inconsequential but in fact can be both disconcerting and distressing. More importantly though, all this can affect our safety in the garden. This is particularly so since changes in light are often associated with changes in levels or surfacing materials, for example, at the back door step or the decking under the pergola. An awareness of these changes helps to some extent but requires an unwavering concentration.

Finetuning the garden environment is generally a far more reliable means of minimising these problems, ensuring maximum safety and security.

Falls

Older people are more likely to fall than their younger counterparts, and the consequences of a fall can be far more serious. The higher incidence of falls in older people can be due to changes in balance or vision, or to agerelated hormonal disturbances or diseases of the nervous system. Most accidents in the home happen in transit areas such as garages, paths and patios, so attention to safety in these areas is vital where older people are concerned. Another cause of falls associated with ageing is the slower rate at which our blood pressure adjusts to a change in posture. Standing up too quickly can temporarily reduce the blood pressure in the brain, causing us to faint, and this should be taken into account when gardening.

Temperature

Our temperature regulation also gets out of whack as we get older. Not only are our bodies slower to recognise the need to adjust to extremes of temperature, they are also less efficient at making the physiological adjustments that are needed to do so. This leaves us far more dependent on behavioural means of adjusting our body temperature, means such as putting on a jumper or moving into the shade. While hypothermia is unlikely to be a problem in the Australian climate, heat exhaustion is. Again, garden design should provide for this fact by incorporating shaded areas where they are needed. Our garden work plan should also take this into account by limiting the amount of time we spend working in the heat.

Damage from UV rays

Coupled with the problems of avoiding glare and heat stroke is our need to avoid excessive exposure to sunlight. Australia already has the dubious honour of having the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world, and the danger from the cancercausing properties of ultraviolet light has of late been exacerbated by the holes in the atmospheric ozone layer. Our cellular repair mechanisms for UV damage decline as we age, making us far more at risk of developing skin cancer. More people are sunburnt in their own backyards than in any other venue, and both behavioural and design strategies should be employed to minimise this risk. 'SlipSlop-Slap' by all means, but pay attention as well to layout; by thoughtful design of our garden environment we can help to avoid many of the less desirable consequences of growing older. These design issues are addressed in Chapter 5.

Horticulture as Therapy

Most of us will be at least vaguely aware of the therapeutic value of gardening. Some may quite consciously use it as a form of stress management or as an artistic pursuit. That gardening is used formally by health workers as both therapy and rehabilitation may nevertheless come as a bit of a surprise. Horticulture is used for people with a wide range of physical disabilities road accident victims, people who have had strokes or heart attacks, amputees, people in wheelchairs or on walking frames, with the use of only one hand or with limited vision. It is used with the mentally retarded and with those with impaired memory, and is used as well in drug rehabilitation and with people suffering from emotional disorders. It is used, too, perhaps most poignantly, with our institutionalised elderly in hospitals and nursing homes. This focused use of gardening has helped to identify some of the less obvious ways that we benefit from gardening.

Gardening, it is said, benefits us on all levels the physical, the intellectual and the emotional; some would add 'the spiritual'. While the nonphysical benefits of gardening for older gardeners are difficult to measure, their effects are more easily observed.

Intellect and ageing

One factor that seems to be important in successful ageing is intellectual ageing stimulation 'use it or lose it' is as true of our intellectual capabilities as it is for our physical functions. What is more, many people find on retiring that earlier curiosities are reawakened, leading to a rekindling of the desire to learn. That this is no uncommon thing can be seen in the success of organisations catering for this growth, organisations such as The University of the Third Age; even institutions like the Council for Adult Education who do not specifically cater for elders, find significant numbers of older people enrolling in their courses.

Of course, this appetite for learning may not always manifest itself in so formal a way. We have seen already how gardening often leads to the development of expertise in some aspect of horticulture.

This may involve one particular group of plants, a single species of the garden wildlife, a particular style of garden design or the history of gardening itself; or it may encompass a little of each, and very much more besides.

Though this may well occur through the scholarly pursuit of knowledge, it is just likely to develop in a less structured way. In terms of personal growth and life satisfaction, their value is the same.

Stress and health

Stress has been shown to influence both the development and the outcome of a large number of lifethreatening conditions such as heart disease, cancer and infectious diseases.

Curiously, the amount of stress produced by a given event will vary from person to person, and what one experiences as mildly distressing another may find devastating. Those least affected are usually the people who have adequate 'coping strategies' for dealing with stressful events. Some lucky people seem to have a naturally easygoing disposition that allows them to cope with stress with no apparent effort, but in fact, most coping strategies are developed by trial and error over the years,  either consciously or unconsciously.

There are a number of stressful life events that are more likely to occur in later life. These include the loss of a spouse, the moving away of a member of the family and the deterioration of some aspect of our health. Retirement itself is sometimes regarded as a negative life event. Many people put high value on the stressreducing effect of gardening and many of us use it quite consciously as a means of unwinding. Some will find this calming effect in the garden environment itself: humankind evolved in a green landscape, a landscape that was full of challenges and dangers while yet affording some measure of comfort and safety. While these early associations may remain only in the subconscious, the resultant emotional responses are with us still. Other gardeners will find relief in the almost meditative state that active gardening can induce; others still will find it through the outlet that gardening provides for their aggressive feelings, perhaps in tilling the soil, chopping down an unwanted tree or yanking out the weeds I can personally attest to the cathartic effects of a heavy prune!

Medical science is now confirming what for long has stood as common sensethat there are very real links between our emotional health andour susceptibility to disease. Happiness and peace of mind can have powerful effects on our physical wellbeing. Laughter, it has been found, is the best medicine not because it provides a distraction from our woes but because it enhances our immune responses. It does this through a pervasive chemical network that links our nervous system to our immune system and which 'conducts our orchestra of the immune system'. That we are less likely to fall ill when we are on a 'high' is a common experience. We may still have some distance to go before our understanding of the physiological consequences of our emotional states can explain the healthpromoting effects of joyful experiences. Even so, the lifeenhancing effect of gardening for the gardener is something few devotees would question.

Gardening as work

Much is made in the Horticultural Therapy literature of the value of gardening as a work substitute. While there will be those amongst us who will regard 'work' as a gardening substitute (no need to declare where I stand on that issue!), it seems clear that, as a species, we do have a need for productive activity of some kind. The statistics show that most of us adjust well to retirement; however, there are some who find the transition difficult, and it is perhaps these individuals for whom the 'work' aspect of gardening is most important. At any rate, the satisfaction of providing for some of our material needs is a very real one.

For those with a strong competitive streak, retirement from the workplace may rob them of an outlet for this. Although 'competition' may be a dirty word in some circles, it is deeply entrenched in many of us, and it is probably more realistic to accommodate it than to deny its importance. A competitive streak can be constructively employed in the garden, either formally through organised competitions (biggest pumpkin, best rose, most beautiful garden), or informally, by simply improving on our own previous efforts.

Formal Horticultural Therapy

Horticultural Therapy is used in some institutions such as prisons, rehabilitation centres and of course, nursing homes for the elderly. One of the most dehumanising aspects of life in an institution is the lack of control that 'inmates' have over their lives. This is just as true for older people as it is for their younger counterparts, and is something that few of us will have trouble empathising with. For the institutionalised elderly, the introduction of some form of active gardening offers them a chance to exercise control over some part of their environment, albeit only a tiny part. The fact that their efforts matter to some other living thing can have an enormous effect on selfesteem; the ongoingness and seasonality that are an inherent part of gardening can give shape and purpose to what is often a featureless existence. These restorative effects can occur whether the gardening involves a large productive garden, a small plot of flowers, or just a single potted plant at the bedside. The very large consequences of a very little gardening highlight some of the often unrecognised benefits that the activity offers.

So those of us who garden can congratulate ourselves on how clever we have been to have engaged in such a beneficial activityfor once, something we enjoy is not immoral, illegal or fattening! Those who are drawn to take up gardening, perhaps for the very first time, can do so assured it will be a tonic for the mind, body and soul  and a source of joy for the years to come.