Gardening for a Lifetime

How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older

From the winner of the National Garden Club's Award of Excellence

Although the garden may beckon as strongly as ever, the tasks involved—pulling weeds, pushing wheelbarrows, digging holes, moving heavy pots—become increasingly difficult, or even impossible, with advancing age. But the idea of giving it up is unthinkable for most gardeners. So what’s the alternative?

In Gardening for a Lifetime, Sydney Eddison draws on her own forty years of gardening to provide a practical and encouraging roadmap for scaling back while keeping up with the gardening activities that each gardener loves most. Like replacing demanding plants like delphiniums with sturdy, relatively carefree perennials like sedums, rudbeckias, and daylilies. Or taking the leap and hiring help—another pair of hands, even for a few hours a week, goes a long way toward getting a big job done.

This new edition features an additional chapter describing how Sydney’s struggles with hip and back problems forced her to walk the walk. As a friend of hers says, “Last summer you wrote the book. Now, I’m happy to see that you’ve read it.” Gentle, personable, and practical, Gardening for a Lifetime will be welcomed by all gardeners looking to transform gardening from a list of daunting chores into the gratifying, joyful activity it was meant to be.