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Posted by Mike Phipps on April 27, 2023
Wildlife has started to wake, a landscape of browns has turned green and we begin to see the subtle signs of life appearing in the ground – tender shoots cautiously emerging from the soil and bulbs popping up everywhere.
As spring is here, and the days are getting longer at last, it’s time to start going outside and doing some work in your garden, giving it the clean-up you’ve been meaning to do since last Autumn and getting it ready for the year ahead.
Gardening can be a fun and rewarding activity. It is satisfying and a great way to exercise, keeping ourselves agile.
However, gardening can sometimes be problematic for those with mobility issues and finding the right gardening tools can be difficult. Luckily, Ability Superstore sells several tools that have been specially designed and created to help.
Before you can start the clean-up, the first thing you have to do is to get out into your garden!
This may sound obvious, but getting outside can be challenging for many, and if you have any type of mobility issue, here are some items that might help you feel more secure and safe:
Grab rails, sometimes known as grab bars, are beneficial aids for those with reduced mobility, allowing you to enter and exit the home or other buildings safely.
The Prima Outdoor Grab Rail can be fixed to the exterior wall of a building or a shed, providing a secure and reliable grip and something secure to hold onto when tackling doorways and steps.
The Prima rail is tough, with a robust aluminium core and a non-slip handle that will help you avoid slips and falls. It is a dark moss green in colour with black rubberised rings, ensuring that it blends in with the background.
The Bigfoot Half Step is our next suggestion to help you get outside safely. This item is popular among people who find the height of a doorstep into and out of their house challenging and this aid helps them to negotiate the step more easily.
The Bigfoot Half Step is a step which adjusts in height and is available with or without handles that reduces the height you have to step down, or up, into and out of your house, or any other building. The handrails provide an extra grip to ensure additional security whilst stepping in and out.
The Bigfoot has a secure grip on the ground due to the moulded feet, thus providing the stability that’s often needed.
Once outside, it’s time to think about the year ahead and how to make gardening easier.
For example, if you experience difficulty bending down or want to protect your back from stresses and strains, how about building some raised beds?
People with limited mobility find it helpful to garden with raised beds, as they allow them to garden without having to bend over.
A raised bed is an excellent choice to lower the amount of bending when tending to your flowers, plants and vegetables. It is also a great way to create an eye-catching planting area.
Creating a raised bed takes time to build, so in the meantime, if you want to protect your knees, this Folding Garden Kneeler and Stool is both a stool and kneeler at the same time. It is designed with cushioning on both sides to provide comfort and support when kneeling.
With the stool, gardeners can lean over and be supported across their torso while their hands and arms remain free to attend to plants and shrubs.
This mobility aid helps distribute the body weight over the stool, making it possible to garden for longer in comfort.
There are many knee-supporting gardening products available on the market. Kneelers provide a comfortable surface to kneel on instead of a hard floor or wet grass. Consequently, you can stay at ground level longer without major hardship to your knees.
Two of our top choices are the Padded Garden Kneeler, which works as a seat while providing storage for your tools.
And the Memory Foam Garden Kneeler, a cost-effective and practical aid to protect your knees when gardening.
Now, when you’re ready to start the tidy-up, you may have found that using the standard tools that are for sale generally have difficult-to-grasp handles, or are bulky and awkward to use, often making gardening an uncomfortable pastime. Fortunately, there are some excellent products that have been designed exclusively to address this particular issue.
The Easi-Grip selection of garden tools from Peta is ingenious and they have ergonomically angled handles with non-slip grips, enabling you to hold gardening tools comfortably, cutting down the strain on your hands and wrists.
This amazing selection of mobility aids has plenty of helpful aids, such as a weeder, cultivator, trowel, fork, and even an attachable handle that can be connected to your existing gardening tools, too.
An exciting aspect of this collection of products is that the cultivator, towel, hoe and fork also are available as long-handled tools. This means you can stay upright while using the tools’ extended reach, eliminating the need to bend over while gardening.
When looking after a garden with several planting areas, we know it can be a pain collecting all the gardening tools and then moving them to the next place that needs some work, as well as enduring the pain in our back and legs from constantly standing up and sitting down.
A Rolling Garden Seat can be tremendously helpful in decreasing the burden on your legs and back while gardening. One of the best things about this seat is a storage area beneath it where you can place your gardening tools or any other items you need, so it’s easy to move all your mobility aids quickly and easily.
No matter what your gardening requirements might be, you can feel confident that Ability Superstore can help you with a collection of gardening tools that will aid you, and we at Ability Superstore will be here to assist you every step of the way.
Ability Superstore is proud to offer one of the largest selections of mobility aids, daily living aids and disability products in the UK. Established in 2010, we soon became one of the leading websites for both products and advice. Now, with our first retail store, we are happy to be serving our customers face to face, too.
At Ability Superstore, we provide a vast array of items, ranging from basic jar openers to high-end mobility scooters. Our friendly and well-informed staff and Occupational Therapists are always available to address your queries and assist you in finding the ideal gardening or daily living aid to make your day-to-day life more straightforward. Check out our website now to find out more.
You can get in touch with our customer service team for guidance or additional information by calling us free on 0800 255 0498, or emailing us at heretohelp@abilitysuperstore.com, or filling out our Contact Us form on our website. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
