I am adding a thought. I am an elderly gardener who plants too many areas and can't keep the jungle down. It occurred to me the other day that a shade garden is so much easier to handle. I have a shady area by the barn that gets extra water from the barn roof. Just a little weeding and cutting of dead branches and that area looks pretty good. On the other hand my sunny areas are out of control. I mow one area and cut brush and another areas grows five foot tall Johnson grass.

Amen Helen. I am even resorting to herbicide to kill out previous beds....if I kill some perennials, so be it. The weeds make me crazy.

I plan to just try (and that is the operative word), to keep up the garden fence border, the new (ha) bed and around the house.

I may keep the cellar and grass beds....I am currently working on them. My yard men have never showed.......story of my life!

I guess at almost 73 I fall into this category. My problem is that I can't seem to throw anything out. I started with 100 Iris corms that came with me from Wisconsin and now I have a thousand and they are everywhere. Same with Rose of Sharon. Someone gave me two seedlings a few years back and now they have multiplied, started seedlings which I just cant pull and discard, but transplant somewhere else. I used the rocks we dug to build a rock terrace, then added a row, then another until I just couldn't take care of them all, so removed one row and laid a path. Last year I removed three more rows and built a rock wall and planted grass.
This year with heavy spring rain and now 80-90 degree temps, I am over run with weeds - some I've never seen before. Then there are the ticks and chiggers that have turned me into a bruised and itchy mess. What's a girl to do?

I have daylilies I couldn't throw away in my vegetable garden taking up room. I have decided to make note of the very ordinary ones to be removed. I have better daylilies that could be divided and put in those spots.

I put rocks around everything but they are a hazard to my new push mower so I am moving some of them. I don't use a weed eater at all; it makes me curse. Either it won't start or the line is hung up or I cut off something good with it. I am trying to get as close as possible with the push mower on the edges then use the riding mower for the big areas. I like the push mower because I am collecting the clippings and using them for mulch. About three bags full and I am tired. I could ride the riding mower all day.

Helen by the time I mastered how to start my Echo trimmer, the rope pull jammed so now it has to go back in the shop.....I did get my old faithful Stihl trimmer out and got it fired up...it doesn't rev up enough to suit me but I can trim light stuff with it.

I resorted to spraying will 2-4d this morning!

Pomonaflower, I can't throw anything away either! This year I have bit the bullet and am spraying wide swaths and whatever is lurking amid the weeds can just go.

Oh my word, offer them to folks on craigslist, or some other way. we would love to keep them going.

But as an older grower, I understand the way plants can get out of hand. Mint, especially. lol.

We have offered to help some of our neighbors, and they are grateful. Plus, we have gotten some great heirlooms along the way, :)

Cheri

I guess maybe I fall into this category at 67?

I find it hard to throw away plants too, but if I can get a garage sale going people are thrilled to find plants at low prices. The money pays for new seed for other things or potting soil, other garden stuff.

I'm not quite willing to label myself elderly, yet at 58 I am definitely thinking about aging with my garden. We just moved from Alaska to MO and I am excited to grow warm weather plants. I was raised here, but didn't garden and my parents didn't garden, so I never thought about the work load as I get older. I have my heart set on a traditional kitchen garden and got that in place with raised beds and paths made from pavers. About 30' by 30'. I am looking at the rest of my lot with getting the grass gone, but don't want to set myself up for failure in the next decade or so. Any suggestion of what to do or not do? I'm a bit farther north, in Lexington. I also was so surprised at how I ached setting up this garden compared to the last one I established a decade ago.

Gloria

We dug up several lady palms because the lady had too many. I think most people would bring shovels and dig their own plants if you had something they wanted. Definitely the easy way to do it. You could even charge a few bucks for each plant and probably get it.

I was reading this thread to see what I had to look forward to/look out for, I'm not yet 30, but I just wanted to say I trade here on this site and on Plantswap.net. Craigslist for me and for 3 other people I know did not pan out - too slow, no replies, or no one followed through. I had amazing luck with getting rid of orange day lilies for free, who knew? I have found trading on this site goes like lightning if there is enough interest, if not, wait a little or post again in a couple weeks. But I've heard of people putting an ad in the paper for people to come out and dig up what they want - I'm sure they'll make a great mess, though. Just my 2 cents . . .

We've dug up lady palms and other plants for free. We were very respectful and thankful and did not leave a mess. We put soil back into holes and tamped it down, just like we would do at home.

Welcome to Missouri Gloria! That's a big move.
You can find advice on just about any subject on Gardenweb but you may also want to contact your local Master Gardener's organization. They should be able to provide you with resources for what varieties of fruits in veggies they've been successful with there and also give you contacts for garden clubs in your area if you're interested. I'll put a link below for the Lafayette and Ray county Master Gardeners. The University of Missouri Extension Center has a lot of info too. You can get to both through the page below. Best of luck and please feel welcome to join in the Ozarks forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: River Valley Master Gardeners

Gloria I am perfectly able to garden at 69 nearly 70. If it weren't for gardening I wouldn't get any exercise. My problem with aging is I have plenty of room and no restraint and over the years my garden has gotten bigger and bigger. A friend said pretty soon this jungle will take up so much of your yard that there will be no place to park. Gardening is very interesting. I'll be a hosta nut, then day lilies are my thing, then heirloom tomatoes. The old area don't get care and grow up making me feel guilty - but just a little guilty. When company is coming I feel like what a mess I am but most of the time I am happy with me and my mess.

I am definitely qualified to comment. I just had my 75th birthday. I am probably the oldest gardener posting.

I have never even thought much about it until my right knee started bothering me. Osteoarthritis. I am hoping it will get much better soon. That has really cut into my outside work.

I still put out a vegetable garden, have a small orchard and berries. I usually am the mower person, but the knee has caused me to turn that chore over to my husband. He does not do trimming however so I am trying to find a sometime helper. You wouldn't believe how hard that is to do!!

I am cutting back but not quitting. Like Helen, I need to get outside for the sunshine and exercise.

I also have a milk cow.....and chickens. Poor DH has been doing that for me now too.

I don't do fussy gardening or yard beds. Never have. I am a country gardener not a city one. If something requires special tender loving care, it is gone. I am in the process of refining lots of things to make them less work intensive.

But I am still making up a seed order list and a To Do List of what I want to do in 2015. I have a gardener's enthusiasm.

Glenda - I've been wondering how your knee is doing. I keep thinking I'd like to find someone to help me with yard work too. I think I'm a bit stubborn and maybe think I'd feel a like a failure if I have to admit I've created a big time-consuming mess in our yard. If I lived in a subdivision, I'd be getting warnings from the HOA.

Just HAD to post after glendas post--I'mm over 77-and still going--my greenhouse addition to my house is almost finished! It's just off my bedroom, so if I get too old to garden outside, I'll just toddle out there. BUT hopefully not anytime soon. I'm moving a few beds off my deck, so I'll have a few more in the garden. Hopefully, We'll all keep going for many more years

ceresone I'm glad to hear from you again. You are to blame for my tomatoes that I grow now. I used to be happy with less than a half dozen plants. The greenhouse will be good for avoiding cabin fever in the winter. I think a greenhouse would be a good place to sit in winter on a sunny day when it is cold outside.

ceresone, do you have pictures of the greenhouse addition?
I have wanted one for years and then thought naw! I am getting along fine with the plant light stand on the back porch.

Now with the arthritis, the greenhouse option is looking much better.

My problem would b e the right exposure. I might have to go for a free-standing one very close to the house.

I think a sunroom would be wonderful instead of a greenhouse- for really old age I mean - and ceresone isn't there yet by the way she talks. My mother lived to 92 and we had a chair in the hall facing the glass door. She watched the birds and the pets from there - more interesting than TV for one who can only sit.

Hi, I live in Tahlequah, so I think that justifies my posting on Ozark Gardening. Ha. I am 72 and concerned how I will care for my garden when I can't, but maybe it will never come to that.

We have a half acre. I have a sign out front that says, "Garden of Weedin'" and that it is. I have taken care of the back due to more shade and put hydrangeas in where we get some sun. Little weeding there anymore except for seedlings. In front I have a large garden of herbs, flowers, etc. The weeds drive me crazy. I have a friend who is 82 now and is putting in bushes like hydrangeas and azaleas. I can't do that in front where the afternoon sun blasts. I am trying creeping thyme in areas, but most of what I bought this summer died. I started to use creeping jenny, but it wanted to take over so I put it on the side of the house. Sometimes I wonder if natural is better? Ha.

And then this year the electric company came to cut some trees, and I allowed them to cut down a group of 3 trees that were under the transmitter. How stupid of me. Now the corner of our lot is ugly, but I will get some vines up. A friend has a silver lace vine. Beautiful. But I already have a wild grape vine that came with the house. While it has been cut down it will grow again. Just that it wants to take over and silver lace vines are so beautiful. Can they co-exist?

But the electric company gave me the mulch, and we spent 3 days putting it out. My garden now is mulched to high heaven.

Like another person here I have a lot of irises. We have a lot next door where we plant our veggie garden, and so I put extra plants there as well as seeds. Don't know what it will produce since it is kept mowed but perhaps around the edges where the wild things grow I will one day get zinnia, cleomes, etc. So far I see golden rod.