There is no shortage of quotes about aging gardeners. One of my favorites is by Charles Dudley Warner: "What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it." I think of that one a lot because, now that I'm pushing 60 (how is that possible? I was just 30 a few weeks ago...) my back isn't crazy about me lifting heavy shrubs, and it doesn't hesitate to tell me so.

One thing about aging is that all your friends and family are getting older right along with you. That also applies to movie stars, gardeners, and authors—the "joys" of the golden years (I'm calling mine the "glitter" years, thanks very much) don't discriminate. In my own yard, I've made changes to accomodate both my increasingly creaky joints and my habitual traveling, since my kids now live in different states than I do.

My yard looks gorgeous this time of year, but the beauty is not dependent on my blood, sweat, or tears. The flowering crabs, pears, peach, and cherry trees bloom with minimal help from me. The lilacs and Koreanspice viburnums bloom reliably year after year, as does the wisteria that is finally spreading across my pergola. Daffodils, hostas, daylilies, Russian sage, coral bells, 'Autumn Joy' sedum, butterfly bush, iris, and peonies bloom profusely whether I baby them or not. Pruning, mulching, dividing when necessary—these chores still have to be done, but I've resigned myself to hiring help when it comes to heavy lifting. Charles Dudley Warner wasn't kidding about needing a hinge in your back.

The older I get, the more I pay attention to raised beds, container gardens, and low maintenance gardens. I don't obsess about my age, but I can't ignore it, either. So when my 80-year-old mother called, almost in tears, raving about a new garden book by an author of her generation, you can bet I paid attention.

I have quite a few books by Sydney Eddison on my shelves, including A Passion for Daylilies, A Self Taught Gardener, and The Unsung Season. I've always liked the way she writes, but in Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older, she has reached a new level of excellence.

Eddison, the author of seven garden books, writes about the garden that has grown with her for many years. Everything she writes in this book resonates with me: "The passage of time brings about changes in all living things, yet old age always takes us by surprise." Oh yes, I know that feeling. She says, "It's hard to say whether a garden is a metaphor for life or the other way around." I've thought about that very thing more than once.

This brought my mother to tears: "For forty-eight years, the garden has been part of my life every day, in every season and in all weathers. It has witnessed my greatest joys and absorbed my deepest sorrows. It is a place of safety and comfort, an old forgiving friend who is always there for me, who protects and embraces me. I cannot leave this place. It is where my husband and I spent a lifetime together and where I want to stay."

I want to stress that this is no angst-filled treatise on age and loss. Instead, it is a frank and practical discussion about what a gardener can do to adapt to the limitations of age and, for some, infirmity. Instead of whining about what she can no longer do, Eddison has put together suggestions based on her own experiences. 

I highly recommend this book, both for the joy of reading it and for the information it contains. 

Have you had to adapt your gardening techniques to accommodate an aching back or knees that don't work quite as well as they once did? Has your garden design changed because of your physical limitations?

Becke Davis is the senior writer for The Landscape Contractor magazine, a member of Garden Writers of America and the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association. She has written well over 1,000 published articles and is the author of five garden-related books in addition to being the moderator of B&N's Mystery book club.