As a family caregiver for your elderly parent, your responsibilities do not stop just with making sure that his needs are met. You must also pay attention to the condition of his home and lawn and take steps to keep these areas at their best. This will not only help your parent to feel good about his surroundings, giving him an emotional boost, but can keep him safer.

Now that it is spring, your lawn care responsibilities have changed from just making sure that the walkways are not covered with ice and snow to keeping the lawn groomed and under control. Proper lawn care helps your parent’s home look appealing and minimizes health and safety risks. As with anything in your caregiver efforts, however, it is important that you keep your own health and safety in mind when fulfilling these responsibilities.

Use these tips to help you take care of your parent’s lawn safely and effectively:

• Know when he can help. Many men take great pride in their appearance of their lawns and it can be distressing to your parent that he is no longer able to take on as much of the responsibility of his lawn care. Encouraging him to help you is a great way to boost his mental and emotional health, and to get him extra physical activity in his routine. Have your parent help you with basic tasks such as raking, weeding, planting, and watering. These will get him out into the fresh air, strengthen his body, and make him feel involved.
• Know when he should not help. While getting out into the lawn with your parent is a great way to encourage more activity and make memories, he should not be involved in all tasks. Some aspects of lawn care may be too dangerous for your parent and should be left just to you. Tasks such as mowing, edging, chopping, and weed-eating should be done independently to reduce the risk of injury. Consider coming up with a different task that he could do inside the home while you are doing these tasks so that he does not feel completely disconnected.
• Be wary of inhabitants. Your parent’s lawn is likely home to a variety of little critters. While most of these will cause no issues for you or your parent, some might pose a danger so it is important to be aware of them and take steps to avoid disrupting them. If there are large piles of brush in the lawn, be aware that they might be home to small animals such as rodents and snakes, or insects. Stand at a distance and move some of the brush with the handle of a rake or other tool and watch for movement. If you do not notice any, proceed with caution. If you see a beehive, do not attempt to remove or destroy it. Bees have experienced reduced numbers in recent years and it is important to protect their populations. Having a professional beekeeper come to remove the hive will not only save the bees but protect you from the possibility of swarms.
• Dress properly. When you head out to perform lawn care tasks, make sure that you dress carefully. Long sleeves and long pants protect your skin from injury, pests, and potential sun damage. Wear a hat and sunglasses to protect your eyes. If you are using a tool such as a weed eater or edger, wear goggles to guard your eyes from flying debris.