Love Gardening but Hate Standing Back Up? A 64-Year-Old Reader Asks If It's Time to Quit.

By June Harper, gardening columnist for 19 years | Updated Oct 3, 2026

Older woman kneeling in a vegetable bed, holding her lower back

THE LETTER

Dear June, I'm 64 and my garden is the best part of my week. But lately, after an hour of weeding, I can't just stand up. I crawl over to the porch step and push myself up with both hands, and my lower back aches for the rest of the day.

My doctor says I have arthritis in my lower spine. My daughter keeps telling me to hire someone and "just enjoy looking at it." Do I have to give it up?

Carol, Asheville

Sore back after the garden? Skip ahead to the 5-minute habit June uses after every session in the beds.

See June's After-Garden Fix

My answer

Woman trying rolled towels and a yoga bolster under her back on a porch

Carol, please don't give it up. But I won't give you the usual answer about "listening to your body" and buying a better kneeling pad. I tried that version for years.

Three summers ago, I started testing one simple question after I gardened: what would happen if I gave my back a few minutes in the opposite direction before I did anything else?

Lying flat on the porch did very little. Rolled-up towels under my back were better, but fiddly. A yoga bolster was comfortable but never quite supported the spot that felt jammed after a morning of weeding. Then I tried ReCurve.

It's a small curved stretcher with padded rollers on a steel frame. You lean back over the curve and the frame creates the shape for you, so instead of another stretch that feels like work, you can actually settle into it.

Why gardening creates that "stuck" feeling

Gardener folded forward over a garden bed, again and again

Gardening looks gentle from a distance. Your back would disagree. Weeding, planting, potting and pruning all keep you folded forward. Then you ask your body to go from kneeling and bent to fully upright in one move.

A flat lawn doesn't give you the opposite motion. ReCurve raises and supports your mid and lower back so your own upper-body weight creates a comfortable backward stretch. I didn't need another forward fold. I needed somewhere I could comfortably go the other way.

KEEP DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

The 5 minutes after the garden that save the rest of your Saturday

Undoes hours of weeding, planting and pruning
No stretch to hold. The frame does the work
Lives on the porch or by the back door
Steel frame with padded rollers

Keep Gardening Without the Ache

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What my Saturdays look like now

Woman stretched back over ReCurve on a covered porch after gardening

I still overdo it sometimes, and I don't use ReCurve for a perfect five minutes with a stopwatch. I leave it on the porch. When I come in, I take off my gloves, drink some water and lean back on it before lunch.

The useful change is what happens afterward. I'm much less likely to spend the rest of Saturday rotating between the couch and a heating pad. I can shower, make lunch and get on with the day.

Gardener making lunch from her harvest in the kitchen

So no, Carol, I wouldn't give up the garden. I'd change what happens immediately after it.

From other readers

Where to get one

It costs about what one good day at the garden center does, and it'll outlast every plant you buy there.

SALE PRICE TODAY

ReCurve Bundle: $120 (normally $199)

Comes with a Hot & Cold Back Wrap plus the free 5-Minute Back Reset guide. Try it for 60 days. If it doesn't help you get up off the ground more easily, send it back and get your money back.

Choose My ReCurve and Keep Gardening

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This article is an advertisement. The story and letter are based on customer experiences; names and details have been changed. ReCurve is not a medical device. If you have osteoporosis or a spinal condition, talk to your doctor before using it.