Anne Swithinbank, one of Britain’s best-loved gardeners on hip surgery, plantar fasciitis and top tips for gardeners with arthritis

Horticulturalist, writer and broadcaster, Anne Swithinbank is a regular panellist for BBC Radio 4’s Gardener’s Question Time and enjoys a well-established writing, broadcasting and events career.  

While life sounds rosy – gardening, riding and sea swimming fill her days – it hasn’t all been picture perfect for Anne. A condition she was born with, congenital hip dysplasia, eventually led to a hip replacement operation many years later.

“It wasn’t until I started walking as a toddler that my congenital hip dysplasia was picked up,” she says. “I spent a long time in plaster and the doctors eventually managed to get my hip socket to grow properly.”

Many years later, after Anne had children of her own, she began to experience progressively prohibitive pain in her hip.

“I’ve a very active person and it was difficult to have to stop doing the things that I love,” she remembers. “I even had to get a gardener, which seemed so ridiculous to me! I had no option but to become inactive and as a consequence I put on weight.”

Eventually, when Anne was in her early fifties, she had hip replacement surgery and whilst the operation was not straightforward – and her recovery took a full year – it was a success.

Living with pain

Anne is frustrated that she has to live with a few other niggles, including plantar fasciitis, but does not let it hold her back.

“To counteract the heel pain of plantar fasciitis, I choose my footwear carefully, going for wide comfortable shoes with a low heel and a supportive sole. Before I start work in the garden, I exercise my calves. I have learned not to pitch in at full speed immediately, instead walking around the garden to warm up before getting stuck in.

“I don’t garden too much in one go… depending on how I’m feeling I’ll do 30–90 minutes at a time. And when I feel tired, I stop!

“My shoulders, arms and thighs are strong, so I tend to find heavy lifting tasks relatively easy. But if I do struggle to finish a job because it is so physically demanding, I have learned to ask for help.

“If you love gardening, don’t stop due to pain or stiffness. Instead, look to change the way you garden – garden differently:

• Look at helpful products such as kneeling pads which ease pressure and pain on the knee joints.
• Raised beds reduce the need to bend or kneel.
• Similarly, a greenhouse with staging allows you to garden at a standing position.
• Pump up those wheelbarrow tires and remember to put the heaviest part of the load at the front of the barrow.
• If a task is too physically demanding, ask for help.

“Should you find the more physical aspects of gardening too difficult to maintain, try to outsource them as much as possible. Consider collecting particular plants that are easy to maintain. Make a list of plant you have never grown before and perhaps choose something unusual. Look up their histories, enjoy learning about them and send off for them. Plants are infinitely fascinating. In plants, I can lose myself for hours.”

First published May 2021

PS Did you know that Arthritis Digest Magazine is labelled the best UK Arthritis blog from thousands of blogs on the web ranked by traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness? First published March 2021