Gardening is a great way to exercise, relieve stress and express your creativity, but for the more than 60 million Americans living with some form of temporary or permanent disability, experiencing the joys and rewards of gardening is often difficult. Gene Rothert of the Chicago Botanic Garden and also author of the
Enabling Garde n, shares ideas on creating an accessible, barrier-free garden for the physically challenged:
- Ease of access is the first thing to consider--to and within the garden. If you use a wheelchair, cane or walker to help you move around, you'll need a firm, level concrete surface. A resilient surface, such as a bed of wood chips, can help cushion falls or spills.
- Raised beds make a garden more accessible by bringing the soil up to a comfortable working height. A bed approximately 12 to 30 inches off the ground works well for most people You don't need to stick with traditional ideas--for example, a wheelbarrow could be recycled as a container for fragrant plants or herbs.
- Watering is often a difficult chore for physically challenged people. To help alleviate the problem, position the hose reel at an accessible height and use attachable watering wands to reach difficult places.
- Containers are smaller and easier to set up than raised-bed gardens; you can arrange them, move them around and mix or match them. Elevate small plant containers on stands, walls or fences to put them within easy reach, and plant low-maintenance plants in the areas that are most difficult to reach. An added bonus--container gardens make the area in which they're placed look larger.
- Trellises are a good place to grow vines and tomatoes because the flowers or fruits are positioned so that they are easy to harvest.
- Adding water features cools the garden, and the sound of running water is a good way for the visually impaired to gauge their location in the garden, as well. The same thing can be accomplished with wind chimes or plants that rustle in the breeze.
- Overhangs, platforms and fences close to your kitchen are great places to hang baskets and planting bags. Fill the planting bags with herbs--you can easily enrich your recipes all summer long.
- Pergolas create shade for sun-sensitive people and can also function as places to hang plants.
Tool Tips
- Extend your reach with golf clubs that have mirrors taped to the end so you will be able to look underneath leaves for aphids and other insects as you work. Also consider an extended-reach pruner--you'll be able to work with your hands close to your body and using this type of pruner takes very little strength.
- Shovels with smaller blades on the handles are lighter than regular-size shovels and children's garden tools are ideal for working in raised beds. Long-handled reachers (sometimes called pickup sticks) are very light and make harvesting flowers a breeze.
- Sharpen hand-held pruning tools regularly so it takes less force to make a cut.
- Several types of trowels are available including lightweight, plastic versions designed to do the job of a five-pound metal trowel.
- Use one-inch-diameter PVC pipe to make a trench, then use it again to drop seeds down the pipe for easy planting without bending.
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