Enabled Life

Into the Garden

Accessibility Strategies for Life-long Planting

• By Elisha Bury
• Mar 01, 2013

Few activities compare to a day spent gardening. A day in the sun can enliven the mood, and the physical work in the dirt can invigorate the soul and reduce stress. And when those first few seedlings push through the soil or you see the finished product of a beautiful bed, a sense of accomplishment can stay with you a lifetime.

But as seasons change so too do physical abilities. Whether you’re a senior with stability and walking issues, a person with a new spinal cord injury or someone who’s been coping with a mobility condition your whole life, gardening can be accessible. All you have to do is think creatively.

Think Out of the Plot

The way you design your garden can have a huge impact on your gardening ability.

Heather Rhoades, founder of the Web site Gardening Know How and a gardener for more than 20 years, recommends these design elements:

• Wider pathways – The right pathway will allow more room to maneuver mobility equipment and navigate gardening beds, which can be useful if you are prone to falling.
• Vertical gardening
• Location, location, location – Put the garden closer to your home so you can get to it easier.
• Raised beds – If you’re using raised beds, make sure they are high enough to meet your needs.

Vertical gardens, which allow you to grow up instead of in a bed, don’t have to be complicated. One of the beds in the Fort Worth, Texas, Enabling Garden is referred to as a teepee bed, which is a form of vertical gardening. The beds are constructed so that the lattice connects at the top like a teepee.

“That allows you to grow any kind of a vegetable that climbs like squash or pole beans, and then you can drive your wheelchair right underneath it and reach up above your head and grab the vegetable,” says Lance Jepson, who served as chairman of the executive committee that built an Enabling Garden as part of the project for the 2008 master gardeners class.

In addition, Jepson says the garden features a mister, which is a great example of getting creative in your design.

“We put up a pergola with a misting system in it so that if you get too hot, you can come back and sit underneath that and cool off,” he says.

That’s one way to keep you gardening even on hot days.

Rhoades says one important thing to remember is that it’s okay to ask for help. “My grandfather had a cinder block garden, and he didn’t build that by himself,” she says. “He asked his kids for help to put together the beds so that he was able to continue what he enjoyed in his garden.”

Raise Your Expectations

One of the most important features of an accessible garden is the raised bed.

Rhoades says raised beds fall into two categories: a straight raised bed or a table raised bed.

“A straight raised bed would just be one that’s built up straight from the ground,” she explains. “That’s typically what’s used for senior gardens, where bending over may be an issue.”

Table raised beds provide room underneath the beds for people who have equipment, such as wheelchairs or walkers, that needs to be pushed underneath the beds.

Jepson also calls this type of bed a “pan” bed. The Fort Worth Enabling Garden has a variety of heights to accommodate various wheelchair sizes.

“You can drive your wheelchair right into the bed and then reach over the top to plant seeds or pull weeds or harvest or do what needs to be done for the garden,” he says.

No matter which type of raised bed you use, Rhoades says that raised beds can be “a game changer.”

“I would tell anyone who’s gardening that raised beds are a great idea because you have beds that get warmer faster. They’re better able to deal with pests,” she says.

And if you have a mobility issue, then raised beds can help you in other ways. For examples, these types of beds can help address some of your mobility needs, according to Jepson:

• A 20-by-4–inch bed with benches on both sides enables you to sit while gardening.
• A tall bed with toe holes allows you to slide your feet underneath and get close to improve stability; the tall bed also allows you to stand while gardening.
• A bed with a series of heights from 12 to 30 inches gives you the option of bending over or standing up.

Jepson says that the best way to decide what bed suits your needs is to visit an accessible garden in your area to see what the possibilities are. “We don’t have the definitive plans by any means,” he says.

“A lot of people have copied the 30-inch beds, and we discuss with them what materials we put in it. Some people take our advice, and some don’t,” Jepson says. “They have their own kind of imagination on what they want to build or put in.”

If you don’t possess construction skills, don’t worry. Cinder blocks are a great way to build raised beds.

“My grandfather did that with his raised beds. He used cinder blocks to build. It looks like a maze, where it was waste high,” Rhoades says. “He didn’t have to bend down. He didn’t have to do anything else to get to his gardening.”

Remember that because you’re using raised beds, you need to find a good source for soil and compost.

“Put the raised bed in the fall. Go get some manure from a local farm; put it in your raised bed,” Rhoades says. “You can compost over the winter and into spring. And then come planting time, you have a really good soil base for your raised bed.”

Implement Best Practices

Today’s gardening tools also offer a much greater variety. Rhoades recommends searching online for tools with longer, ergonomic handles or tools with a thicker shaft to make holding the tool easier. She says you can also find tools that make all of those difficult gardening chores—think tilling and weeding—a cinch.

In addition, time savers can help you enjoy gardening.

“There’s a lot of information on gardening in 30 minutes a week and things like that,” Rhoades says. “That kind of information can be really helpful for accessible gardening because if you look at strategies that will help you keep your weeds down, then that’s less weeding you have to do. … So look at best practices in order to keep you able to do what you love.

“Don’t expect that you’re going to re-create the world in one season,” Rhoades says. “You’re relearning everything you’ve learned from the past. So don’t give up. You’re going to get there.”