Presents

ENABLING GARDENS

Enabling gardens must have a heavy design emphasis on step free and barrier free gardens that encourages the elderly or infirm to enter into and utilize these gardens. Concerns about enabling will bring about great benefits for everyone whether the garden is a private or public one.

It is no longer news to many people that gardening can be a significant boon to a disabled person who has some physical impediments

to normal movements. Also, individuals who are mentally challenged can derive pleasure from immersing themselves in the garden. In both cases the first objective is to create a plan that is useful to everyone and to make gardening fun to as many people as possible. You must also design in the most straightforward and simple manner possible. Many visitors and  gardeners will be in wheel chairs or use walkers. Therefore create elevated

planting beds that allow them to interact or work with plantings without standing up. Make the elevated beds narrow in width to allow for comfortable reaching from any side. Large containers can work very well as elevated garden beds. Make the corners of these elevated beds rounded and impervious to impacts with wheelchair structures.

Curbing should be elevated to keep wheels on smooth, level and firm walkways. Insure that plentiful seating at convenient locations is provided. Make access ways wide enough to accommodate equipment and expected traffic and provide direct routes between destinations. If hazards exist on the sides of any access way, plan for railing’s and curbing that will assist walking or traveling by wheelchairs to avoid spills. Analyze each function   that the gardener is likely to perform and insure the most impact friendly surface you can find if spills are likely.

Insure that hoses and water sources are plentiful, accessible and easy to use. Hose guide and automatic rewinding can be very helpful. Tools and soil additives such as chemicals or fertilizer should be stored in an easily accessible areas. Tools should be mounted on walls at wheelchair heights and organized to allow easy grasp and to aid sensory location by the blind. When the prospective gardener is blind or mobility challenged, make access routes very direct and easy to navigate for the first timer as well as for ongoing endeavors.

Select many flowers for their fragrance and determine what plantings and accents would have tactile appeal for both sighted and unsighted people. Placing low trellises next to the access paths and even having lower overhead arbors that will allow people in wheelchairs to reach up and pull the fruit off or prune the branches can assist in harvesting the fruit where vines are used to produce fruit.

Plan for adequate signage to assist the disabled with directions to facilities or attractions and consider tactile braille guidance on the ground, on signs, railings or even refreshable braille displays that will assist the visually impaired. As the blind and others with limitations usually have an assist dog it would be beneficial to them to have rest stations with water and waste disposal for them to use.

Designing an enabling garden is such an important design style and there is a tremendous amount of relevant details needed to create a very good enabling garden. Be sure to research applicable books on this subject before you attempt to design one of these landscape creations.