Helps for the Handicapped Gardener
by Bob Chapman
Many avid gardeners faced with handicaps find it difficult to work in their gardens. No matter what the handicap, whether it is infirmities associated with old age, diseases such as arthritis, a loss of a limb or other physical limitations, there are helps and suggestions to make gardening easier and more accessible. There are methods to turn "handicap" to "handi-capables." Here are some considerations that may need to be addressed in helping the handicapped.
TOOLS
Ergonomic tools. Many common gardening tools are not suited for use by some handicapped gardeners due to the shape of the handle or how it is held. Ergonomic tools are designed to keep your body in neutral positions.
Enabling tools. These tools are designed to allow the gardener with certain disabilities to use them easily when doing gardening chores.
Adapted tools. Adding features to common tools already owned can make certain tasks much easier.
Helpers. Devices such as foam pads, kneepads, kneelers, roll-arounds or rolling seats, small light-weight plastic two-wheeled garden carts and extendable watering wands are but a few of many tools now on the market.
ACCESSIBILITY
For some handicapped, simply getting out to, or around in the garden is difficult. Here are some suggestions to help solve the challenges.
Ramps. Consider installing ramps and handrails for those in wheelchairs, using walkers, are unsteady on their feet or those gardeners with limited vision. Construct ramps with no more than a 5-degree slope.
Smooth, firm walks or paths. Tripping and falling can seriously injure many gardeners. Those using wheelchairs or walkers find it much easier to navigate on smooth surfaces. Consider cement walks or macadam as pathways, both wide enough to accommodate you and your means of getting around, or consider using a mix of lawn and flagstones.
Raised beds. Instead of bending over to tend flowers or vegetables, raise the beds. The suggested size is 4 feet wide and about 20-28 inch height. Beds can be square, rectangular or circular in shape.
Growing vertical. Planting many vegetables, vines and flowers on trellises allows easy picking of flowers or harvesting vegetables.
"Sit-down" gardens. Design the landscape to include significant areas that can be tended while using roll-arounds or rolling seats.
Container gardening and hanging baskets. Many physically challenged gardeners find that tending gardens in containers or hanging baskets fulfills their need to "connect" with growing things.
TRANSPORTING GARDEN TOOLS
If you get weary just lugging around the necessary tools, you may be defeating the purpose, that is, enjoying your garden.
Lightweight, plastic garden carts. These sure beat the old wooden wheelbarrow and they are inexpensive.
Plastic buckets (paint cans) with tool bags. Available in our stores are strong tool carriers designed to fit in and over the edge of a plastic bucket or empty 5-gallon paint cans secured from a painting contractor. The smaller tools are carried in the outward-facing pockets, larger tools and supplies may be placed inside.
GARDENING ON THE INTERNET
Following are sources of help, information, books, tools and supplies that might be useful to almost any gardener with disabilities or not.
"Gardens for Every Body" is a website developed by the University of Missouri-Columbia. The site (www.fse.missouri.edu/gardenweb/) features most of the above suggestions and this writer, who suffers from arthritis and vision problems, finds it the most helpful by far. Enter all four words in the search box. Listed are books, sources of tools and additional information to help the handicapped. Pictures clearly illustrate how to modify tools. The site also offers links to other sites.
San Diego State University has a website called "Agrability." The URL is www. agrability.sdstate.edu/rat/lwngrd.html. The site offers tips and helps, sources of tools, a list of books and links to other sites you may find helpful.
Master Gardeners. Many chapters of this helpful group are available, usually named and followed by the County in which they are located.
BOOKS
There are quite a few books available on the subject of handicapped gardening. Here are those most frequently mentioned. All are available online at www.amazon.com.
- Accessible Gardening for People With Physical Disabilities. Janeen R. Adil
- Accessible Gardening: Tips and Techniques for Seniors and the Disabled. Joann Woy
- Gardening is for Everyone. Audrey Cloet
- Container Gardening for the Handicapped. Frank J. Schweller
- Gardening for the Handicapped. Betty Massingham
- Gardening for the Physically Handicapped and the Elderly. Mary Chapin
- Gardening for the Elderly and the Handicapped. Leslie Snook