Tips to make gardening more accessible
Gardening benefits both our physical and mental health. But for people who are older or have a disability, tending to a garden can sound daunting.
Fortunately, gardening can be made more accessible to those with physical challenges like arthritic knees, chronic pain or severe fatigue, said Jay Schulz, a disability and health researcher at the University of Vermont.
Limit kneeling and bending
Raised beds can make gardening more accessible for people with mobility issues, said Wendy Knowlton, program supervisor and chair of a committee that teaches gardening skills to adults with disabilities at the Dartmouth Adult Services Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada.
A bed can be raised high enough that a wheelchair can be
rolled directly up to the garden, she said. A U-shaped raised bed can be particularly useful, she said, because someone can sit in the middle and reach all three sides from the same location.
Instead of gardening on the
ground, try growing plants in pots or bins. Put the container at a height that is easy to reach, and make sure you can move the container easily, said Phyllis Turner, 77, a Virginia Cooperative Extension master gardener with arthritis who teaches seminars on adaptive gardening.
“Even if you’re in a hospital bed, we can pull a table across, you can plant seeds into a pot, you can set it in a windowsill and they can grow,” Turner said.
Toni Gattone, 75, of Sonoma, Calif., recommends a reversible kneeling bench with foam padding for tasks that require kneeling. Gattone, a master gardener with chronic severe back pain and arthritis who offers adaptive gardening seminars, said an advantage of the reversible kneeler bench is that the legs of the bench can also be used as a hand grip to help push yourself up off the ground when you are kneeling.
For people with joint, pain or mobility issues, a garden stool or rolling chair can help.
Find the right tools
Extended reach tools are essential for gardeners with physical limitations. A watering wand can be attached to a hose to make it easier to water plants. A stand-up weeder relies on a claw at the end of a long handle to uproot weeds.
Look for lighter tools that are easy to lift and ergonomic tools. Some tools come with straps, which can be useful for someone who has poor coordination or weak hands. Some gardening hoses come with a hook that can keep the handle squeezed for you.
Because of her disabilities, which cause chronic pain and require her to use a wheelchair, Rosemary Mcdonnell-horita, 29, of Berkeley, Calif., doesn’t always have the energy or ability to water her plants each day.
She buries terra-cotta pots (with the drainage hole plugged) into the soil, fills them with water and covers them with a lid. This way, water slowly seeps through the clay pot into the surrounding soil.