Gardening with Disabilities

Many people with disabilities find that they need to be creative and modify things so that they can enjoy everyday activities, such as gardening. Something as simple as watering the plants can be a huge challenge to someone in a wheelchair, or even someone with back pain. Here are some ideas to make gardening more enjoyable and accessible to someone with physical challenges.

Raised garden beds and elevated garden tables are great for people confined to wheelchairs or people who cannot bend over a lot. Raising a garden bed to a comfortable height makes gardening more ergonomic and puts many things within reach.

Box gardens are available in various sizes and heights. You can also easily build one or get help building one in no time. Simply stack landscaping timbers or boards to the desired height, stake the boards and you are done. You can make your box garden any size that you wish. Many people find that they can sit on the edge of the box garden without ever having to bend over.

An elevated container garden is great for decks, patios or places that have wheelchair access. They are also great for balconies or for people who do not have much yard space. An elevated container garden, or table garden, is basically a wooden box with legs. You can buy them already made or you can take an old table and build up the sides to hold soil.

If you build your own garden, be sure to use a naturally rot-resistant type of wood like cedar or redwood. Pressure treated or weather treated wood contains a lot of harmful chemicals that can get into your garden soil and plants or even enter through your skin while you are gardening.

Once your garden is in place and planted, you will only need to water and harvest the vegetables. Watering with a water hose can be very difficult for someone with arthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain, weak hands, Parkinson's disease or just about any other disability. Simply attaching the hose to the faucet can be impossible. Dragging the heavy hose, getting out kinks and squeezing the sprayer handle can all be painful, damaging or exhausting. You may want to get an automatic hose reel.

There are all different types. The best one for someone with disabilities is one that has a forward assist motor so that they do not have to pull the hose. It simply slowly feeds out so that you can just position it where you need it. It should also retract the hose automatically with the push of a button. Make sure that you get one with a kink-free hose. Some are programmable, which means once the hose is in place, you can just leave it and it will water when it is supposed to, retracting the hose when it is done. Some have clamp on attachments, which means that there is no twisting to attach the hose to the faucet or the accessories to the end of the hose. A fireman's spray nozzle is much easier to use than a regular sprayer gun.

Once you are set up, you can enjoy gardening regardless of your ability level. Garden boxes, elevated gardens and an automatic garden hose reel can make gardening a joy.