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Adaptive Gardening

Contact: Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture

Posted April 1997

Gardening in Raised Beds and Containers for Individuals with Disabilities

Gardening is the number one outdoor, leisure time activity of America, with 84 percent of households involved in at least one form of gardening activity. Gardening is a source of personal satisfaction and pride providing esthetic pleasure and opportunity for relief from daily stress. Gardening is an ideal preventative therapy to maintain personal well being. With a little planning and creativity, it can be available to everyone. Disabled and elderly who have never gardened can acquire a new and rewarding hobby. With proper modification to the site, gardeners who have lost physical ability can continue this valuable activity.

While most gardening is considered part of the traditional landscape or ground-level planting, an increasing number of gardeners are discovering the advantages of gardening in planters, containers, and raised beds. These gardening styles can be readily adapted to make gardening easier for disabled and elderly gardeners. They are equally adaptable for gardening in a small backyard, a third floor apartment patio, on top of a hospital, or on the grounds of a retirement home.

PLANNING THE GARDEN

The first step in planning a raised garden is understanding the needs and abilities of the gardeners. The garden area should be as small as possible to adequately meet these needs. As the garden size increases, the fun of gardening tends to change to drudgery. All of the raised beds or planters should be easily accessible and arranged in a fashion to fit together as an attractive landscape unit. Avoid the tendency to line up little garden plots in rows resembling grave yards. Trees and shrubs can be used to enclose one or more sides of the raised garden site, providing both privacy and a pleasing backdrop, but avoid shading the garden with excessive plantings. Beds and planters can be designed to fit individual needs; however, standard dimensions for raised beds are given in Table 1.

Standard Dimensions for Raised Beds

Wheelchair Semi-Ambulatory Ground

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Height 2-2.5 feet 2.5-3 feet 1/2-1feet

Width 2 feet 2 feet 2 feet (one-sided)

Width 3-4 feet 4 feet 4 feet (two-sided)

Diameter 3-4 feet 4 feet 4 feet (circle)

Raised beds generally are 3 to 4 feet wide and as long as desired. However, depending on the individual's strength and endurance, it would be wise to limit the length of the bed to 10 or 20 feet to prevent overexertion in circling the bed.

ADVANTAGES OF GARDENING IN PLANTERS, CONTAINERS, AND RAISED BEDS

Due to the many materials available and to the many types of raised planters, adaptability to the disabled individual's needs is great.

Planters can be located for easy accessibility and used in areas where plants would not otherwise grow (e.g., downtown on roof gardens).

Focusing attention on small, easily managed areas provides success and feeling of achievement and reduces frustration and feeling of being overwhelmed by a large garden.

The planter can be placed at a height that gives the disabled individual maximum gardening space within normal reach.

Raised planters can be either permanent or temporary structures depending on the desires and needs of the gardener.

Planters can be built to be mobile, if needed, to adjust to available sun or move out of the way during other activities.

Problems of poor soil or soil-borne disease can be overcome easily.

Planters drain well, warm quickly, thus producing early crops.

Seedlings can be started in small, mobile planters indoors and brought out when the weather is appropriate, thus extending the growing season.

Planters offer opportunities for innovative landscape ideas and creative plant structures, such as walls of plants.

(Prepared by Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture, from Extension publication 426-020, Gardening in Raised Beds and Containers for Older Gardeners and Individuals with Physical Disabilities, available for $1.50 from Extension Distribution Center, 112 Landsdowne Street, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0512, make check out to "Treasurer, Virginia Tech."

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