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NCHPAD - Building Healthy Inclusive Communities

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Introduction


By Gene Rothert

Why is gardening consistently rated America's number-one recreational pursuit? There are many reasons. For some, it is the art of working in partnership with nature to create perfectly designed landscapes of harmonizing forms, textures, and colors. Some enjoy producing tangible rewards such as flowers for table arrangements, fresh vegetables, or herbs or dried materials for natural crafts. For one elite group, life is incomplete without vine-ripened homegrown tomatoes. There is also the social scene of garden clubs and plant societies.

Man using wheelchair pruning plants growing in planter at chest height
Man using wheelchair pruning plants growing in planter at chest height
All gardeners clearly recognize that simply doing it is healthy and an easy way to enjoy safe and comfortable physical and mental activity. People often say how they "putter" around the garden, completely losing track of time, and in the process get some exercise. Gardening includes all three components of exercise: strength, flexibility, and endurance. One can easily adjust the level of intensity and duration while gardening, allowing virtually anyone to safely and comfortably participate to some degree. Thus, one can engage in gardening and structure the amount of activity for a heavier strength- and endurance-building workout or bring to bear equally important fine/gross motor skills, flexibility, and balance, along with eye/hand coordination.

Flowers: Heliotrope and marigold lemon gem
Purple and very fragrant baby powder or vanilla like scented Heliotrope surrounded by dwarf Marigold 'Lemon Gem' covered in bright yellow 1/2 inch flowers with a citrus scent released when bruised.
As important as the physical aspects of gardening may be, there are powerful psychological and even spiritual connections with the soil, living things, the outdoors, and nature - connections increasingly understood by researchers as essential to human health and well being. Most gardeners find their little patch of 'nature' a sanctuary or a place to recharge from the routine stresses of everyday life.

Overhead view of Enabling Garden display at the Chicago Botanical Garden showing a variety of raised beds and containers filled with plants and flowers.
Overhead view of Enabling Garden display at the Chicago Botanical Garden showing a variety of raised beds and containers filled with plants and flowers.
Gardening can also become part of a healthy, more active lifestyle for people with disabilities. There are many ways to adapt the garden for access, starting with appropriate grades and paving, then careful selection and placement of planters, vertical gardening techniques such as hanging baskets and, where possible, larger raised beds. These are all used to position soil and plants safely and comfortably within reach. A barrier-free or enabling garden can be as simple as an easily reached window box or two hung from a balcony railing at waist height or an entire home landscape designed to be accessible and maintained by a wheelchair user.

Woman tending tomatoes in a 24 inch high round planter while sitting on a small lightweight portable seat 18 inches wide and high with push handles to aid in standing.
Woman tending tomatoes in a 24 inch high round planter while sitting on a small lightweight portable seat 18 inches wide and high with push handles to aid in standing.
Once the physical barriers are eliminated, go for the second step and adapt the gardener with specialized tools and techniques. Hundreds of specialized gardening tools, equipment, and techniques are available to gardeners to help them reduce effort, maximize abilities, and encourage independence while working in the garden. The goal is to protect muscles and joints from fatigue and injury and find the best match for the garden tasks being done.

Potten Plant
Growing the best plants that appeal to all of our senses creates more interesting gardens.
Finally, begin to adapt the plants grown by developing a list of criteria such as the best choices for local growing conditions along with insect and disease resistance that minimizes the need for pesticides. One can enrich any garden by seeking plants with appeal to all the senses, but the right plants can literally make the garden come alive for someone with visual impairments.

The information that follows is by necessity generalized because of the near-infinite variety and extent of disabling conditions and their impact on functional abilities. Thus, not all the following ideas will be necessary or suitable for all people with disabilities in all situations. Anyone who finds traditional "down on your hands and knees" gardening too challenging can use some of the information in this series of articles to start or continue to garden safely. Even traditional gardeners should think about protecting the abilities they have with some of the techniques that follow.

Remember, too, that one need not invest a great deal of money to get started. A respectable crop of tomatoes can be grown in a 5-gallon plastic pail recycled from the local bakery.


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