Disabled can still enjoy gardening

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 14

Disabled can still enjoy gardening

BIDDY POLLARD,

a Christchurch garden

adviser suggest how workable gardens can be created for the disabled.

Home care rather than hospitalisation is the keynote of modern health policy. For the physically disabled person at home how frustrating to watch the weeds growing, particularly for a former keen gardener. Being lured outside by a fine blue morning is an exhilarating, joyous experience. Yet to many people who could most benefit, this simple pleasure is denied. A built-up garden, no matter how small, fulfils the yearning to be out planting and pottering, and does wonders for the morale. And it is so easily made.

Costing very little in time and money, a sheltered area close to the house can be transformed into a courtyard of raised beds full of colour and interest.

Ramps with handrails, obtainable through hospital services, can lead from the door to a hard, flat surface with no cracks for wheelchairs or crutches to catch in. Washed sand sprinkled on to wet paint prevents; concrete from becoming slippery. Raised beds are made simply and easily from old tables, benches, packing cases, cupboards with shelves removed — anything the right height and width for working (allowing for edging), and with enough

space underneath to accomodate the knees of a wheelchair occupant.

For middle beds use furniture not more than 4ft wide, for fenceline benches 2ft wide.

Cover with plastic, cut drainage holes, and add Bin edges. Handrails are useful for the standing gardener. Arrange artistically round the courtyard leaving wide access between beds.

Ums, large pots, and piles of car tyres give contrasting shapes as well as providing homes for deep-rooting plants, and a strawberry barrel is fun.

Add seats for resting in sun and shade, or even a small summerhouse, and the layout is complete. Soil must be light for easy working and plants chosen for suitability as well as preference. Bulbs, perennials, small shrubs and easy-to-grow vegetables need little maintenance.

A rockery of alpine plants

would give character to one central bed, a herb garden in another.

In the narrow borders along the fence dwarf beans and tomatoes would grow happily with cushions of little ground cover plants in front, such as sedum or saxifrage. Lightweight and longhandled tools that don’t require a strong grip are available. Handles can be made thicker with draught seal or wide bore hose from a garage.

For the more ambitious gardener there is a glasshouse with double doors and low sill. The narrow benches can be adapted to suitable height, leaving ample manoeuvring space for a wheelchair.

A hospital garden provides companionship in a shared interest. It may also be used as an extension of both physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Work programmes can be devised whch demand movements of differing range and power for various parts of the body, while mental as well as physical capabilities can be assessed.

In Britain there is a growing awareness of the garden’s therapeutic poten-

tial, fostered by a demonstration garden at Wisley. The Disabled Living Foundation was established in 1963, and since 1978 the Society for Horticultural Therapy has provided training schemes and advisers. Private and public hospitals and rest homes are benefiting from this scheme,

as well as individuals in their own homes. As yet there is little awareness in New Zealand, but this could be a worthwhile activity for employment schemes, community service programmes, service and garden clubs. Social workers, occupational therapists, and others

who visit the disabled in * their homes will know of - those people who would appreciate and benefit from » a specially designed gar- * den. ; The resulting mental and * physical satisfaction to the disabled leads to a fuller, ' happier life and successful ? rehabilitation. £