Handicapped and Elderly Gardeners. Gardening can be a most pleasurable out-of-doors activity for the
handicapped. Like the home and car, the garden can be adapted to overcome a wide variety
of physical disabilities, ranging from those associated with increasing age that can
affect us all to more serious disabilities that may result in confinement to a wheelchair.
Adaptations to the garden and the use of specialised tools often allow even the most
severely handicapped person to tend and create a most satisfying and successful garden
safely and largely independently of help. Before any major alterations are undertaken,
decisions will have to be made on the garden's layout and on the type, number and relative
sizes of the features to be included in it. The decisions will depend on the amount of
time available for gardening and on your present and, if they are likely to change, future
physical abilities. For the easiest-care garden, only those features that can be
comfortably managed and are well within your physical capabilities should be included.
However, some gardeners may welcome a challenge, and there is plenty of scope for variety
and personal expression in the design of a suitable garden. An adapted garden can be as
individual as the person who adapts it. It is possible for a wheelchair gardener with a
strong upper body to mow a lawn with a suitable mower, or even, if he or she wishes, to
dig the ground, although it would be difficult to attend to tall plants or shrubs that
require an annual pruning. Similarly, a person who has difficulty bending may not be able
to tend low-growing plants at ground level, while taller plants, or plants in raised beds,
will be quite easily maintained from an upright position. Ideally, the entire garden
should be planned and laid out to suit an individual'' needs in one go. This is rarely
possible, however, as it can involve a great deal of work, most of which is likely to be
beyond the capabilities of a handicapped gardener, and the help of friends, relatives or a
paid garden contractor will often be required. Most probably, alterations will have to be
made a little at a time, in which case it is advisable initially to concentrate on the
area of the garden closest to the house, and to provide or improve suitable access to and
around the garden.
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