Welcome! On this thread we share and discuss the problems we encounter as physically challenged people trying to garden or just enjoy the outdoors. and the creative solutions we have discovered that work for us.
My husband and I, along with other disabled friends and some interested able-bodied folks are in the middle of creating an accessible small community garden. Common ground where people with physical challenges can come together and, sometimes, get a little gardening done.
There is already an excellent thread here specifically on wheelchair accessible planter design. This thread is more generalized.
Here are some issues we are dealing with and solutions we are trying at Amargia.
I am blind, but I know these few acres as well as I know the interior of my house. But, for safety and ease of navigation for other visually impaired people, some of whom will be new to dealing with visual problems, we are talking about using guidelines. Helen Keller used them to make her way independently to her beloved stand of honeysuckles so it has been done before. We are still debating about the materials we will use and how we can make it look good.
My husband, Jim, has severe back problems. We are experimenting with a triangular shape for one raised bed. Theoretically, it should make it easy to reach everything in the bed from a sitting position. We have been so busy creating the garden area Jim has not had a chance to really try it out yet. We have serious budget restraints, so we made it from one of those small outdoor storage units that was destroyed in a wind storm.
Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners
I added a picture of the Raised Bed I still have not had a chance to use it though.
A great picture. I crochet and yesterday i came across a pattern for a small bag that can be attached to a wheelchair.
This bag could hold a book, glass case, and pen.
If one were made for gardening. What would go in it? Maybe a hand trowel,smallpruner. What other small object would be handy to carry?
TIA
Cool raised bed. Is it cement or something else? How did you build it? And was it very difficult? Can you tell I want to copy you? LOL!
bottle of water
Seed packs and labeling material. I think the most unique coming together of gardening and crochet I have ever seen had to be plant pot "skirts." The lady was able to re-use black nursery pots for her house and porch plants and still have it look really good. I plan to learn to crochet this winter. I will try that if I can find a pattern and more info. Like what yarn would be best.
The triangular planter is the bottom and side walls of one of those Rubbermaid outdoor storage closets that was torn apart in a storm. Jim secured the corners with screws and I covered them with a thick mud mix of sandy clay soil dug from the property and Type 1-Type 2 portland cement. I thought about using joint compound, but decided to go with the material I knew best. The joke here is people stay busy and moving so I don't stucco them with one of my cement mixes. Portland cement is like duct tape here. A common problem solver. Working with cement can be dirty hard work, but I think the smartest definition of "disable person" came from a learning disabled gardener I met once. He said a disable person is someone who has to work twice as hard to get half as far.
The paint job is a little brighter than we had in mind. I was thinking Terra cotta, not orange. But, the painter was a 15-year-old. They aren't known for being subtle. The "Aztec" decorative accents were made from a thin concrete mix set up in old deli containers. Most people don't notice, but sometimes those have very interesting patterns.
Another interesting design.
Kay, I love all these pictures of Armagia! Thank you. I could never have imagined these.
I love the rounded top edge, that has been a problem for me, they are made with cement blocks that are rough and scratch my arms. Any ideas for something to cap them that is round?
Hmmm.
I committed an Amargia faux pas. I said that 4-letter “c” word.
In our shady areas, we decided to use grounding wire as our guidelines. One of the reasons is I’m a former avionics tech so we simply have large amounts of grounding wire around. Years ago the pencil-thick pliable aluminum wire was used to ground electrical equipment so coils of it can still be found in storage where ever there was a lot of electrical equipment. I said “We xxx’x do anything with all those short pieces.” A statement like that is seen as a personal challenge to the creative types. Not sure what they are up to with it yet. I guess we will see in a few days.
Cathy, you can split pvc pipe in half leangthwise. Jim uses the table saw to split it easily. You could use the split pipe as a mold for a fine sand/portland mud mix or, if you don't want to have to worry about smoothness, just leave the pipe in place and paint over it. I am about to do something like that to the edge of an old wooden planter to avoid problems with splinters. I'll ask Jim to toss in some pics as that project progresses.
I lined the interior of the wood planter with old plastic sheeting from the little greenhouse I use to protect my citrus and banana trees in winter. Wood projects don't last very long in our high humidity so I'm always trying things that, I hope, will extend their life.
*The old wood planter as it is before work starts on the edge.
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How do w/cs get from one planter to the next, or do they? I would need a path. I want to come visit!!! When it's not hot...
Carrie, i want to go too when it's not hot. Kay and Jim would January be a good time? When we are sick of the cold. LOL
Vickie
me 3, me 3...jumping up and down (well trying ) and waving arms!!!
Sheri
At this time, Carrie, with extreme care, often accompanied by language DG would discourage my repeating in a written form. Leveling and mixing/pouring concrete is mostly what my work days consist of now. The paths and a more accessible restroom are currently our big projects. Might want to time your visit after those are done. Unless you really want to add colorful New England phrases to my lexacon of profanity.
Poured concrete paths are the chosen surface material for the entrance area where the WC accessible garden is located. (This decision is not based on my alleged addiction to portland cement. It is the one surfacing material every W/C user I spoke with can agree on.) We are lucky in that area because the sub-soil is a brick-like red clay so only a thin layer of concrete is needed. The soft sand that characterises other parts of the property are more problematic. Boardwalks are what we are looking at for those areas. We are working on a ramp onto a deck using decking planks. We will see how well that works first. I don't know of any other surfaceing materials that work well, but we are always expermenting.
No snow or serious cold here in January, but it is a little dull and brown and dreary. Can you hold out till mid-February? That's when things start greening up again. Who is going to provide the summer escape?
Well of course you have to come see me in the summer. Hot here too but always a good breeze.
I wonder if i could get a good education on New England cuss words. I only know southern ones from my SIL. LOL
I know all the sign language cuss words, can I come?
Very good Cathy! i used to know SL (not sure if ASL or which and so enjoyed communicating with this one little boy. A patient of mine who was the reason I studied SL in the first place. I still remember some and will 'say' a few signs during praise and worship at church
Sounds good to me, Kay! Which is the nearest airport?
Sign language. That is a colorful method for complaining I haven’t seen in a while. One of our core group, Mike (deceased) was most involved with advancing deaf people. He ran a print shop and preferred to have deaf people working with him in the press room. The old style presses were LOUD so being able to communicate by sign language was an advantage. It is a little off topic, but I have to tell you about the craft project our little deaf contingent did once.
One day, when Mike and his deaf friends were helping Kay finish stuccoing a section of wall, they found they had some leftover concrete “mud.” I don’t know which of them initially had the idea, but they filled the right hand surgical gloves that they wore beneath the concrete gloves with the excess mud. Twist-tied the wrist closed over some steel pipe we had around, manipulated the fingers of the filled gloves so that they formed letters of the deaf alphabet and allowed them to set up that way. They liked the results so much they started finishing up every work day doing that. Eventually, they had enough “letters” they could spell out whatever they wanted. (As long as there was no “j” or “z” in it, of course) They arranged the “words” by sticking the pipe ends in the soil in rows. So messages peaked up from behind retaining walls or the edges of raised beds.
In the early days, when I was still in Sergeant mode, adjusting to civilian life and my new physical circumstances, I could be a little overbearing and difficult. It was probably good that I didn’t know the manual alphabet. I am quite sure some of those silent, concrete messages expressed their feelings about my behavior. A quiet form of venting. I guess it could have been worse. They could have lost all patience with me and simply hit me over the head with their letter “s”. lol.
Oh the pix is:
The mystery deepens!
Kay'you're welcome here anytime. SL or not. I know a very few espanic cuss words. I know the SL alphabet except can't remember G and Q. That closed fist S could have done some damage applyed to the top of head.
Could you make patio squares for the sandy spots? I noticed some put the squares on top of hauled in sand for patios.
Loved the story of the hands.
Vickie
Jim that is a funny story!!!! roflmao
Yes, _im, was a real _erk in those days. We never did come up with a way to work around the movement involved in forming "j"'s and "z"'s. You could still spell out b'day or holiday greetings, though. The hands made fun and funky holiday decor. In a spooky version, the hands still put in an appearance around Halloween.
I'm afraid the concrete pads would shift and crumble at the corners when a large person (such as my darling husband) rolled over them. But, if you made them large and eliminated the vulnerable corners by making them rounded.......hm-m-m. That idea is worth some experimentation, Vickie. Are surfaces like that teeth-chattering to roll across, Carrie? Have you run into a surface like that? I would think a long boardwalk could be a teeth-chatterer, too.
I can attest that when P A I N is one of the players, quaint and charming bricks or, worse yet, cobble stones, are painfully bone-rattling for wheelchair users. If only we could cover the planet with vinyl - ugh, what a horrible idea!
I've got to tell my deaf sister about the cement glove story! She's gonna love it....
My niece teaches deaf children, they would be fun filled with clay, too.
The deaf children??? LOL!
Haha, that wasn't worded exactly to make sense, did it?
It stands to reason that the cracks between blocks would be bone shaking. Guess you'll have to go back to the boardwalk.
One could have a lot of fun with those clay hands. Imagine a tree with hands coming out of the trunk, maybe holding flowerpots.
Carrie is Hurricane Bill suposed to come up the coast toward you.?
I just caught part of the news that said it was heading north maybe toward NE. I know you want more rain-NOT
It JUST started to rain as I started scrolling down my threads. I am a little dim as to which rain is from last winter and which is from next winter, but it's raining now. But, it has been hot and muggy and hot and muggy for days, you know, "I can't believe I ever wished it would get hot" kind of heat. At least my disease-free tomatoes are ripening.
I sure hope that all the hurricanes and himicanes miss NC this year, or at least don't affect the Piedmont. We usually just get the wind and rain, since they tend to lose force once they are over land and I'm a couple hundred miles inland. I would think by the time most of them get to you Carrie they've tamed down to heavy rain and wind also...right??
LOL....I had the same thought about the kids filled with cement.
I just love the sign letter cement hands!! Could you do many word signs with 2 hands? I hate that I have forgotten so much. A few years ago I spent 30 days in a hospital in TX and one of the workers was deaf. I recalled and got to practice so much with her. I think she enjoyed teaching me as much as i enjoyed the lessons and practice!
Hugs to all my friends here,
^_^ Sheri
Heavy rain is OK once a week or so, just not every day for 6-8 weeks, but we'll survive.
Oh my gosh. You might as well be living in the Pacific NW and the land of the Emerald City!!
Scooterbug gives an impressive collection of homemade clay recipes on the Hypertufa and Concrete forum. Most are kitchen table sort of recipes that you can use with children. I only have experience with a couple of them, but there might be one that would work in place of concrete for the hands.
The one pictured in-progress below is a fun sign to start out with. It is how our hand collection actually got started. It is the abbreviated sign for “I love you. It is formed by making the letter “I” and “L” at the same time. It is like the one that young deaf man created as a gift for his grandmother on the spur of the moment. To everyone’s surprise it came out well so we started doing others. An illustration showing the sign language alphabet can be found in most unabridged dictionaries under “sign language.” The manual alphabet can also be found online at:
http://www.asl.gs/
Don’t laugh, Carrie, I plan to use vinyl on the deck floor. They are coming up with some cool new designs for vinyl. I’m tired of applying wood protector every year and still having the wood warp. For the boardwalk, I’m looking at that new composite decking material that just looks like wood. I’ve reached a point where I first consider how well something functions and how much maintenance is involved.. After I determine what is most practical, I just come up with creative ways to make it look good. With the larger aging population in most industrial countries, I think this will become the fashionable approach. I believe ease and practicality will be the style buzz words in the not-to-distant future. So, use that vinyl and you could be part of the fashion avant garde. LOL. Not the whole planet, though. We have to save at least half the planet for concrete.
I do hope none of us have any wind storms so soon after so much rainy weather. When the ground is this saturated with water, the winds don’t have to be as strong to do serious damage. The winds can topple things like large trees and light poles much easier under wet conditions.
Afternoon and evening thunderstorms almost every day aren’t unusual here this time of year. It is the sheer volume of water in those storms that is unusual. I leveled up an area around a tree’s roots and seeded it with grass. Only to have an evening torrent wash all my work away. It was depressing!
Kay suggested I spend today organizing Amargia’s photos. Scanning in hard copy photos taken in the first year or so. I don’t know if it was my DW’s deviousness or happenstance, but that made me feel better. It is easy to feel overwhelmed when I consider how far we still have to go to reach our goal. I spent the morning looking at how far we’ve already come. Feeling much better. It seems to me that keeping yourself up and motivated when you are working on a long-term project is one of the “Practical Matters”
For me it does'nt have to be a large project. On depressed days. I have to fight every inch of the way to do anything. Than when i'm done i can feel some pride in (well i did it anyway mode) as in i swept the floor. I got dressed. etc
I know you guys have done so much. Just reading what you are doing makes me tired. LOL
Vickie
I wish I could just give away my excess energy to people who would like to have more. The best I can do is try to use it for something constructive. Too much energy can be a problem. You mean, Cando, there are people who DON'T have to make themselves do housework? I have always thought of housework as a necessary evil.
It was a beautiful day here. Near record lows. In the 70's with a breeze. Working outside was a joy!
Oh Kay, I have a neice that is totally house proud. She'll jump up and move a what not an inch to make it look perfect. She gives her dog a bath every night so it don't shed. Of course no shoes in the house. She's a great cook. But you'll never see a pot out of place longer than necessary.
I'm the total slob. My what nots are just as likely to be turned backwards as forwards. Poor old dogs get a bath whenever someone else thinks they need it. No one is quite sure just what color my carpet is. I can cook too but my pots can be found just about anywhere in the kitchen. Dishwasher is best place. I can always put pots up when i need the dishwasher again.
Haha, I love it. I have a perfect sister, I have piles. A pile of books, a pile of mail, sewing, garden stuff, etc. Sometimes the piles fall over and mix together. I'm trying really hard but if I put it away, I can't find it. I love my big pot on the stove simmering something that tastes good. In our first house the big pot didn't fit into any of the cabinets, so it just sat out and it is a habit now I guess. I like to think that it inspires great meals.