Gardening is a fulfilling and therapeutic activity that people of all ages and abilities can enjoy. However, individuals with disabilities may face unique challenges when it comes to participating in gardening activities. So, the Where it’s AT Team is here with solutions to consider ensuring that gardening is accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
Patio/Small Space Gardens
If you live in an apartment or rent a home where you can’t modify the existing landscaping, you don’t initially have a lot of space to work with, but that can be easily solved with a bit of ingenuity.
Railing planters are a wonderful option for any space with a railing because it utilizes space that might otherwise go unused. You can hang them over both sides to double up your space, or just hang them over the outside to maintain an accessible reach to your plants.
Hanging Baskets are another option that is great on its own, allowing you to use as much overhead space as you desire or have available, but if you pair them with a pulley system, you optimize access to anyone regardless of which height best serves them.
Upside-down planters are another great use of space, taking plants that would otherwise need to be trellised lest they sprawl, and enabling a bounty of tomatoes, herbs or strawberries to be harvested in a relatively small amount of space.
Wall Garden Planters are great space savers, as they take advantage of wall space to grow your plants. Rather than being restricted to a single line of planting space, you can utilize the entire wall above it with this great tool.
Tiered pots take advantage of our vertical space theme, by allowing you to grow upward with separate compartments designed to stack on one another and allow you to grow a lot of plants on a very small footprint.
@whitmanifesto on TikTok shares ideas for accessible outdoor gardening. Whether using a railing-based planter to plant flowers or placing two buckets on top of each other to create height for a plant pot, @whitmanifesto shares various accessibility ideas.
Energy and Pain Management
Now that we are done talking about spaces for our gardens, let’s look closer at some of the tools at our disposal.
Gardening is great for body and soul, but being mindful about how we manage our energy and pain can be a crucial part of this great activity. After all, if we ignore pain, we will be likely to injure ourselves and if we don’t manage our energy, we might need to leave our projects unfinished.
Knee pads are a great option to save your knees from any pain of getting down into your soil. Additionally, kneeling pads are good for people who want to be near the ground. With these simple foam kneeling pads, you can kneel on them, or sit on them for cushion and slide along the ground without ever needing to rise up only to immediately lower yourself again.
A garden kneeler and seat is a fantastic multitool as it can sit with the padding in a lower position to protect your knees, and it can also be positioned with the padding in a higher position to serve as a bench. This tool is emblematic of this section as it not only protects from pain in your knees and back, it also provides you respite in the form of a durable seat that can also hold onto your tools for you with its handy side pockets. Garden chairs come in a variety of different builds. A garden rocker rolling seat is an adjustable seat on wheels designed for reaching and leaning in the garden.
Compression gloves are a fantastic tool for anyone who lives with arthritis. These gloves enable you to continue pruning and planting when you otherwise might have not been able to.
Finally, drip irrigation. If you find yourself knackered out after your day of gardening or maybe just don’t have the energy to go out and water regularly, drip irrigation is a great option as it slowly provides water to all of your plants, taking that task off your plate and also saving water and water bill money in the process.
Mobility Tools
Wagons are great for transporting heavy items and keeping things you frequently need at near reach. Look for designs that have tilted pulling handles that can accommodate pulling from any height.
Seated carts are also great options so that you can work from a seated position. The model linked has a swiveling seat so that you can more easily get seated and move when seated to gain access to the area around you. This model even has a storage basket for your favorite tools.
A Wearable Garden Stool could be a great option for people to have a place to rest always there and they never have to carry it around with them!
There are many options for moving pots around as well. A metal plant caddy with wheels and a potted plant dolly can be rolled around wherever needed.
Get a Grip
Now let’s talk about how we can get a grip.
If you have limb or digit difference, Gloves can be a challenging need to fill. One of the simplest ways to get what you need is to go to a tailor and see if they can make you a custom pair or modify an existing pair that you think would work well. You could customize them for one-hand use; for hand, finger, or thumb amputees; for those with specially shaped hands, and can even acquire seamless designs to support sensory needs. If you want a great tutorial for a quick modification hack, Jack Kriz who has EEC syndrome, has a great video on YouTube that you might find useful.
Another great option for people who need larger tools to accommodate their grip is foam grip tubing. You can simply cut this tubing to fit whatever tool you have and it will increase the diameter of whatever tool you are modifying.
If you want to create a custom grip with a flair to match your style, you can always buy grip wraps, which will not only enable you to create the exact thickness you prefer by overlapping the tape and create a wrap that has a tackiness that will help you retain a hold on your tool.
Adaptive Garden Tools
Next, let’s talk about adaptive tools.
When selecting these, if you have pain or reduced strength in your hands or live with chronic fatigue you might benefit from looking for lightweight options. This may seem counterintuitive, like a good tool is a heavy tool that will last forever, but no, a good tool is the tool that will enable you to do the work to the best of your ability and enjoyment.
Ergonomic garden tools will be not only the kindest to your joints if you already live with joint pain, but they will not contribute to the progression of that pain, and if you don’t live with that pain, this is a great preventative tool to avoid acquiring it.
The Easi Grip hand tools keep your wrist straight while working, eliminating unnecessary rotation and strain.
Ratcheting pruning shears makes it so that when pruning, the tool is doing most of the work for you.
The PETA Easy grip handles are a great tool to have in your gardening bag because it can be attached to any tool, enabling you to more easily rake, sweep, weed or shovel.
Adjustable Reach Tools
Extendable loopers can prune trees or bushes in a snap and are really strong. A great feature is that you can also grab with them, so you can snip a branch and then move it without leaving your preferred position.
Extendable rakes are a two-in-one tool because you can use it as a traditional rake, and then you can collapse the handle and move your gathered leaves into the composter or green waste bin using your giant rake hands.
The Easi Grip arm support cuff provides a way to keep that safe ergonomic hand positioning while utilizing the strength and stability of your entire arm, shoulder, and back.
Easi Grip long-reach garden tools are super lightweight and have the Easi Grip upright soft grip handle so that you are working with the natural grip for your hands, rather than straining your wrists.
And finally, a telescoping fruit picker enables you to gather fruit from your tree from any position.
Accessible gardens
Next up, let’s talk about accessible garden beds, these are great tools for those of short stature, those who work from a seated position, or those with chronic pain. There are some great options out there.
First up, let’s look at U-shaped planters. They provide access from all sides and raise the bed so you can easily reach the plants from a seated position.
Roll-under planters are another great option, you can roll right up to this planter and have no obstructions to your legs.
Root Vegetable Grow bags are a great option that eliminates getting onto the ground to harvest your root vegetables, rather, you grow above ground level and have doors that can be opened from the side when it is time to harvest. They come in all different shapes and sizes.
Epic Gardening’s YouTube channel gives us a tutorial on how to create a path in an accessible garden.
Also, those with visual disabilities might have trouble identifying plants so colors and markers are helpful to make plants stand out. Colored sticker labels can be placed on metal plant stakes to clearly label plants to identify herbs over flowers or to identify watering days. Plant labels can also be attached to the plant itself by making sure the label has large and clear text with high contrast between the text and label background. There are so many options for marking plants it is just a matter of what works best for you.
Gardening Programs
CalAgrAbility partners with The Department of Rehabilitation and CFILC’s Ability Tools to assist farm families living and working with a disability to access needed assistive technologies. AgrAbility is a nationwide organization that has even more additional resources, like information related specifically to arthritis, veterans, and funding assistance. They also have a training and events page where you can see if there will be any educational events near you then there is The Toolbox, which is an online resource containing information on a ton of devices that are helpful to people with disabilities who want to get their hands in the soil.
I Want To Mow Your Lawn Inc is a volunteer-run nonprofit that provides free gardening services for older adults and people with disabilities. You can receive help by looking up your zip code on the organization’s home page.
If you are interested in participating in a local community farm, like Common Roots, you can visit the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, or CAFF, website and take a look at their California Farm Directory, where you can find farms by crop or products or even find non-profit or farmer-of-color owned farms. Find someone near you and maybe you can work or volunteer there, or even get tips on how you can start your own community garden.
AARP provides a variety of gardening online trainings regardless of membership. AARP Gardening & Nature training events are free, held throughout the month, and require participant registration.
Accessible Gardening is a website dedicated to gardening for all abilities. They provide free gardening guides and share gardening tools. They have also created a calendar that outlines what fruits, veggies, and plants are best for indoors or outdoors depending on the month of the year.
Additionally, many cities have free tree programs. Trees are fantastic at keeping water in your lawn and cooling your home, never mind their beauty and air-cleaning capabilities. Try doing a Google search for free tree programs including your city or county and see if there are any active in your area.
Also check out part 1 of this blog which is focused on indoor gardening: Accessibly Green: Gardening Tips and Tricks (Indoor) | Where It’s AT. The Ability Tools Blog.
In conclusion, gardening is more than just a hobby; it’s a transformative and accessible activity that fosters the well-being of people. By utilizing adaptive tools and innovative gardening methods, such as raised beds, vertical gardening systems, and ergonomic tools, individuals can actively participate in and enjoy the therapeutic benefits of gardening.
From seed to bloom, may your garden always bring you joy!
