Handicapped Accessible Gardens - Meadows - Container Gardens - Roof Gardening

Handicapped Accessible Gardens - What to keep in mind

Gardening provides an enjoyable and leisurely activity for a growing number of people in the United States. Today, this growing population includes many elderly and handicapped who find that gaining access to a garden is many times a challenging task. This unfortunate fact greatly limits this population's activities within gardens, but new innovations are allowing for a welcomed change. With a little bit of planning and a few modifications, gardening can easily be adapted to allow anyone access to partake in any garden's many benefits.

Handicap accessible and friendly gardens often exhibit a majority, if not all of the following modifications. Raised beds are commonly used to bring the plants to the people. These waist high beds eliminate the common crouching and crawling associated with gardening. Construction at an average height of approximately two and a half to three feet offers a comfortable height to work at for anyone in a wheelchair or sitting position. These beds are easily built with timbers, bricks or crossties and filled with good topsoil or compost that can easily drain to below. The width of such beds are limited to no more than four feet across, a practical width enabling the center to be reached from either side. While the length of these beds varies greatly, beds that are too long require much work for circling wheelchairs.

Alternatives to raised beds include large pots, table beds and vertical gardening. Large pots offer the same opportunities for gardening, but are many times circular and have the advantage of being transportable. Table beds are elevated and offer a shallow bed of six to twelve inches at a raised height, under which legs can easily rest in an open space. Vertical gardening includes climbing plants, whose height reduces the need for bending over and for raised beds. Many plants naturally grow upwards and if trained properly can use walls, trellises and fences to help. Hanging baskets, which can be set to any height, also provide a vertical element to gardening without the need for a bed on the ground.

All of these options offer great alternatives to a normal garden bed. But maneuvering around within a garden plays just as important a role as gardening itself. Wide rows between the beds provide adequate space for multiple gardeners moving about, even in wheelchairs. Pathways between the raised beds determine how easily moving within the garden can be. Grass and mulch as a bed are often times hard to maneuver for wheelchairs. Small, compacted gravel offers a more efficient layer. However, a more permanent and yet expensive alternative is the use of brick, stone or concrete. Maintaining the pathways as a smooth and continuous surface is an important consideration a pathway's design.

Other considerations include if any ramps are needed, it is important that a non-skid surface is used and set at a slope of no more than eight degrees. Resting areas in the shade, including benches and spaces for wheelchairs also provide a necessity for everyone working in any garden. Modified gardens enable easy access for any individual who wishes to weed, water, fertilize or harvest a garden. Many of these gardens can still support the same variety of plant life with a good day's worth of direct sunlight. However, they do often require more watering than a standard garden, which can be aided by a layer of mulch to decrease evaporation and keep the roots cool in the bed. Modification to gardening techniques and tools often accompanies the alteration of a typical garden. While still remaining practical and yet aesthetic, planning for and maintaining a handicap accessible garden, can yield both benefits for the gardener and from the garden.

For more information:
Handicap Accessible Gardening http://www.inthecountrygardenandgifts.com/jspece/gardening/accessible.html

Gardening in Raised Beds and Containers for Older Gardeners & Individuals with Physical Disabilities
http://gardening.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.vt.edu
%2Fhuman%2Fpub426020d.html

Meadows

In the United States, estimates place the amount of lawn surrounding our homes between 20-30 million acres. These expanses of lawn support little wildlife and consume large quantities of resources-fertilizers, pesticides, water and mowing-to maintain. If you have an open, sunny area on your property, consider replacing lawn with a meadow or prairie garden.

Meadows and prairies contain a mixture of grasses and wildflowers; typically, warm season grasses (grow in warm season) in prairies and cool season grasses in meadows. Prairies generally tend to have a larger percentage of grasses, as well.

Meadows and prairies can be divided into annual and perennial. Annual meadows grow rapidly the first year, blanketing the landscape in color, but need to be replaced on a yearly basis. These meadows often come as prepackaged or canned meadow mixes, and tend to consist of non-native plants. Perennial meadows, on the other hand, take a few years to establish, but once establish, require little maintenance.

A perennial meadow can be created easily by choosing and planting wildflowers and grasses native to Pennsylvania. The root structure of grasses helps to control weeds, while the stems provide shelter for birds and small mammals and the seeds food for wildlife. Grasses also add beautiful fall color to the meadow.

To create a meadow, begin by choosing a sunny location in the landscape. Remove lawn by cutting away sod at a depth of about 1-½ inches. Lawn can also be removed by solarizing-placing a layer of plastic, thick newspaper, or plywood over the lawn to germinate and bake the plants. Covering should be applied in spring and kept in place for about two months. Upon removal of the cover, it will be necessary to till the soil. Meadows can be planted by using either seeds or plants. The best time to plant is spring.

An alternative to planting a meadow is simply to stop mowing and allow nature to take its course. Remove unwanted or aggressive plants by hand, allowing the more desirable to flourish.

In some municipalities, "weed" ordinances have been established which might restrict the height or type of plants that can be grown. Check with your local municipality before planting a meadow, to ensure that you will not be violating any ordinances. If ordinances exist, apply for a variance. Refer to the webcast section of this website for additional information on ordinances (after March 2002). It may also help to educate your neighbors so that they understand that you are applying environmental landscaping principles. Keeping the meadow neat by mowing a border or adding human-interest objects, such as benches, may also positively influence public perception.

Native Prairie Grasses

• Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardi)
  
• Little Bluestem (Andropogon scoparius)
  
• Indian Grass (Sorghastram mutants)
  
• Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)

Sample of Native Perennail Wildflowers

• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
  
• Butterfly Weed (Liatris spicata)
  
• Common Milkweed (Ascleias syriaca)
  
• Goldenrod (Solidago sp.)
  
• New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae)
  
• Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

Plant Sources

Suggested Readings
Stein, Sara. Noah's Garden. New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Wilson, James. Landscaping With Wildflowers: An Environmental Approach to Gardening. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

Container Gardens

Container gardening is an exciting way to add color to the landscape throughout the growing season and is limited only by one's imagination. These fanciful creations might include annuals - vegetables or flowers, perennials, small trees or shrubs, and hard to contain plants in the natural setting such as bamboo and mint.

Container gardening allows one to garden year-round. Almost any species of plant will grow in a container and can be moved inside during the cold winter months. Also, containers can be moved around in the landscape, lowered or raised, or re-potted for a distinct, new look. One unexpected benefit for urban gardeners is the heat island phenomenon, which actually extends the gardening season. In the spring, urban areas tend to warm up faster, while in the autumn they hold their summer heat a bit longer.

There are many different places that container gardens can provide seasonal interest. Balconies support a host of gardening options, from containerized trees and shrubs, to vines and bulbs in pots, to vegetable plants and herbs in tubs to hanging baskets. A window box is another option for a garden. Even sections in the sidewalk (out of the main walking area) where the concrete has been removed can provide a place for a small garden.

Containers can range from plastic to wood material either bought at a local garden store or at garage sale deals. As long as it has drainage holes, it can be used for a container garden.

Overall, container gardens in an urban setting benefits wildlife by providing an oasis and essential link in the restoration of lost or seriously fragmented wildlife habitat in the local watershed.

For more information on container gardening, search the web for excellent resources such as articles, fact sheets, and books.

www.cumberland.ces.state.nc.us/pubs/containergarden.html
www.eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/html/grow/container.html

Roof Gardening

Roof top gardening is an innovative and emerging landscape being installed on industrial and office buildings in the United States. Early settlers in the Midwest United States and in the Canada prairies built some of their first homes with sod and wooden roofs covered with prairie grasses. In Europe these roof meadows have been used on private homes for many years with good results. Today, Germany installs over 10 million square feet of green rooftops on homes and office buildings each year. In parts of Switzerland, a law requires all new buildings to relocate the green space to the rooftop.

These green rooftops or roof gardens reduce stormwater runoff, improve air and water quality, promote energy conservation by insulating buildings, increase habitat for birds and beneficial insects, support urban food production, increase value of buildings, and acts a sound barrier. A recent study done by a consulting group in Chicago estimates that the greening of all the city's rooftops would produce $100 million in saved energy annually.

The slope of the roof will determine how the garden will be used, what vegetation is grown, and how often one will need to access the roof. It is important when designing a rooftop garden to consult with a licensed engineer regarding the load carrying capacity of the building you are working with and ensure that the garden design and the structural capacity are compatible. A relatively low cost way to get started with a roof top garden on a flat roof is the use of containers such as a plastic swimming pool.

There are several rooftop gardens in existence and/or in the process of being built in Pennsylvania. Excellent resources on this type of specialty garden can be located on the internet. For a good example of one urban project, visit www.arts4all.com/elca.