Empowering the Garden

I have empowered the parking pad garden and encourage it to remake itself in the image of an enabled garden.  Actually we are still working on what exactly is in the enabled garden image, but here are some things we have learned and experienced first hand.

Oh, and most of this is predicated by mobility concerns.  Wonky legs, wacky balance.  Toss in a few grip problems, sweat filmed glasses and odd bits of this and that to keep it fun.

I want to garden, to grow edible plants for my family to eat, flowers for my soul, along with hearth and home for wildlife.  My gardens need certain things to allow them to thrive and prosper.  They need water, nutrients, minerals, tending, renewing and protection from the elements.  Handi-enabled me needs a various and sundry of odds and ends related to safe and secure mobility.  The empowered garden is the fusing of mutual needs.  My need for the garden's produce and the garden's need for my involvement.

If you dissect the theories of universal design and age in place, many of the concepts summarize to safety and security.  I define safety and security as the ability to be mobile without risk of falling.  Other people will have different criteria for safety and security, and as time evolves so will each individuals requirements.

I use mobility aids.  Generally crutches.  Sometimes a walker.  There is a high probability I will use a wheelchair more and more as I age.  My knees and quads don't work, and my balance is abysmal.  I cannot squat or kneel.  I can bend over and reach straight down.  If I need to bend and reach out I need to hold onto something.  Currently, my upper body strength and arms are in decent condition.  I can lower and raise myself if I have something to grip, though not to much repetition.  I need to reduce the amount of wear and tear on my upper body, and I definitely need to keep my legs functioning as long as possible.  Oh, and I am 5'2" tall.

Standing with crutches, measuring between the crutch tips yields xx inches.  In my walker, between wheels is xx inches.  My rigid manual wheelchair, with it's current configuration is xx inches.  This means that my garden paths are minimally 36" wide on the straight with additional allowance on turns.  The paths need to be as near to flat, smooth and rigid as possible.  If the paths are hardscape, they can not slope for water drainage.  If money were no concern, I would have paths of permeable hardscape, either porous pavement or grass pavers.  I don't have oodles of spare greenbacks, so I am experimenting with other semi-rigid path options: wet area anti-fatigue mats, old carpet, vinyl garden fencing laid flat, cardboard under weed cloth, ADA mulch and bahia grass.  Oh, and paths can not be obstructed by plants, garden accoutrements, pots, chairs or any of the sort laying in wait to trip me up.

Standing, I can just reach to the back of a 2 foot garden bed.  Barely.  Sitting I can reach further, in part because I can lean into the garden.  A garden bed surrounded by wide paths is ideal.  A  bed that is four to five feet wide is a maximum width for me to work with and have enough surface space to be more efficient with nutrients and water management.  After a year of experimenting, I can tell that 6" to 10" raised beds are too low.  Ideally, I think I would want a 18" raised bed.  But those greenbacks are ever illusive.  I am compromising this go around.  I am  building beds using 2"x12" pressure treated lumber with 2"x6" cedar seat caps.  As the framing settles into place, I am raking out and lowering the path.  The goal is that slowly I will create a soil berm in place of the 4"x4" footers that my budget nixed.

In this garden plot, my primary bed is 5' x 20'.  A 100 square feet.  This is enough soil space to allow for efficient use of resources; water, minerals and nutrients.  The raised portion of the bed is 14", but when the beds where initially built they were dug out first.  Ideally, they would have been dug out 12" giving a good two feet of high quality growing soil.  By digging down before building up, the land itself will help to insulate and buffer the garden.  A 26" raised garden will dry out much faster than a dirt bermed garden.  I have compromised, half below ground, half above ground.  14 inches of elevated wet garden soil will be very heavy.  Beds must be well constructed and braced to minimize bowing and collapse.

It is most difficult for me to reach ground level in the middle of a bed, so I use the middle spot for growing tall plants that don't need a lot of daily care.  In two of these beds, I have put in place permanent fencing to use for staking and growing vertically.  Cattle panels work fantastic for this.  And the metal fence posts provide a bit of extra grab bar/hand rail.

Building the paths and the garden beds are just the beginning.  One needs to sit back and think about all the activities of daily gardening.  How these garden activities will be accomplished daily in a safe and secure manner.  So what are the activities of daily gardening?

• Watering
• Weeding
• Pruning/cleaning
• Pest control
• Feeding
• Harvesting
• Planting

One can build the most perfectly spaced and geometrically designed enabled garden, but if it is not easily accessible from day to day it will not thrive.   For most of this past rainy season, I couldn't get the gates open to this garden.  One such little obstacle confronted daily turns into a major hindrance.

Then there are the seasonal activities.  Pulling out the spent annuals at the end of the season and preparing for a new season.  Composting.   Deep mulching during the dry season.  Repairing and replacing irrigation systems.  Pruning and dividing perennials.  Bug protection, freeze protection.  Starting seedlings.

The empowered garden takes the good bones of its structure and keeps right on piling up the enabling attributes.

Planning, and building an accessible garden would ideally be executed before accessibility is diminished.  Sure, we can all except to age, and to slowly have age related challenges overtake us.  But who expects to wake up in their 40's to mobility challenges?   Maybe it is time to start applying concepts of Universal Design and Age in Place to our outdoor living areas and our gardens.

As luck would have it, there are many things that work so well for this garden location.  It is at the end of the driveway with large double gates.  Easy vehicle access for unloading.  Easy access for the tree trimmings dump truck.  Right outside our garage door.  Easily navigated concrete.  Right next to the garden shed.  At one narrow end of the yard easily fenced off from the dogs.  Electricity had already been run to the shed for interior lights and interior power outlets.

There are a few things that work out, but are not ideal.  There is no irrigation system.  Spigots for hand watering are not far, but not really in ideal locations.  Ideally, a water spigot and hose would be right in this garden.  In some cases, tapping into the water line and running a spigot to the garden area would be desirable.  There are no bright exterior flood lights.  Harvesting a quick salad for dinner after dark isn't going to be happening unless somebody comes along to hold the flashlight for me.   Adding exterior flood lights off the garden shed electrical shouldn't be too expensive and probably a wise safety investment for the long haul.

Creating a sit for a spell and take a break spot was a super simple must-have.  An umbrella, comfortable chair and small table that can double as a foot rest.  Tucked into a shady corner of the garden.  I can sit back with a tall cool drink and relish in the sights and sounds of the garden.

A two foot wide strip along the length of the shed has been framed up to serve as a dual purpose compost zone and empty pot holding area.  It is too shady for much of anything to grow, so using this spot to store pots and to have a handy mini compost zone will save many steps over the growing season.  Another spot just inside the double gates is designated as the bagged soil and compost storing area.

The double gates allow for bobcat access to the backyard.  Can't put any semi-permanent structures in the path a bobcat would use.  It just so happens that excess rain water run off from the backyard is along the path that needs to be left clear of  structures.  A little bit of work with a rake and shovel and I will be able to create a simple rain garden just past the edge of the garden beds.  Keeping rain water IN my garden area will help long term with improving the soil and the habitat.  I'll also be adding a 40 gallon or so water garden that  will help to improve wildlife habitat conditions.

The garden is only 40 feet or so from the garage which houses the washing machine and the water treatment machine.  Diverting the water overflow from both of those to the 'rain garden' would again help withe improving the garden conditions.  And help to keep a bit of moisture going in the rain garden during our dry seasons.

The shed roof area is not that large, but I think capturing rainfall into gutters and diverting it into and along the edges of the gardens will help with irrigation and nutrients.  There is plenty of space between the fence and the back of the shed to put a large rain water collection system.  Which could be elevated to gravity feed an irrigation system.  That would be super nice and easy watering.  I'm not convinced the potential water collection amount justifies expense.

In the mean time, I think I will get a hose stand with a water hookup and spigot to set up near the edge of the garden.  I will have a light weight hose and watering wand permanently connected and stored on the hose stand for easy access inside the garden.  Using quick connects to hook the yard hose up the hose stand should be quick and easy.  Hose quick connects and watering wands are a few of the little things that add up over time to make gardening so much easier while keeping the beast of daily burdens at bay.  A watering wand lets me get water directly onto the plant roots that need it without requiring a fall risking contortionist act.  Hose quick connects make it oh-so-very easy to change hose end attachments, connect leader hose to far yard hose, plug into the drip system, and so forth.

Irrigation for the garden is one of those ongoing semi-daily necessities that become an ugly hurdle as one looses physical mobility.  Water is heavy.  Garden hoses full of water are heavy and ungainly.  Water sloshed onto walkways makes for slippery surfaces.  Think about how most hand watering is done.  By hose, bucket or watering can.  Now, think about any one of those if you are using mobility aides.  Carry a 5 gallon water bucket?  Pull 200 feet of water filled hose along with your walker?  Sit a watering can full of water on your lap in a wheelchair?

I would love to have a water spigot right at the edge of the garden beds.  With an easy grip manifold permanently hooked up to all the watering systems a gardening gimp could dream off.  A super-lightweight hose and watering wand.  An inline liquid fertilizer system.  A mechanical timer driven drip irrigation system.  An overhead mist system.

As luck would have it, many things about this garden are ideal - or easily and practically modifiable.  As fate would have it, there are a few things that make this garden location less than ideal. Running a water supply pipe extension out here isn't in the cards.  Tapping into the in ground irrigation system would be easier, though costly itself.  The garden area is on the north side of our two story house.  There is an overgrowth of oak trees.  It does not get full sun.  Trees need to be removed and trimmed.  It pains me to remove oak trees, but then I take a closer look around and realize that historically this was a high pines flatland habitat.  Oak trees only got a foothold here when fires became controlled.  It is the high long leaf pines that are our true historical trees.  Planning a judicious removal of oak trees so they are less quantity but more quality is probably a good objective. Costly though.


Resources:
Buehler Enabling Garden - Chicago Botanic Garden
City Farmer: Hort Therapy
Carry On Gardening