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Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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Posted by blueheron z6 PA (My Page) on Sat, May 12, 07 at 17:39
| I volunteer at a nursing home in a Hort Therapy Program. We have planted lots of flowers in containers, like window boxes, etc., but we were wondering if there were deep planter boxes that we could raise on legs so that wheelchair residents could access them. We would love to raise some veggies. |
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RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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One idea- you could figure out the dimensions you wanted and ask the local Boy Scouts to make them for you out of plywood using concrete blocks as legs. They would need to be at least 12" deep.
vickie |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| Buy a 50 ft. roll of turkey wire 4 ft. high with 2" x 4" spacing. Cut it in three 15 ft. lengths with 2" extra wire sticking out at one end to hook onto the other end. Bring the ends together to form a large cage about 4 ft. in diameter. Use the 2" piece to hook the ends together from top to bottom. Now weave vertical blind slats in the fence wire horizontally all the way around from top to bottom to make a large basket. This 50 ft. roll will make you three baskets. Be sure you locate each basket on level ground. Fill each basket with leaves,any kind except pine needles, and keep adding leaves for at least 2 weeks as they settle. This is very, very important because the leaves will pack down like a sponge. At the end of 2 weeks put at least 6 inches of planting soil on top covering the entire surface over the leaves. You must plant now because the weight of the soil will press the leaves down further and it will be hard to plant reaching over the fence wire after it settles. It will continue to settle for about 2 to 6 weeks depending on the type of leaves and the amount of rain. It should stop settling at about a 3 ft. height or waist height, ideal for those using wheelchairs. After the soil has settled to this point cut the top 10 inches of the fence wire off leaving 2 inch pieces sticking up all the way around, about 90 pieces. Bend these down inside to avoid being cut by the sharp ends. Save the part you cut off for use later. In 2 to 3 years it will have settled to about 2 ft. or less. This is slow composting also known as anaerobic digestion. In the end you end up with good humus. When you are ready to start over just lift the wire cage off leaving a large cake of humus, set the cage in a new location, put the 10 inch piece back on top, fill it with leaves, keep adding leaves for 2 weeks, add 6 inches of soil and you've started all over again. Plant. |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| I forgot to mention that the roots of the flowers or vegetables will feed off of the nutrients in the leaves of the large basket gardens. The leaves also hold a lot of moisture depending on the amount of watering or rain. Some of the leaves will hold water in a cup shape inside the cage and after a hard rain I haven't had to water large plants for a month. Signed: Anaerobic. |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| Neat idea, anaerobic (so that's where you get your name from!). I have even seen bags of sand used as a wall to build raised bends. One of the difficulties of raised beds for wheelchair bound gardeners is it is difficult to work from the side all the time. It is nice to be able to pull the chair beneath a table type structure. If you can't have a table like structure, I say plant vegetables in pots and put them on stands to make them accessible or make them light enough so that someone could place them on a table for the wheelchair bound gardener to work on. |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| I am in no hurry for compost or humus. The idea behind the Large Basket Gardens is to support the raised beds with the compressed leaves as long as possible. In the end the result is a high quality humus. While the plants are growing they will feed off of the nutrients in the leaves. The leaves in a cupped shape will hold water for quite a while and I have't had to water large plants for up to a month. When the soil has settled below the 3' height the sides will keep plants. The big advantage or this type of raised bed is that many handicapped persons can take care of planting, weeding and harvesting at a waist-height level. I realize that most people are in a hurry for compost but this is another ball game altogether. This is not the normal way to make compost I know, and by the way, composting is aerobic. The Large Basket Gardens are not exactly composting. This is known as Anaerobic Digestion, no air, no turning, no work, no hurry. But in the end you still get the same thing, good old humus. Signed: ANAEROBIC |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| Contact the various service clubs in your area, like the Eagles, Elk, Moose, Lions, Kiwanis, etc, and ask if they could make something like this for you. BE SURE to have the design and measurements already drawn up. Ask for donations of soil, compost, etc. Sue |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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I just built some planters based upon those posted by the American Horticultural Therapy Association
here : http://www.ahta.org/AHTA Raised Bed.pdf They take a LOT of soil to fill!!!
However a very rewarding project. pictures of the project are posted at the link below |
Here is a link that might be useful: Theraputic Garden
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| A less resource-intense method of providing raised beds for mobility impaired people is laid out in Mel Bartholomew's recent edition of "Square Foot Gardening." Basically, the beds are made with a bottom, including drainage holes, and placed on sawhorses or other, more sturdy, supports. Bartholomew provides photos. His website also gives ideas about this: www.squarefootgardening.com in el cerrito |
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| My father got himself onto the garden committee at the assisted living place where he lives, convinced them to create gardens, and has slowly but surely been expanding the space. His design is for a 4 x 8 raised bed that's about 30' high. They're made with plastic "lumber". as you can see (if the link works) some people insisted on 8 x 8 beds that are about 12" high. But many are now realizing this isn't a good idea because they can't reach to the center of the bed. He usually works his garden by sitting in his walker, so it should work for people in wheelchairs. I took this photo the day after his 85th birthday BTW. He took on a second plot this year, and grows potatoes in addition to radishes, onions, lettuce, carrots, beets, tomatoes, and summer squash. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Tor's garden
RE: Raised Beds for Wheelchair Users
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| I read where old chest-type freezers have been used for raised beds at a nursing home. That would be a good way to recycle them. I'm not sure what they did for drainage, other than the drain hole in the bottom of them. You could even surround the exteriors of them with a picket fence to improve the appearance. |
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