Handicap Garden

I was wondering what sort of gear was available for people with movement handicaps - I can't kneel or get back up, can't bend down for long, don't have a lot of strength.  I was looking into somehow raising a metal watering trough  about 1-2 feet off the ground to take care of my bending problems.  What should I have it raised onto, cinder blocks, bricks, something else?  With the winds we have, do I have to anchor it down?  If I do, with what?  Is there something better to use?  I've been told that I only need to put a foot of soil at the top, but should I put wood in the bottom or stone or something else in the bottom to bring the soil up to the top.  Are there special handicap tools I can use and where would I find them?  Any other advice?

I would love some advice like this as well!  My body can almost kinda sorta do everything it used to, but slower and with much less strength.  Any good tools or even better/easier ways to use regular tools.
Are you using the trough for planting into?  I don't have specific advice there, but from using wooden raised beds- I personally like having the soil a bit lower than the edge of the bed.  Seems to dry out slower with that tiny bit of extra shade.

I've definitely been working on higher raised beds as I go as I plan for my future.

One thing I've tried 2 versions of are raised beds about two feet high, but with very solid walls that are wide enough I can sit on at an angle and reach into the bed. It does involve twisting my back a little, but so long as I only do a little weeding, then move and change to the opposite side angle, I've found it helps.

I've tried one version of a ARK bed (African Raised Keyhole) that is a full 30 inches tall. Standing is no problem for me, so that bed is awesome! Again the edge is wide enough I can support myself with one arm if I need to reach with the other.

The issues with both of these approaches is that it's a fair bit of work to build them and you'll still only have a relatively small planting area. It's worth it for things you *really* want to grow for yourself and have quick access to fresh, but it would be a lot of work to scale it up to a significant chunk of your diet. That's one reason I've started now and am experimenting with different versions.

The big issue with raised beds is keeping moisture in them, so I admit, I recommend deep soil and I use lots of punky wood at the bottom - the same idea as Hugelkulture uses - just a much smaller scale. The ARK bed uses a compost cylinder to help with watering, but I don't think it would be any where near enough in my climate if the soil in that bed wasn't supported on big rounds of wood.

I'll second the benefit of having a sturdy wall!!
My husband built the beds I use.  He had planned on adding stump chair/benches here and there... but he made the walls so wide that I started sitting on them before he finished.  The width of the sides probably also insulates the soil from drying.

True the space is much smaller than I had before, and it may not ever feed us the way my old gardens did; but it's worth it to me for the therapy aspect.

I have the same problem and have a solution, and it's cheap. I have collected a variety of old, non working dishwashers, refrigerators, such. Take the door off and drill holes in the back of it. Lay it on it's back and fill with dirt  (preferably from a local stock yard or someone's corral ).  Cover with a layer of cardboard and cut holes in the cardboard to plant in. The cardboard eliminates weeds and holds in moisture. It will break down and make more dirt. Just add fertilizer and new cardboard next year and keep going.  This is not really my original idea. I adapted it from a book by Ruth Stout called No work gardening. A wonderful book full of teriffic information. Written about 1950. I got my copy from Alibris.com. with shipping I paid about 6 dollars. You can also paint the outside of your new container garden to make it look more attractive. Hope this helps

Saralee Couchoud wrote:

I have collected a variety of old, non working dishwashers, refrigerators, such. Take the door off and drill holes in the back of it. Lay it on it's back and fill with dirt  (preferably from a local stock yard or someone's corral ).

Depending on the exact size, I could see that working for some places, although more and more plastic is involved nowadays than in 1950. I would actually drill the drainage holes in the sides an inch or so up from the bottom so you end up with a bit of a water reservoir down there. I've done that with half-barrels that I use because I only had 1 sunny spot which was a warm enough for plants like tomatoes at one time. Luckily, I've now got two sunny areas, so my main crop tomatoes have moved elsewhere, but I still use the barrels because they're handier to the house for quick bits of lettuce or for "grazing" mini-tomatoes while I'm on my way to see the chickens!

I use hand pruning tools a lot.  Clipping roses, gathering vegetables, etc.

I find a garden spade very handy.  I keep one stuck in the garden bed so I can tell if I need to water.  

For weeding, I like a hand rake with a claw.

I like to use a "stationary sprinkler."  It stays hooked up to a short garden hose so that I do not need to move it around the garden.  The sprinkler head and short hose live in the garden bed and on the days that I water, all I need to do is attach the water hose to the sprinkler hose.  No need to drag that heavy water hose around.

Another trick that I use is to do things that can be done in a short period of time so that I don't get tired. It is like I take a lot of breaks between jobs.

Also, I set up a watering schedule.  I water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for the vegetable garden.  The off days, I water the flower garden.

I am appreciative of this thread. I built a raised bed out of scrap wood and stripped screws but I know not everyone can do that.
Since I’ve been hoarding before hoarding was cool I have several old wheelbarrows. The tires are flat or slightly rusted out. Maybe both. There was something about them that someone thought they should be discarded. I drilled a couple drainage holes and filled with unsifted compost. That helped the drainage. Unless you have a very old one they have plenty of root space so you have more possibilities.

I visited a VA that effectively used raised beds at wheel chair height.   Of course, there was a firm surface between the  beds.

Sorry, I don't know how to respond to each of your comments so here goes:

Anna - Thanks for the lip/shade advice.  I'll definitely drop the soil a bit.  Any kind of tool help would be nice for me also.  With the metal water trough, I won't be able to have a thick side since it will be elevated off the side; but am hoping leaning over it won't be a problem.

Jay - Thanks for the other ideas but I don't have the strength or skill to build something down low.  I do like your idea of putting wood in the trough to increase the moisture.  The barrels sound like a good idea too, but I don't have anyone who can cut them in half.

Saralee - Thanks for the cardboard idea, never thought of that decomposing for better soil.  I'll check into the old appliances around here; not sure if the city will allow them, but checking into it.  Like the book idea and I'll check that out too.

Anne - Thanks for the tool info.  Could you expand on how you use the spade for seeing if you need to water.  Breaks will be a must for me also.  I loved the watering schedule - how long do you water your veggie beds?

Scott - Thanks for a new container possibility.  I agree, root space is important so I'll add a bit more to the troughs.

John - Thanks for giving me another place to look into.  I never thought about getting ideas from the VA.

You’re the best Susan! Thanks for listening to me. I’ll be tossing more ideas your way when they come to up.

Susan Hunters said  Could you expand on how you use the spade for seeing if you need to water.  Breaks will be a must for me also.  I loved the watering schedule - how long do you water your veggie beds?

I keep the spade stuck in the garden bed.  When I go out to water the garden, I pull the spade out then just dig down about 3 inches.  When I feel the dirt, I can tell if it is damp or dry.  Mine is usually dry.

I usually water on low enough to keep the water inside the garden bed for 15 minutes.  How long might depend on the climate, water evaporation, etc?

Giving this a few hours of thought, contact www.carf.org.  The Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities should be able to refer you to resources in your area.  

I'm putting in some wheelchair accessible planting beds at a park greenhouse, rectangular bed that allow wheelchairs to slide underneath the bed. But now I have seen this "lazy susan" design and think it has some possibilities. This would reduce the size of site prep by only requiring a small footprint for the wheelchair and not having to create access all the way around the bed.

Those wheelchair-access garden beds are such a neat idea, I wanted to see what they looked like:


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And the Lazy Susan idea that Robert posted about:


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That lazy Susan is exceptionally cool.

I don't know what your climate is but I can think of some planting and tool combinations that might help.  First of all would be vining plants.  Beans, squashes, melons, and certain fruits all happily climb up anything they can wrap around bringing the harvest up higher. In my garden the cucumbers and cantaloupe are particularly low maintenance.  So's watermelon but they tend to escape the boundaries of the garden and then we lose the fruit in long grass.

I am in my first year with tree collards but if your climate will support them they are a reliable vegetable that can be maintained at optimal harvest height and so far mine are thriving better than our annual varieties with less work. And there's tons of fruit crops in all sorts of climates that grow on bushes and naturally small trees. That's not even getting into the expanded options available on dwarf root stock.

Depending on what weeds you are fighting, with  a sharp hoe and a good mulch it can be light standing work. This is most true for annual weeds, though.  Your initial soil prep would be very important here. If it's a raised bed then I am sure you will use the best you can find, make or even buy so you'll already be giving yourself a head start.

If you are worried about losing your garden if it's unsightly, don't underestimate the benefits of a good coat of paint. The right kind can even extend the lifespan of some containers.

Each of us with physical challenges has different issues, and our solutions will all be different. See below, I broke this down later in this post.

I use arbors to bring things up to where I can reach them easily, and lots of mulch to keep the soil loose enough that if I have to do anything to it, it's not a painfully large amount of work.

Anne mentions a spade, I really rarely use them, too hard on my back. I use garden forks where most people would use a shovel. I modified one to work better with my body   Modified turning fork for ergonomic reasons And I use a hand fork more than either one.

Many people said raised beds, my health makes it very easy to be down on my knees, but walking is sometimes very difficult. I currently do everything in the ground, and make good paths I can crawl on, and just don't get up until I am done for the day. The most painful thing I can do is reach down and pull a random weed. I can do it a few times, over about 8 a day, and I'm going to be in bad pain. The thing I CAN do is crawl a section and pull it all, so I design for that.

I have an easier time with building something like an arbor, which only needs to be done once, than doing something that needs small constant input to use. I can schedule my time/strength easier that way. I may know I can do 3 hours of heavy labor today, but never know if on every Tuesday I can do something that takes 15 minutes, so building systems when I can is easier for me in the long run.

So each of us needs to look at what exactly we can or can't do with our particular health and situation, then look for solutions that fit that.

A thought on ergonomics is to put work into figuring out how much you would have to twist or stretch with a design BEFORE you build it. I made my living helping people in pain who did repetitive twisted or stretched motions that made their muscles get off balanced and ended up in severe pain. I absolutely would not recommend a bed you sit on and twist to work. If you absolutely must do that, be sure to change sides every few minutes, to keep your body balanced.

One of the wheelchair bed pictures above shows a guy using a hand fork, his whole body is arched weird as he stretches up too high. He needs a lower surface, even if it means he has to drop his wheelchair arms to get under it. He is going to hurt after that. If he does it too much, he will be in serious pain. Look into the ergonomics of desk heights, and use that data to help you decide how low you actually need the table surface to be so the dirt surface is the right height for you, if you are looking at putting a chair under it (wheeled or not) it will be lower than you expect. (Link on desk heights that is fair, there are probably better, Ergonomic Desk Height Calculator but it doesn't take into account things like how long your waist is, which is really more important than your full height.)

I do like the lazy susan idea, I use them in the house a lot, I would suggest it doesn't have to be as... wonderfully extensive as that one really cool one is. Put tables of a height as low as you can work with, since the planter will raise it, and then make a planter on it that turns on the top. A center pivot with wheels around the edges might be easy to do and hold the weight. I'm visualizing a circular patio table as the surface, they are easy to find used.

On that thought, if you are not confined to a wheelchair, or perhaps even if you are, it might be easier to put a tabletop bed with leg space under it, and a bench with a top that's easy to slide on, and slide down the bench as you work. (Or even a roller seat that goes down the bench.) That involves no pivots, no wheelchair surface that has to be maintained, easy to obtain rectangular parts, and may be a LOT easier and cheaper to design.  

One of the things I never like about the wheelchair bed designs is the ground has to be wheelchair accessible. Which, from most of the pictures I see, means someone else is maintaining it. That for me is a deal breaker, as I have no one else to keep it all nice and neat and flat and weed free.

What help can you get for it all? Bribing neighbors with fresh produce all summer might get you some muscle work for a few hours in the spring. Getting someone to help more often may be easier or harder, depending on who you have to ask. Again, we are all in different situations. Don't forget inputs. If you will need to add mulch often, where does it come from, how do you get it where you want it?

Something else to think on is what do you REALLY want to grow? That will tell you a lot about what kind of beds you need. Most cooking herbs can live in shallow dirt, like on a lazy susan, and if you are looking for something to simply feel like you are gardening, that might be best. If you are trying to do large amounts of produce out of the space you have, sweet potatoes take a bit deeper dirt, but the leaves are edible too, and might be worth putting a deeper bed, since you only need to really work with it when you plant and dig them out. Tomatoes and squash climb or can be tied up nicely, pole beans are classic on trellises (more info here: Ideas for Trellis Gardening ) and it brings things into reach.

I suggest don't design the Taj Mahal (like that awesome lazy susan!! That's way cool, but wow...) if that's not what your actual needs are. If you can trellis and deep mulch and have that work for you, start with that. Look at the actual parameters of the problem BEFORE making up a solution, it saves a lot of work.

My thoughts on parameters of your design are they need to take into account at least these factors::
What are your personal exact limitations? What can you expect to be more limiting in the future?
Are there any groups with similar limitations that are worth looking into for help or ideas?
What are the things you CAN do easily?  (That question gets skipped a lot!)
What do you really want to grow? What does that need to grow well?
How much help can you get to build it, maintain it, add inputs, move things from the bed to the house?
Is there a way you can get more help?  
What budget/things to use do you have to work with?

:D

If you are using something like a stock tank or other large container, be certain to make sure there are enough drainage holes in the bottom.  If you are looking for an inexpensive filler for the bottom (to save on the cost of potting soil)  fill the bottom up to a foot from the top of the container with regular soil from your property or garden area.  Then to decrease the problem of weeds, lay a layer of weed barrier on top of the dirt, then top with potting soil.  

So in looking at all these ideas, my brain went into engineering mode. How about an accessible keyhole wicking bed? The water tank could be narrow enough to get a wheelchair under the bed and then up against the reservoir. Imagine an L stood on its head with the horizontal leg being the bed.  Add a float valve in the reservoir and some supplemental wicks to help get the moisture to the edge and bam!

The soil directly over the reservoir probably would be hard to get to so planting low-maintenance perennials or leaving fallow would be advisable.

Honestly, I’ve not built my own wicking bed yet but now I’m thinking one of these as an herb garden to test the theory.

Time to fire up the CAD again!😁

Anyone with more experience please chime in.

Susan.  I have red/black raspberries that have grown over asparagus.  Lots of berries are close to ground; and I cut (break) asparagus as close to ground as possible so new shoots come up, instead of the foot long shoots remaining, and later in the season going to seed.  I also have to weed my "sucker" patch (meaning, we started with a few plants, then kept adding more, so that we never established rows). We do pinch off the top and get 4 lateral side branchers for black raspberries.    My point of mentioning all of this is that when its time for me to "weed"--I am literally crawling AND I LIKE IT.  NO MORE BENDING FOR ME!!!   I can crawl for an hour around berry bushes, weeding, snapping otherwise hidden asparagus.     Now, in my case my knees are good, actually all of me is @ 70y/o; but bending is getting harder, so I crawl.  Maybe it will work for you.                  
Also, I had a 90y/o male friend who was a farmer and whose back would get very sore.  He build a wooden table with sides (and on posts) along the "level length" of his driveway (in the country), had his kids fill it with dirt, and grew carrots, lettuce, tomato, peppers, etc.  It worked great and was far better than half-bending over a "raised bed" garden.   My wife can't bend anymore; her knees are ruined.  I've offered to build her A Table Garden in our double-lot city backyard.  So far she refuses.  Good luck.  

I know that I have attached these pictures to previous discussions but here they are again, hoping to be helpful. I have collected the bath tubs from various places, Restore, etc. We have added one or two a year. My initial problem was ground squirrels that ate everything they could reach. Bathtubs on cement blocks solved that problem.

It does mean less planting area and because I garden on the roof of my earth sheltered home, everything gets more sun, more wind, more weather in general. I put brush and small sticks in the bottom of the latest four tubs, lots of dirt around  wood, straw and chicken straw layered with compost and then (shamefully purchased) good garden dirt. (Note Costco’s huge bags of potting soil for about $7 each. I bought three, had to pull the dirt out of the bags, in the back of the Subaru, in smaller buckets full until I had emptied each enough to lift out.)

The tubs are at waist level, drain holes are adequate for drainage, and weeding is easy. I need more trellising for squash to climb but these are difficult to anchor in our rock heavy dirt. The hoop house is for tomatoes growing in stacks of tires. Cattle panels bent over a frame made of two by six boards is easy to cover and partially uncover as weather demands. The metal collars around the tires are probably less necessary now as I think the ground squirrels have thrown up their hands and left town. And sheet metal collars aren’t going to stop the pack rats that once hauled off an entire plant.

I had a lot of help getting the tubs up to the garden and lifted onto the blocks but now it’s a permanent installation and, at eighty, my gardening life is easier.

Whoops, apologies, I have lost the old photos, will get some more to sends today.

Hello gardeners, become a Permaculture " no weeds, no work, no water, no planting Food Forest takes care of itself. You can see how I've done that disabled with Cspine compressed chord,  T  Spine Syrinx in spinal canal and Lumbar cyst in canal that pinches nerves, but so grateful I'm still walking. See 2020 Educational Tour on my YouTube channel " Utah Valley Permaculture ", l for my school UVPCGG www.permaculturedesignschool.org" Utah Valley Permaculture Classroom Gardens & Greenhouse",  also name of my Facebook Group under Featured tab.  Perennials that support each other in a FOOD Forest is best way to go trust me. I do livestreamed courses. 801-808-4424

My elderly father has been moving more toward raised beds. The traditional raised beds that are slightly higher than the ground and raised containers. You can make raised beds that also have a bench seat built around its perimeter. I like items like these because you can garden while standing. https://www.keter.com/us_en/msdl_17194592easy-grow-31.7-gallon-raised-garden-bed.html

One of my big struggles was handling a heavy rubber hose and trying to get it through a perennial bed without damaging plants. So  I bought a flexible, expandable hose that is super lightweight. Problem solved.  Amazon has several.  I can't remember the brand I bought.  The only issues are the need to empty it when you finish watering (otherwise it won't be lightweight), and the hose tends to shrink a little in length as you water.  But not a real problem.  I just turn the faucet off and then run the hose out on my favorite plants.  The other thing about this type of hose is that it compacts to a very small space for winter storage.

My 80 yo husband and I (71 yo) built a raised bed using a kit from Lee Valley Garden Tools and concrete pavers held on edge.  The kit consists of metal brackets that are attached to 2x4's.  The brackets have bolts that hold the pavers in place.  We think the bed will outlast us.  Filling the bed was a major challenge.  Online there was a description of a "core" method of filling a raised bed.  This consisted of leaves mounded in the center, wetted thoroughly and tightly packed.  That got us about a quarter of the fill we needed.  And so far is working very well.  Based on our previous experience of gardening near trees, we lined the bottom of the bed with inexpensive pond liner to keep out tree roots.  The pavers don't seal together so there is plenty of drainage on the sides. We made an L-shape which was a major challenge.  A simple 4 x 8 ft bed would have been much easier.

Another thought about getting help with gardening and helping others is to start a Friend-to-friend program.  The Department of Aging in Orange County NC started one pre-Covid.  Volunteers were paired with people who needed a companion for an hour or two a week.  The volunteers were screened and references checked.  Don't know if something like that could be started for permies.  Volunteers could help their companion with gardening tasks.  We are all going to need help at some point in our lives...

Here a few photos of my bath tub garden with a view. Weeds weeds weeds! Lots of spring rain made them hard to keep up with.

Hoop house tomatoes in stacks of tires.

Garden with a view (of weeds and the Cabinet Mountains.

My advice, as someone told she "couldn't work anymore," small amounts add up so put what you're doing in buckets you can handle and time allotments you can do and be happy when plants don't die and you pick your first pepper, radish, tomato,  whatever..Small amounts of time, small amounts of lifting, small amounts of water carried , add up and the next thing you know, you're eating what you grew. As for weeds, a lot of them are edible.
Look into it. Maybe mother nature is providing for you and you just don't know...yet.

Lots of great ideas shared here! I got a few wild ideas popped into my head while reading here.  How about using plastic pots - the larger the better whatever you can find. Place them on top of other overturned pots or cinder blocks with boards between the blocks to make a raised shelf.  Another way to elevate pots is use those big spools that electric wire or utility companies use.  Cut back the lower part of the spool so a wheelchair can roll under the top part of the spool.  Extend the spool out by screwing 4 or 5 boards to the spool in a radiating fashion.  Place pots on top of the board "spokes".  Then you can wheel in between them and work both sides at once. It is a sort of keyhole concept. If you want the boards long then might have to add a "leg" toward the outer edge of each board for support.  Or use two boards 2X4 or 2X6 cut in half spaced apart and set pots between the boards so the lip of the pot is resting on the boards. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone and if I could draw a sketch it might help explain better.  Maybe someone artistic can do this and post it?  Another idea is to use old desks which already have the cutout for a chair and put shallow pots or make a simple box edge around the top to hold the dirt.  Maybe use old bookcases on their sides and add a backing or scrap pieces of wood like slats so water can drain out between them. Set these up between cinder blocks to the elevation you want. The depth of the bookcase being about 12-18 inches is just about right for most plants.  How about putting a round kiddie pool on top of the wood spool or old table or something else to support it as high as you want?  How about using old ladders to support boards on the rungs at the height you need?  Or use just use each side separately (cut off the top where they join together) and make rails between cinder blocks to hold pots on?  Just some wild and crazy ideas for quickly making platforms to the right height using whatever "junk" you have lying around.  

What about using 200L plastic drums.
If they are cut across the middle and one is turned upside down you have a support base.
If the other is cut down to a suitable height for each persons requirements it can be fitted to the base and attached with stainless steel screws.
Drainage etc can be sorted.
These drums are everywhere and some are used as 'rain barrels'.
The other concept is IBC's set down and cut to height.
They can be partially filled with anything to fill the base, and then a layer of gortex or shadecloth then soil.

Both can be set up as wick beds.

I use straw bales which don’t require bending over to tend. If one has a handicap, someone else may need to deliver the balesand set them up on their narrow side.

There is an excellent book on straw bale gardening which has guided my efforts. The bales don’t need weeding after “conditioning has heated and killed any seeds they might contain, rhey self-fertilize the plants (once they’ve been “conditioned”) and provide mulch to retain moisture on hot days. They are eady to fit up with a support system for climbing plants or to wrap plastic around to make a mini greenhouse in spring and fall.

Folks in wheelchairs can easily tend a strawbale garden.

For inquiring minds, the book I’ve used which has provided a wildly successful start this year to the veggie garden is “Straw Bake Gardens” by Joel Karsten.

The book also shows how to make your iwn straw bales from weeds with instructions on how to build the tamper to compact things.

(One photo from my garden with the folding chair..the rest courtesy of the book)

Lots of good ideas here.  I especially like what Greta and her hubby did. Looks like they will last a long time as well.
I'm in my late 60s and have had several accidents over that time that cause me to not want to bend over any more
than I have to. Most of my 'beds' were made by a friend who works for the tree farm next door. These don't have
sides to hold the dirt in lace but are simply 4 foot wide and are brought up about 12 inches. This creates a walkway
that's about 18 inches wide and is 6 or so inches lower than the rest of the area. This works good for drainage in my
clay soil that is in most of the garden area. Good dirt just slow draining during the sometimes heavy heavy rains that we
get.
The tall bed is made from recycled roofing and scrap cypress from nephews saw mill.  I dug a shallow trench and set
the bottom of the metal in it and backfilled against it. Pop rivets hold the edges of the metal together and also hold a
stiffener that is set half way up the sheet. This stiffener is made from a piece "hat channel" that is used to screw drywall
on to.
I'm in the process of switching over from spring crops of cucumbers and zucchini to more tomatoes and peppers.
These will go in after I finish replenishing with compost