Gardening in wheelchair

Really ? Well I can cross those off my list

Chimney pots used to be dirt cheap, but they have become very fashionable and reach ridiculous prices these days.

Was talking the other day about Joules' Yard, at the back of the original Joules shop in Market Harborough. Senior Joules used to always have loads for sale.

What a good idea, thank you Bossyrossy

Chimney pots make good tall planters. Good luck.

Thank you madeleine much to think about, most grateful

How wonderful and what a joy to think about being able to garden again. Have quite a few tips but wont do them all at once! So there are a few to do before you have even got outside. While you are setting up, try on a horrid wet day to get out as many old photos of the garden as possible. sort them into areas , and then you can look at say what you think is total shade in a corner. But if you look at your photos you will notice that perhaps it gets a bit of late afternoon sun, and if you do that all round your garden you can get a bit of graph paper and could simply shade in grey anywhere that is total shadow and a say a yellow crayon to represent the sunniest areas. so you get several graph drawn up plans and what you can do is say this is the way the sun goes across the garden at different times of day, or with another one this area is shady in winter and that area is quite sunny .It really is worth while doing that and keeping those photos in clear plastic folders, so you can refer back to them later. Having done that you will have a good idea of where is the best and sunniest spot in the morning and the same in the evening . So if you garden is big enough you could have two areas, one for morning , the other for evening. Then you make those areas easily accessible for the wheelchair , or maybe you can transfer from the wheel chair to a bigger chair , which would be more comfortable. Then the name of the game is to look to see how you can be surrounded on 3 sides with planting possibilities. So tall pots can also be put on those little stands with castors on that you can move about - or get someone to move them for you. You can then save quite a bit of weight by putting bits of foam and eggboxes in the bottom 1/3 and then fill with compost above that. This saves you money on amounts of compost and make them easier to move it you want ot do so, making sure that you have got good drainage and cover the drainage holes with crocks so they dont get blocked .. Think of the senses when you fill your pots, so a very easy thing is just to have one type of herb in a pot . for example take mints. They are better in pots as they do tend to be rampant and take over if you put them in the soil but you can have a whole range, from peppermint and chocolate mint etc etc and the majority are very tough, and so you will be able to take leaves off and crush them , put them in your tea etc and run you hands through them releasing a beautiful smell. Then lemon balm is another good one that usually survives ok. Then you can have a great time with sage in another separate container. There is a bicolour called Hot Lips and then there is Pineapple sage and Perofskia which is a russian one I think, same family but you have a bigger plant that spreads its branches out and has silver foliage. Doing one type of plant to one pot makes it easier to look after as you will find out. So mint does ok in damp places but sage is more from southern europe such as greece, so you get the grey foliage and that is an easy tip to know that usually grey foliage doesnt like being overwatered whereas the green mints like and tolerate water. So again that builds up a simple plan. If you make a square or oblong area with an easy turning circle for your chair, then you will find that one side will probably get more sun . That side gets the grey leaved group and the other side will be the mint and lemon balm. Literally try out various parts of the garden and see which is the windiest area - no good for sunbathing - or a little enclosed bit that gets quite hot in the summer. So you will need to measure the levels that you will find comfortable to work at , and then again try to have two or three different size pots to give variety, but in your case, rather than the pots going lower to the ground you could keep the height the same but look out for different shapes , round square oval etc. If you have a favourite colour you might decide that you would like all blue pots but different shades . I think you cant beat good terracotta pots for long term planting but they can be more expensive and more difficult to deal with, so you might choose to have just black plastic pots to begin with to get a feeling for how you want the garden to look and they would be lighter to move about. Or get someone to put the pots you love in the order you want them and then do a little cheating to begin with. Ceramic pot goes into position , you put plastic pot with plant in it into the good pot and cover the surface of the soil with gravel, small stones or perlite . Well have only started - once I get onto gardening that is me for weeks! But the one other thing I would say is as you are doing this think of the most comfortable level and how high you can raise your hands. Then you could start with a sturdy decorators table to gauge what level a table needs to be to allow you to get your chair close up , but not to be banging your knees etc so that will be your potting workbase. try something like that to see how you get on repotting something and how far is your "reach", have you a stronger side and a weaker side ? Once you have worked out what is the most comfortable for you , you will have a better idea of what working surface gives you the best access, and if you have a diy type friend you might consider having a potting shelf rather than a table. so you could have a sturdy length of wood , plastic or whatever suits you, and then get brackets that go on the wall itself and have something like the cords you use to open and shut curtains, using that light but sturdy chain stuff so at either end you would have the bracket idea and it could be dropped down so that you could use it to work on and it is quite good if you have a longish bench area, as it allows you to do perhaps two different jobs on it , but you could fold it up or down in some way to get it out of the way if you were having visitors, As you pot things up you might then group pots together in various patterns so it may be a variety of pots to make a group of differing leaf shapes or some tall grasses that will sway and flex in the wind, combined with a pot full of hellebores or the small iris reticulata - which you can get differing colours and shades, and iris danfordii which are quite a bright yellow. They will be out about now and february so you want them near your window so that they will cheer you up in bad weather.. Must stop now it is very late but think you will get the idea. You now have the perfect excuse to buy the ngs Yellow Book - should be out shortly, where you will be able to find wonderful gardens to visit that will inspire you. Take a note book as well as your camera, because it is little things such as enjoying a juxtaposition of two or three plants or a brilliant energy saving gadget that someone bought and you can note them all down. do hope this hasnt bored you, but I really think this basic stuff can both save you a lot of wasted time and effort doing something and almost immediately realizing that it is not what you wanted or it is too difficult. I t can save you money too, for after all money is meant to be spent on plants isnt it?When you have done this sort of nuts and bolts stuff then you will work out where you could have a water feature, definitely try to have a water butt and that is important to check that it is the right height for you to be able to use. Awful to have to move it and waste precious water as it is too heavy to move with the water in it. Oh for summer time ( most of these are not hardy for the winter) the wonderful scented leaf geraniums. You get a huge range of leaf shapes and scent and they make a great show and some have flowers but it is mostly pressing the leaves One of my much loved ones is Tomatosa - not sure if the spelling is correct but it has quite large leaves that feel quite furry and look quite rich like velve looking and oh what a lovely perfume. when I was introducing children at school or in the brownies etc to gardening I called it my plant pussy cat as you could stroke it and it made you feel great. If a child was having a bad day and being awkward and stroppy, I would nominate them as the plant monitor, so that they would go round the pots testing the watering and feeling the plants and smelling them. always calmed them and they got very interested, so I would bring in a new scented leaf geranium. First they looked, and wrote down their ideas/guesses about how it would smell, then they looked at the shape and they drew the pattern and decided which previous one it most looked like . Then the favourite bit was to close their eyes , put their hand out and I would give them a leaf to touch, press, and feel and they then wrote down what they thought it was. Of course they usually thought the same or similar , but rather like that dress that some people saw as one colour and other people another you got some variation and the strength of the smell varied (Much nicer to use geranium leaves to check up on covid. what does this smell of , strong chocolate mint - ok you can go. smells of nothing sorry you will have to wait! In my garden if I had visitors the chairs would be out and I would say Joan you sit in the sage chair and Mary in the mint one. Then again the tough and wonderful lavenders will give you perfume, encourage bees and butterflies and moths. Keep writing ideas in your notebook and taking photos to look back on over the years. Just think in 10 years time you will be opening Your garden for the ngs, and the photos will be out and you will be showing people how it has changed over the years. Happy gardening and may you get much pleasure from it.

Annie my evening is improved reading this, I hope you enjoy every moment outdoors, it is indeed healing x

I have been in a wheelchair for years and when we moved my son built lots of knee high beds for me but the footplate kept hitting wall so a long stretch forward and moving the wheelchair sideways meant twisting. I have found that large plant pots with room to manoeuvre round are easiest and tables with room to run underneath are probably easiest of all but in my opinion don’t look as nice. Hope you have a wonderful time gardening.

Thank you all. I have no one to help me build anything, my carer will move tubs and will sweep up any compost I may/will
spill. The milkman will place the compost where I want it not
deliver and leave in a stacks.

Silversand my patio has rails around it so I will have hanging
planters.

I so want this, been indoors for over four years .

GrannyGravy hugs x

Great to hear Annie, you will soon have good ideas when you get out. Enjoy the sunshine!

I have been in a wheelchair for years and when we moved my son made built up beds for me. The problem was that the footplate touched the wall first so I had to bend a long way forward to even start gardening or otherwise go sideways but that meant twisting all the time. I have found pots that you can move around in your chair means less stretching and twisting. Ideally tables where wheelchair can go underneath but in my opinion they don’t look as nice. Hope this may help.

So pleased for you Anniebach - I hope the weather in our part of the world will get better and you can go out and enjoy. Well done !!

How brilliant - I am so thrilled for you

I garden from a wheelchair. One thing I will say is raised beds are brilliant but depending on what mobility you have (as far as grip, strength...etc) "normal" beds with long handled tools can actually often be a better option. Raised beds are high maintenance (and expensive - though I got a local DIY chap to build me a couple which are fantastic cos they were made to my specifications) and can be quite restrictive.

I am a big fan of those hanging planters that hook over a fence/balcony. They are brilliant for wheelchairs! Pots are great but think about hosepipe access when placing them.

I've found this website quite useful for equipment recommendations www.fredshed.co.uk/

Anniebach I have just seen this thread I am so pleased for you that you are now able to get outdoors.

I do hope you enjoy your gardening, the breeze in your hair and the sun in your face (((hugs)))

Thank you all, i am so grateful.

Cherrytree there will be daffodils x

Mark Lane is also one of the gardening experts on QVC too.

Oops forgot the most important ones

Just wanted to say how pleased I am for you Annie .
I sadily can't be anymore helpful, but glad to see other posters have been able to point you in the right direction.
Wishing you happy gardening ??????⚘

Google Mark Lane. He is a gardening expert for the BBC. He is in a wheelchair and has written a lot about gardening from a wheelchair.

That is lovely news Annie, I hope you enjoy your pottering ??

Thank you, I can’t have raised beds so will have to be container
planting but am happy with this after years of being indoors

There are loads of tools suitable for chair users too now I've noticed in garden centres. Raisedbeds a great idea for anyone who has issues with bending etc not just charioteers! Enjoy yourself and happy growing!

Great news Annie and I hope the rain stays well away to allow you a head start with the gardening.
Home Bargains is a favourite shop of mine as I think of it as the new Woolworths. I bought some tall plastic planters in there and they were very inexpensive. There are lots of good suggestions here already and I hope you will share photos of your flowers in due course. Good luck ?

A bike basket with hooks that are big enough to fit over the outside of the arm of your wheelchair will be useful for carrying handtools and the like in,

I am having difficulty vizulising a wheelchair accessible raised bed though. I agree raised beds are useful, but how do you get near enough with your wheelchair?

Hope this may help
www.google.com/search?q=wheelchair+accessible+raised+garden+beds or this

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89M3qS9eVI

She always makes sure to tell me the other assistants are so kind, but just don't know anything about gardening or plants - so I am her favourite, lol. During all our years of frienship, exchanging knowledge and plants, and visiting gardens all over the Midlands, has been a shared passion.