Enhancing Accessibility: Adaptive Gardening Equipment and Techniques for Those with Physical Limits

By: Margerie Hicks, CSU Extension-Denver Master Gardener since 2010

Vertical garden. Photo credit: Supersmario

Gardening can be a therapeutic and enjoyable activity for people of all abilities. Whether you have limited mobility, strength, perception, or dexterity, there are tools and methods available to cultivate your green thumb and create a vibrant garden oasis.

Below are a few potential tools and designs to make gardening more comfortable and enjoyable for those with physical challenges.

Adaptive Garden Equipment 

Some of the following equipment can be found in metro Denver garden centers. You can find others that are more specialized by searching online.

• Ergonomic tools to reduce strain on joints and muscles. Look for lightweight tools with padded handles and angled grips to minimize wrist and hand discomfort. For example, a hoe with an angled handle offers a more comfortable and natural hand position.

• Long-reach tools to reach the ground without bending or stooping. Two of the most common are:
  • Long-handled trowel
  • Telescoping-handled weeder

• Ergonomic and/or battery-powered wheelbarrow with adjustable handles and improved weight distribution. This makes it easier to transport heavy loads of soil, mulch, or plants. Some have a lift for dumping the contents.

• Kneelers, knee pads, and seats. Seats are available with two levels and side handles to allow for pulling oneself up from a low position –– and to hang pouches for tool storage. After my knee surgery two years ago, I sat on the ground to pull weeds and had to call my husband to help me stand. I later discovered that by using the lower level of the seat, I could pull myself up unaided.

Gardening seat and kneeler. Photo credit: Margerie Hicks

• Carpenter’s apron with big pockets to carry tools.

• Lightweight hose with a pistol grip handle.

• Claw gardening gloves make weeding and digging easy; they don’t require any grip strength to use.

Claw gardening gloves, Photo credit: Dmitriy Kazitsyn

• For people with visual impairments:
  • Bright/contrasting colored equipment and tactile markings.
  • Tools with built-in magnifiers to read plant labels or identify pests.

Design and Planning 

• Raised garden beds are a game changer for people who use wheelchairs or walkers or have difficulty kneeling or bending down. They can be built or purchased at various heights to accommodate unique needs and preferences. This not only reduces physical strain, but also minimizes the risk of injury. In addition to their accessibility benefits, raised beds offer improved soil drainage and temperature control, plus reduced soil compaction.

Raised bed at a convenient height. Photo credit: Aerogondo

• Accessible surfaces around raised beds are an important consideration. See this video about how to make a gravel surface wheelchair accessible. Make sure pathways are clutter-free. Don’t leave hoses or tools lying in the path. These can be a trip hazard or block access. 

• Watering is made easier with automatic watering systems utilizing drip and soaker hoses. A retractable hose reel is easier to handle than a garden hose. Self-watering pots are also useful. 

• Vertical gardens are visually pleasing, accessible and use minimal space. One technique is to use trellises or stakes to support climbing plants, such as cucumbers or beans. You can make trellises from various materials, including wood, metal, or even recycled materials like old ladders or pallets. Hanging baskets or wall-mounted planters can also make gardening tasks more accessible by bringing plants closer to eye level. Container gardening decreases the physical labor required to maintain an expansive garden, while also making it much simpler to care for plants. Drip irrigation also provides ease of maintenance.

• Benches can be ​placed around the garden for rest as needed.

A place to rest. Photo credit: Erperlstrom

For more detailed information to address a specific need, see this booklet from Washington State University. It includes directions for ordering hard copies.

By incorporating adaptive technology into gardening, people with physical limitations can overcome barriers and fully participate in the joys of gardening. The smart solutions I’ve mentioned here not only enhance accessibility, but also empower individuals to create and maintain beautiful and thriving gardens.

Colorado Gardening Calendar for November 2022

By Terry Deem-Reilly, CSU Extension – Denver Master Gardener since 2003

Anything can happen in a Colorado November: our first hard freeze (or the second or the third), or nighttime temperatures stuck at 45F. Lawns and gardens can suffer from heavy wet snow (with the splintered tree limbs littering the streets to prove it) or prolonged dryness that has gardeners alternating watering with leaf raking. Despite the unpredictability of autumn, winter will eventually arrive (probably with two feet of snow on Thanksgiving Eve), so our focus this month is on closing out the 2022 season and preparing for Spring 2023. 

VEGETABLES

• Harvest any remaining vegetables; we can have a killing frost and/or snow that will wither produce anytime now. Farm Calculators offers an extensive list of veggies for autumn harvest; if mild weather has gifted us with green tomatoes, try ripening some to use on Thanksgiving! Minnesota Extension has compiled some great hints on harvesting AND storing late-season produce.
• Finish cleanup now while temperatures remain mild. Pests and diseases will overwinter in plant debris and afflict the garden next spring and summer – and no one feels like working outside in a December snow squall!
• Spread compost over the soil and turn it in – it feeds the microscopic critters that will deliver nutrients to your plants’ roots next year.

TREES AND SHRUBS

• Pruning trees and shrubs can wait a few months, according to the schedules outlined in the Plant Talk articles Pruning Shrubs and Pruning Shade Trees. Dead tree branches, however, should be removed ASAP so they don’t become a hazard in heavy snow accumulations. (Many arborists offer discounts for off-season services.) Ditto for all dead bits on shrubs and roses.
• Keep watering weekly until the ground freezes – usually around Thanksgiving at Denver’s elevation. 
• Check mulch levels to ensure that soil moisture remains adequate to maintain healthy roots. Mulch should cover the root balls without crowding the stems or trunks. 
• Irrigation during winter warm periods is also key to helping roots support plant growth next year. Consult the Extension Fact Sheet “Fall and Winter Watering” for details on winter watering.
• Wrap the trunks of trees too young to have formed bark to prevent sunscalding during periods of alternate warming and freezing in the winter. During warm periods, tree trunks take up water into their cells, which then burst when temperatures drop below freezing, killing bark and conductive tissue. “On at Thanksgiving, off on tax day” is a good rule of thumb for utilizing tree wrap.
• Consider using protection like plant bags and burlap around evergreens prone to drying out in winter winds. 
• Put rose collars around your roses and fill the collars with leaves for insulation, or mound soil over the bud union of each plant.

PERENNIALS

• Make sure that nonxeric and new xeric/native perennial plants are mulched to a depth of at least one-and-a-half to two inches. Pull the mulch back from the crowns to forestall crown rot and discourage pests from burrowing around the plant.
• Keep watering perennials until the ground freezes and throughout the winter as prescribed by the fact sheet referenced above.
• Postponing deadheading and cutting perennials back until spring offers several advantages to your garden: many perennials produce seedheads and stems that offer cold-weather food and shelter to birds, beneficial insects, and other wildlife; intact stems also protect crowns from freezing and catch snow to deliver more moisture to the plants. 
• It’s a bit outside the recommended planting time, but If you still have bulbs to plant and the soil is workable, do it now. Since roots will have less time to develop, flowering may be reduced, but you still may enjoy spring blossoms. Make sure to water them in well. 

LAWNS

• Rake up leaves so they don’t mat on the turf and promote mold growth. Running a mower over piles of leaves will produce free mulch to spread over plant beds (and free nutrients as the leaves decompose)!
• Blow out and shut off sprinkler systems if you haven’t done so already. If time and weather permit and the turf looks dry, irrigate one more time.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Clean, sharpen, and oil tools; get that lawnmower blade sharpened while you’re not distracted by spring gardening tasks.
• Consider what plants to add next year – gardening catalogs will start arriving next month! And continue to contact Denver County Extension with all your gardening questions.

ONE MORE THING

It’s been my pleasure to contribute to this blog this season, but my short posts can cover only a few essentials. Therefore, here’s a fall task list that not only adds another dimension to your fall garden experience but also allows me to make a small homage to a most distinguished horticulturist whom we lost this year: Ten Key Tips for the Fall Garden.

Garden Tool Maintenance

As this gardening season draws to a close, it is an excellent time to clean up your pruners, loppers, shovels, and any other tools used throughout the year. I know, I know, you are tired and ready for a break from the yard. Understandable. But you’ll thank yourself next spring if you do these tasks now.

Most importantly, you’ll ensure that plant diseases do not overwinter in the remnants of leaves, stems, and caked-on soil and infect plants next season.

So, if you want to get on top of these tasks, here are some helpful tips.

Clean and Disinfect

A strong spray of water will make tools look clean, but don’t stop there. Go a step further and disinfect.

A 10% solution of bleach will kill fungi, bacteria, and viruses in seconds. Dip, soak, or submerge the tool or container in the solution. and be sure the solution gets into the crevice. Thoroughly rinse and dry metal surfaces to avoid corrosion.

The University of California tested and ranked the disinfecting effectiveness of common household cleaners which are less toxic than bleach. You’ll find these very helpful recommendations here. You may already have some of these products in your cleaning arsenal.

Rubbing alcohol (70% or greater isopropyl alcohol) from your medicine cabinet will also disinfect surfaces for bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

A word of caution: Rubbing alcohol of any concentration was not found to effectively kill fire blight, a highly contagious bacterial disease that affects species in the Rosaceae family, including many apple and pear trees. Tools should be sanitized after each cut of a limb affected by this disease.

Sharpen and Store

A sharp edge on hand pruners, shovels, and hoes make them easier to use and ensures that cuts to plant material are smoother. Since ragged surfaces allow pathogens to enter plant material and can cause the spread of disease, sharpening tools is a smart preventive practice.

Sharpening garden tools with a flat-file is a pretty easy task – take care to follow all safety instructions, or check to see if your local hardware store offers this service. Don’t forget lawnmower blades, too.

3-in-1 lubricant can be applied to the joints of tools to keep them at their best. Small tools can be stored in a bucket of sand. The coarseness of the sand helps keep the edges sharp and the sand wicks moisture and inhibits rust.

There you go, now you can kick up your feet and enjoy the gardening off-season. Or, if you’re a tool-lover, you might want to reread this post on Denver Master Gardeners’ favorite tools.

Additional Reading

Tool Maintenance, Plant Talk Colorado

Images

Rake and shovel: Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Wheelbarrel: Image by Manfred Antranias Zimmer from Pixabay

Basket of tools: Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Written by Linda McDonnell, Denver Master Gardener since 2012

Denver Master Gardeners Share Their Favorite Gardening Tools

What’s your best loved, most used, can’t be without garden tool?  Or, if you are new to gardening, what tools will help you the most? According to a recent survey of Denver Master Gardeners, implements that multi-task and are non-mechanical are among the most prized.

The hori hori or Japanese garden knife is favored by more than half of our respondents. One  master gardener describes it as “the Swiss Army knife of garden tools as it is especially helpful in working in tight spaces and bad soils where larger tools can’t get a grip. It weeds, digs, divides, cuts, scales and pries.”

Hori means “to dig” in Japanese and reportedly the tool was designed hundreds of years ago to excavate plants from the mountainsides of Japan. It is nearly indestructible with a sturdy 6-8 inch pointed blade which has a serrated edge on one side, straight on the other. Its simplicity is in keeping with Japanese design principals and some might say it has a bit of a Samurai appearance. Perfect for attacking Colorado’s tough clay soil!

Shovels, troughs, hand spades, pitchforks, hedge shears, hand pruners and narrow rakes with flexible tines all received high praise in our survey, too. Ergonomics are important and many said that the ideal tool is the one that fits you best. A petite gardener reports her favorite small rake is actually a child’s tool, which she didn’t realize for years. It has just the right reach for her and easily fits between plants to clean up leaves and spread mulch.

Pat McClearn found an old-fashioned, rubber handled dandelion digger at the house she purchased in 1963. She’s been weeding and transplanting with it ever since. I’m in awe of Pat’s 50-year-old weeder! Like many others, I find brightly handled tools help me save time not looking for that darn stray trowel.

Breaking up ground with a broadfork

Deb Neeley recommends a broadfork. “It loosens the soil down to 14″, is fun to use and provides a good workout too!  Much kinder alternative for your soil than rototilling.”

The Denver Compost Program  received rave reviews for its ease of use. “The green compost bin – a reason to live!” proclaims Nancy Downs. Anne Beletic is equally enthusiastic about her reciprocal saw for pruning and her cordless electric mower, which makes easy work of mowing her small, hilly lawn. Better for the environment, too!

Several respondents suggested repurposing items from inside the house such as long kitchen scissors, screwdrivers or a chef knife to pull weeds, divide perennials and deadhead. Fancy? No. Effective? Definitely. A retired pillow also makes a great kneeling pad and an apron that covers the knees will keep you tidy. Extra kudos if it has pockets.

Garden clogs got a mention for being comfortable, waterproof and good for trekking through the garden in any weather. Jodi Torpey is a fan of Atlas nitrile touch garden gloves, which are “tough and act like a second skin to protect my hands. They’re the only garden gloves I’ve found that I can use for a full day of work in the garden and hold up for more than one season too.”

So there you have it, some great suggestions for making gardening more enjoyable. Any gardening helpers we’ve missed?

Written by Linda McDonnell with thanks to the  many Denver Master Gardeners who shared their expertise for this post. There were lots of suggestions and every effort was made to mention all of them!