|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Gardening for the SensesGardening for the Blind: Tips for People with Impaired VisionLarry Caplan Many people believe vision impairment will prevent them from enjoying their gardens. I don't think we can speak to what vision impaired folks think. Not so! The French painter, Claude Monet, was an avid gardener who loved flowers almost as much as he did painting. Although Monet eventually lost most of his vision, he did not stop painting, nor did he ever lose his love for gardening. Vision impairment does not have to spoil your enjoyment of gardening, either. In fact, with some planning and care, you can have a garden that has a lot more going for it than just eye appeal. You can have a garden that appeals to all of your senses. A word of caution: the suggestions printed here are helpful hints and should not be considered a license to perform dangerous tasks. Be careful. Don’t attempt a project that you feel may place you in a potentially harmful situation. Ask for assistance with the project if you feel at risk. Above all, do not use any chemical compound without first reading the label directions or having someone read them to you . Tips on Planning Your Garden Getting around in the garden should be your first consideration. Most gardens have a lawn, which is attractive and also cushions accidental falls. However, canes and crutch tips can easily get tangled in the grass. Grass can also hide uneven ground, which can throw you off balance. So it’s a good idea to use some sort of paving for navigating in the garden or landscape. Paths and paved areas should be smooth, level, and firm. They should always have good traction. Wood, for example, becomes very slippery when wet. Provide direct routes through the garden, and make sure paths have clear beginnings and ends. Include wind chimes, fountains, or other objects you can hear, so you can orient yourself in the garden more easily. Path edges should be distinctly different in texture from the garden beds, such as concrete to grass or bricks to a mulched bed, so you can detect the edges. Use a strip with a change in texture across the path to indicate points of interest such as an entrance to the patio, a tree with interesting bark, or a clump of particularly fragrant plants. The strip should be about 12 to 18 inches wide, and can be made from any noticeably contrasting paving materials, such as a brick strip across a crushed stone path. Avoid raised edging, which can create a tripping hazard. Working in the Garden Making the garden easy to work in is the next consideration. Raised beds and containers make it easy to reach the soil and the plants. Raised bed edges are stable and heavy enough for you to sit on or lean on for support, while containers can be moved and take up less room. These structures also cut down the number of special tools you'll need to tend your garden. Avoid structures with sharp corners and edges. The right tools are also important. You'll need to select tools that are durable, lightweight, and easy for you to use. Some tools, like garden trowels, will have engraved markings to indicate soil depth, making it easier to determine how deep to plant bulbs and other transplants. Most garden jobs are easier and less strenuous when you can use both hands. To make your tools easy to carry, you may want to wear a garden apron or tool belt with lots of pockets so that you can keep your hands free. Or you could use a four-wheeled wagon that can carry several larger tools and can be pulled with one hand. Cordless electric tools are safer and easier to use than power tools with cords. Tools should have brightly colored handles to prevent you from accidentally grabbing sharp blades or from losing them. Tips on Maintaining
Your Garden An orderly garden is easier for the visually impaired gardener to maintain and helps with locating specific plants. In the vegetable garden, plant your crops in straight rows, and space the plants evenly apart. Run a rope with evenly spaced knots across the garden, and plant your seeds or transplants at each knot. You can also cut evenly spaced notches into a wood board and use that as a template. Any plant that is not growing along this straight line may be considered a weed. If you are planting
seeds or small transplants, use your hands to feel
how deeply they need to go. The root ball of the transplant must be
completely covered to prevent the roots from drying out. Many plants
won't grow
well
if planted too deeply, however. Dig your planting hole with a garden
trowel or with your hand and gently place the plant into it. The
top of the root
ball should be level with, or slightly below, the soil line of the
garden. With your finger, push large seeds into the soil to a depth
of two
or
three times their diameter. Lay small seeds along the row, and then
cover them with a light layer of compost or peat moss. With herb and flower gardens (both annual and perennial), you may not have straight rows. Use a label or a tag next to each plant to help you identify different plants or varieties. The name and variety can be printed with large, readable letters, or in Braille. Labelers are available that can imprint a weatherproof, plastic tape in either Braille or in large print. Even without writing, labels and stakes are the easiest way to say "This plant stays!" Watering All plants need water, but they may not all need the same amount. Group plants with similar watering needs or frequency together. To avoid accidents, keep hoses off of paths, and try to avoid getting walkways wet and slippery. Containerized plants may need to be watered as much as once or twice a day. You can water these with a hose or a watering can. Add water until it begins to seep out of the drainage holes on the bottom. This way, you're sure the entire root ball is getting wet. Keep your hand along the top of the container, so you can feel if you are overfilling the container. Vegetables, annual flowers, trees, and shrubs all do best with 1 inch of water each week. A rain gauge will tell you how much irrigation or rain water has been added to your garden. You can make an inexpensive but functional rain gauge out of a coffee can, a pickle jar, or anything with straight sides. Place it in the garden where it is easy to find. You can dip a tactile or Braille ruler into the jar to measure the amount of water you've collected. Tape a piece of construction paper to the back of the ruler, so you can feel how high the water measures on the ruler. Sprinklers can be placed in the garden and moved about as needed. The rain gauges make it easy to measure when enough water has been added. However, overhead sprinklers waste water and can increase plant disease problems, especially if the foliage is kept wet all night. A soaker hose or drip irrigation system will keep water off of the leaves, and cause less waste so you can feel if you are overfilling the container. Vegetables, annual flowers, trees, and shrubs all do best with 1 inch of water each week. A rain gauge will tell you how much irrigation or rain water has been added to your garden. You can make an inexpensive but functional rain gauge out of a coffee can, a pickle jar, or anything with straight sides. Place it in the garden where it is easy to find. You can dip a tactile or Braille ruler into the jar to measure the amount of water you've collected. Tape a piece of construction paper to the back of the ruler, so you can feel how high the water measures on the ruler. Sprinklers can be placed in the garden and moved about as needed. The rain gauges make it easy to measure when enough water has been added. However, overhead sprinklers waste water and can increase plant disease problems, especially if the foliage is kept wet all night. A soaker hose or drip irrigation system will keep water off of the leaves and cause less waste. Soaker hoses and drip irrigation tubes can be run along the garden row, or interwoven between shrubs and flowers. You will need to time how long it takes your soaker system to supply moisture down to the root zone (usually 6 inches). The time needed will vary with soil type, water pressure, and equipment. Once you know how long you need, you can set your irrigation system on a timer to shut it off automatically. Weeding The most important thing in weed control is to identify whether a plant is a weed or a desirable plant. This is a difficult skill, even under the best of circumstances. It is even more difficult for the gardener with impaired vision. Placing your plants in straight lines, with regular spacing between the plants, will help. Anything that is not in a straight line or marked with a label is most likely a weed. Learn to tell the difference between your garden plants and common weeds by sight, touch, or smell. Visit other gardens, and familiarize yourself with the way plants feel or smell. You may also want to have an experienced, sighted gardener check your garden and landscape for poison ivy and other dangerous weeds before you handle them. If weeds appear in
your garden, the easiest way to get rid of them is to pull them. One
way to reduce
the amount of weed-pulling is to
not let
the presence of an individual weed or two bother you! This way, weeding
once a week will get rid of most of the troublesome problems. For more information on weed control, refer to HO-217, Weed Control for the Garden and Landscape. Pruning Gardeners are normally
warned not to prune large branches from big trees, due to the danger
of having a heavy branch
fall on them. For more information on pruning, refer to HO-4, Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs. Pest Control Identifying what is wrong with a plant is difficult for most gardeners. The presence of spots, the subtle shading of leaf color, and the presence of tiny insects may be difficult for a vision-impaired gardener to detect. You can bring samples of suspected plant problems to your county Extension office. Making sure the plant has ideal growing conditions can prevent many pest problems. Occasionally, a pest problem will become so severe that chemical control may be necessary. This is a potentially hazardous activity for most gardeners, because it's easy to expose yourself to the chemical. This also includes "natural" pesticides, such as rotenone and pyrethrum, which can still harm you and the environment. For the vision-impaired gardener, it can be dangerous to spray pesticides. You may have problems reading label directions that are normally in very fine print. It is also easy to accidentally spray beneficial insects and other non-target plants. Because it is difficult to accurately measure the amounts of pesticides you need without exposing yourself to the chemicals, you may want to use the pre-mixed, ready-to-use products available in garden centers. Be sure to read and follow all label directions before buying, using, and disposing of all pesticides. Summary The garden is a magical place that can—and should—be enjoyed by everyone. To learn more about general gardening techniques, consult the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Office in your county. You can also get advice from your local Association for the Blind. Selected References Gene Rothart. The Enabling Garden: Creating Barrier-Free Gardens. Taylor Publishing Co., 1994. Kathleen Yeonmans. The Able Gardener. Storey Communications, 1992. Lynn Dennis. Garden for Life. University Extension Press, Univ. of Saskatchewan, 1994.
|
 |
|
Story Resources
Additional Resources
|
||
 |
 
Garden Flowers
Fruits & Vegetables
Lawn Care
Landscape Plants
Insects, Pests, & Diseases
Indoor Plants
The information contained in this web site
is specific to the state of Indiana and may not apply in other states.
|
