Re: Gardening for disabled/elderly

**D* C* <d*@gmail.com>**

I might be a step ahead of your question, but I hope you find it
appropriate.

How strong is the local landscaper/nursery trade association in your area?
(or building trades)
Perhaps some aspects of our recent experience might be translatable to your
situation, I hope so.

In our area, our local chapter of the provincial landscape association
(Upper Canada Chapter of Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades
Association....we just say L.O.) takes on an annual project where members
give back to the community
A few years ago, a Community Living organisation (certainly sounds as if
their stakeholders have similar challenges as the folks you describe)
requested a very similar project. When all was said and done, a very large
patio, new double wide paving stone walkway, two 20' long by 3' wide raised
beds ( walker and wheelchair accessible) plus new lawns, hedging, and a
"thinking" garden were in place at no cost to the organisation.
The project was broken down into two construction phases. The first
involved deconstruction, site prep, excavation, and all heavy equipment
work. At this point, it was a closed site in that only properly trained
professionals were working. In the second phase, stakeholders joined in to
provide sweat equity, enjoy camradeship and take ownership of their place.
Students, employees and Board of Director members helped out as they could,
where they could, e.g. schlep paving stones, make soup and chili for lunch,
provide expert verbal instruction re which is the best placement for a
shrub.
The patio was a "tactile" one in that there were many different coloured,
shaped and textured pavers used. .  At many job sites, a lanscaper or
builder might be left with a 1/2 pallette of pavers. Essentially, because
of colour matching, it is difficult for the left overs to be useful and the
space taken in a shop yard whilst waiting for something to come up is not
worthwhile.  Getting pavers should be relatively easy- just takes a few
phone calls. The only thing to make sure is that they are all the same
thickness, i.e. all 60mm , which makes base prep a lot easier .Mobility was
an issue so, even though there was quite a variation in pavers, the surface
was all at the same level and safe
Two in-store designers at a nursery/garden centre prepared the plans for
free (with on-site consultation by the stakeholders), municipal office
types expedited paper work, haulage companies were quick to drop off a
tandem load of gravel, topsoil, nurseries had more than enough plants to
pass along, etc. More than 25 companies were involved with over 60
professional volunteers- nobody said no. It might seem like a tough almost
insurmountable task but I think you'll be surprised at how quickly a
community can come together.
And believe me, everybody sweated on the job but no-one called it "work".

Our Community Living group had no money for a designer, materials, labour
etc. If you would like I can send you some photos or, if you do facebook- I
don't- you can go to Upper Canada Chapter, L.O. and see the finished
product.
I sure hope it all works out for you and your friends; imho, this is what
we are about.

oh, re dimensions and such, www.cydi.ca for raised beds; .
Dan
_______________________________________________
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
GWL list website  http://www.ibiblio.org/gardenwriters
GWL has searchable message archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters
If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they can be viewed at  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos