Gardening with physical and sensory disabilities

Posted: 26th Mar 2015

physical disabilties march 2015

 

The resourcefulness and playful spirits of gardeners overcoming physical and sensory disabilities to garden has caught my breath this Winter on a project in north London. Disability doesn’t figure much, a playful inventiveness makes gardening activities possible. Each has an independence that calls on others only when absolutely needed, whether measuring the spacing of plants or the depth of compost in a pot, or handling a tool. Then gardeners move on. Participation occurs beyond the immediate focus of activity too: onlookers call for displays to be made up as gifts for their friends, or to decorate their rooms, or to direct others efforts. It is a hearty group, sometimes deeply silent in concentration, at other times rich with repartee joyfully flying across the room. I always leave the group in awe.