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Sports & Leisure

UCP’s Sports and Leisure Channel is designed for people with disabilities who are interested in sports and other leisure activities and proposes creative ideas for inclusive community recreation programs, including outdoor adventure activities for people with disabilities.

November 8, 2009

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Sports & Leisure

Therapeutic Hobbies

Gardening

Gardening is a great way to relax and get regular physical activity. No matter what your age or ability, gardening can be made accessible or adapted to meet your individual needs.

Tips for making gardening easier for everyone:

  • Make a garden in a raised bed, planter, box or other container. This lets you reach without bending.
  • Choose garden tools that help you function in the smoothest, most efficient way.
  • Consider using lightweight children’s tools.
  • Add gripping material or padding to tool handles to make them easier to hold and use.
  • If you garden while seated, try long-handled tools. You can fit a broomstick or tennis racket handle into the socket of a trowel or fork head. For little jobs use long-handled barbecue tools.
  • Mulch, mulch, mulch. This keeps down most weeds and helps the garden thrive with little watering.
  • Try soaker hoses or spray wands for watering. These let you water with minimal bending or lifting.
  • Consider ratchet pruners and shears for general pruning jobs. These offer a lot of power with little effort.
  • Get a long-handled pick-up grabber for all of those clippings. You can find them in gardening stores or try a dog’s pooper-scooper.
  • If you stand while gardening, have a seat available for resting. There are many stools, carts, kneeling benches, and pads for sale. You don’t have to spend a lot of money; and inexpensive stool or tipped over recycling bin would do.
  • A cart, wheelbarrow, wagon, or plastic tarp helps move things to and from the garden. Choose the approach that works best for you.

For more information about accessible gardening:

  • Accessible Gardening for People with Physical Disabilities: A Guide to Methods, Tools and Plants. Adil, Janeen R. Bethesda, MD; Woodbine House, 1994.
  • Web site: Dynamic Living: Accessible Gardening
  • Growing with Gardening: A Twelve-Month Guide for Therapy, Recreation and Education. Moore, Bibby. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
  • The Able Gardener: Overcoming Barriers of Age and Physical Limitations. Yeomans, Kathleen, RN. Pownal, VT: Storey Communications, 1992.
  • The Enabling Gardening: Creating Barrier-Free Gardens. Rothert, Eugene, HTM. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing, 1994.

Source: North Carolina Office on Disability and Health’s Physical Activity Work Group

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