gardening

On a different 'thread', riversidemarie said...

"Will as you are the one who has shown any interrest have tagged it on to what looks like very old gardening site blog. For your delectation a few thoughts on gardening for the disabled - tongue in cheek and knowing this site in installments! Well where do we begin? A name : The Naked Gardener! Raises expectations for the garden next year and the neighbours. Do not have potted plants, spillinng over every surface. No juicy Jungles. You want to appear needy, very needy - you want help! A gasping died out cactus should suffice. The sort of person you want passing the portals is the type who bought their Christmas cards in January in the sales and then proceeded throughout the year to bargain hunt suitable presents. All beautifully wrapped tthat youu don't want, don't like and will probably recycle next year.Start waxing lyrical over sexy secateurs, triumphant trowels and splendid spades.That you are desperate to have, in fact your very life depends upon them.Got the Message.No don't ask for a heated greenhouse. This is pushing friendship too far and we are only just out of a recession!"

Where do I start? The lawn here, has been cut just once this year and is now becoming the domaine of exotic flora and fauna. Should I just get it paved over? What are your views on 'raised beds'? Or have you found 'containers' more convenient? I like evergreens and ferns, any advice on these in a confined space? Houseplants. I have none at the moment, but would like some 'green' indoors over Winter. Not too bothered about colour, just something alive! (This the first time I've been without a Spider Plant in 20 years!). This thread seems to have started off as a dating agency, so I hope to see you behind the potting shed for future guidance...

You sound very knowledgable and i'm not sure which of these gardening threads is "active"...can mods maybe merge them?
Cuz I'm getting unable to do the actual work I paid chaps to do stuff last year.So now I have containers, on a semi shady bit of garden (its shaded by the shed and a bloody great ash tree 2 doors away)
So there we have cyclamens and fern in one, black helebores in no 2 and scabiosa mariposa (bees loved that one). A jasmine and a clematis (theres posh word forit but can't remeber.) They are to cover the wall of the shed. Lavender in another.
Also built 2 tyre towers - FREE raised beds...old tyres are dumped and can be got for NOWT. I have one 3 tyres tall and one 2 tyres tall. You put down back membrane to discourage weed. Then rocks of gravel for drainage. Then filled it with mixture of bought and home made compost. The black tyres heat the soil.I have over the years grown all sorts in em.I am aided by the fact that boyfriend is gardener....its ohone a friend (will this grow in my garden...) sadly he's in London with CRF and on dialysis, which means he rarely gets here long enough to tackle the work!! Frustrating for both of us!

Hi, what do you do to control weeds on the exposed surface? With sunight energy available I would think they would be more of a problem? than those below in the dark.

Best regards,

Phil Duke Ph.D.

If the membrane is doing its job, that stops a lot. As does filling it with home made and bought compost. Slugs are rare, cuz the little buggers can't climb the rubber...(win-win there) so weeds tend to be easily pulled up, shallow rooted ones. Mind you the guys who did work last year put gravel around as a mulch and thats stopped everything DEAD!

The terror in my garden is from the ash tree 2 doors down. Its higher than a house and HUGE. Needless to say, this time of year the seeds are everywhere and seedlings come thru. With them, I do stray from my organic ways and wage chemical warfare. Also with some ivy which had eaten my fence. It had little barbs in, VERY tricky to budge, so we waged warfare to kill it off....it was having plans to colonise the garden.
With containers it easier to say, "Well you ain't mint/chard/rosemary etc so out you come!!"

Hi everybody, www.ablehere.com/media/kunena/emoticons/wink.png

so I was searching for wheelchair accessible gardens and there are so few to choose from. The Vegtrug (isnt really wheelchair accessible) The Terraform which is pretty good but Pricey at $1200.00.. and the Green Circle Garden which seems to be the best of the lot and cheaper than the Terraform. you can see the garden at www.greencirclegarden.com

The first image is the Green Circle Garden and the Second image is the Terraform.

Hi there, I see you are basically looking for raised beds for wheelchair users. You'll find if you google raised beds, a whole lad of answers pop up. some practical and some not so. Some expensive and some not so.
Best answer is so get someone to build exactly what you want - if you have the money! Great place for ideas is Instructables.
Or Remap - Specialise in coming up with designs to assist the disabled. Can't help seeing on you profile that you are a product designer and wonder if this is a slightly sneaky way of slipping in your design????