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Accessible Gardens

This care home in Maes-y-coed, part of the DRIVE Charity was all ready for new residents but the garden was in desperate need of attention. The low beds were full with nettles and shrub roses with thorns in. The existing patio was uneven with trip hazards everywhere. The brief was simple, make it safe for our disabled residents, some of who are wheelchair bound and make it fun and interacitve.

Most importantly for our DRIVE Clients was that we brought the garden up to them in a safe and secure enviornment whilst also making it enjoyable and interactive at the same time. Raised beds were to be used so that all the plants were easily visible and touchable from a wheelchair.

For the fronts of the beds, ‘reclaimed’ railway sleepers were an option but from experience they do have a tendancy to seep tar and oil in hot weather, making them sticky and un-pleasnat, something to avoid in a care home, instead tanalised new sleepers were used. We were also building another raised pond for the charity but this time with a twist, a window was to be fitted in the front of the pond, much like in marine shop ponds so that the fish and plants etc were visible from a wheel chair.

At the same time toughened laminate 3 ply glass 35mm thick was to be used for any accidental kicks with a wheelchair.

One of the new residents was a very keen bird watcher so to help with his settling in a murial was posted outside his bedroom door with a variety of native species for him to name. All thorns and brambles have been removed and replaced with Lavendars, Mombretia and Lupins. the fencing has been replaced with trellis and evergreen Jasmine planted at either end to form a natural hedge of flowers and scents in a few years time. Raised steps to the shed have been painted and a raised section for pot plants uses red slabs to distinguish them as higher then the rest of the patio.

The pond faces north from the summer house and so is in the shade for the majority of the day, this is ideal as it will keep the algae down and the water cool for the gold fish. A fountain also adds noise and movement whilst at the same time cleaning the pond water.

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