Creating an Enabled Garden

Bruce Dunn

Joanna Sanford

Jane Walling

What is an Enabled Garden?Any landscape, garden, patio, or greenhouse space designed around the needs of someone who is physically, developmentally, or psychologically unable to tend a traditional garden.

Types of Enabled Gardens

Therapy – therapist guided activities

Healing – retreat or place of respite

Adaptive – designed for accessibility

Memory – benefits Alzheimer and dementia patients

Sensory – focused on color, texture, and fragrance

FeaturesDirected &

programmed activities

Modified features for accessibility & use

Well defined spaces & perimeters

Carefully chosen plants

Support & safety features

Our Focus: Sensory Gardens

Sight Smell Auditory Taste Touch

Sight Bright colors to show

contrast

Well lit

Simple transitions

Place & plant markings

Shapes & numbers

Symmetry

Smell Herbs

Rosemary

Basil

Oregano

Mint

Flowers

Stock

Roses

Water & Moss

Soil

Auditory Water features &

fountains

Wind chimes

Leaves

Birds, frogs & insects

Taste Herbs

Honeysuckle

Fruits & vegetables

Note: use organic & avoid hazardous chemicals. Of the senses, taste is the one that should be on a case by case basis due to extreme sensory conditions

Touch Tactile

Fine motor skills

Gross motor skills

Weight

Warm & cold

Whatever the goal of your garden, it should be a place where people of various ages and abilities can experience the benefits of gardening easily and safely throughout the entire year.

Just a few of our local Therapy Gardens Mattey’s Garden – Matthew

Whaley Elementary School

Freedom Park, Williamsburg Botanical Gardens – Botanical Therapy Garden

Chambrel Assisted Living

ResourcesAccessible Gardening: Tips & Techniques for Seniors & the Disabled. Joann Woy. 1997, Stackpole Press

Enabled Gardening: An Introduction (info provided by Angela Cingale, Master Gardener).

Enabling Garden: Creating Barrier-Free Gardens. Gene Rothert, HTR. 1994, Taylor Trade Publishing

Healing Landscapes: www.healinglandscapes.org

NCState.edu – Horticulture Department. How to Organize a Community Allotment Garden. http://cals.ncsu.edu/hort_sci/extension/documents/ag-727.pdf

UNC.edu http://rehabdesign.web.unc.edu/?projects=accessible-garden-bed-and-adjustable-hanging-basket

Sensory Gardens. www.ahta.org (American Horticultural Therapy Organization).

The garden as a healer. Mark Epstein. The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce: http://www.djc.com/special/landscape98/10037844.htm. March 31, 1998.

Van Mullekom, Kathy. Scout gives Children’s Hospital a therapy garden. Dailypress.com, July 30, 2011.

Virginia Cooperative Extension: www.ext.vt.edu

Special thanks to Angela Cingale & Pat Crowe for their time and assistance