Disabled Friendly Garden Design; Our brief involved designing a year-round accessible garden for a disabled individual with limited mobility, ensuring that it could be enjoyed and maintained with minimal assistance from a gardener.
The Brief
Situation: Rear, urban garden.
Area: approximately 70m2
Aspect: South West facing.
Environmental conditions: Fully enclosed rear garden with walls of varying heights to all exposed sides. Direct sun on SW facing patio area and East-facing aspect. West facing perimeter/border part shade from neighbouring trees.*
Garden uses/users: Self and partner. A garden to sit and spend more time in/relaxation. Used days/evenings/weekends, all year round.
Disabled Friendly Garden Design – Accessibility Design Requirements
- Hard landscaping materials to be slip and trip free (e.g. lightly textured, natural paving required, avoid loose stones/chippings etc. on any paths)
- Consider wider step or ramp design from patio to lawned area
- Any handrails (e.g. at steps for patio area to lawn and level changes) – blacksmith designed to incorporate into ‘look and feel’ of garden.
- Consider additional seating area(s) mid and rear of garden & shade for these areas
- Raised planting beds/areas and rockery with planting areas designed to be versatile but to avoid need for any low digging.
- Pathway(s) through lawn area to provide an even, all season, walking surface.
Other Design Requirements
- Raised vegetable growing area to rear of garden
- Shed (smaller than existing) to rear of garden
- Swing seat area
- Retain a lawn area
- Rockery
- Water feature/running water
- Replace patio decking with durable natural stone or slate
- Shade for patio and seating areas
- Incorporate circle or curved design into second patio area (lower/ shed area)
Look And Feel
- Look and feel: ‘Wild’ and informal. Not too manicured, natural. Evoke memories of childhood garden rural/green. Seasons important. No straight lines, curved shapes preferred. Winding paths. No straight/boxy raised beds.
- Materials: Natural materials including stone, slate, wood.
- Preferred Style: Cottage-style, but not so focused on highly floriferous plants.
- Colour palette: Purples, pinks. Colour green is important.
Disabled Friendly Garden Design – Planting Requirements
- Easily manageable, low water requirements.
- Incorporate naturalising spring bulbs – snowdrop, bluebell, daffodil etc.
- Overflowing on walls/rockery e.g., aubrieta, campanula, erigeron.
- Include honeysuckle climbers
Plant selection: we will design your planting scheme to be easy to live with using low maintenance plants that are fully hardy for UK weather conditions. This means they do not need winter protection. Annuals found in some cottage gardens are far from ideal as these can be high maintenance and need replacing every year – so we will not include these, rather, we will focus on hardy perennials with long flowering seasons (such as hardy geraniums, achillea and Lady’s mantle as well as the other examples you discussed with us), shrubs, trees and bulbs which are best for the type of garden you envisage.
Our Plant Selection Process Takes Into Account
- The soil type and aspect of your garden
- Light and moisture levels in your garden
- The style you would like for your garden
- How much time you want to spend on plant/garden maintenance
- Any special requirements you have told us about
