Hello, my name is Hatto! Does anyone have advice about how to make my garden accessible?

Hatto

hi, I am in a wheelchair following my stroke. I am a keen gardener, but my garden has gravelled pathways, and a rough lawn/ field grass. I am wondering if anyone has any advice about how to make it accessible in a powered wheelchair. I'm thinking turf mesh, or similar, but I wonder how much ground preparation will be necessary first. does anyone have any advice to offer about this?

Alex_Alumni

Hello there @Hatto and welcome to the community, thanks for reaching out with your query

I'm sorry to hear about your stroke, how are you getting on day to day now, do you feel like you're getting enough support?

It's nice to hear that you're a keen gardener, what got you into it?

I'm afraid I wouldn't know about how much ground preparation is necessary for turf mesh, but perhaps the community can help.

There's a gardening discussion which may be worth having a look at, one on Accessible gardening tips. You can also search using the search function, it's the magnifying glass button, for any other gardening based discussions.

Let us know if we can help further, and hopefully other members can also share their thoughts on this with you.

Alex

Hatto

my mother was a keen gardener and always encouraged us to keep it up so I and both my sisters grow lots of flowers. I grow veg too, which is all I eat when the weather's hot!

SueHeath

Morning @Hatto welcome to our great group.
I am a very keen gardener as well.
I think you know this could be an expensive job, unless you have a very good person that can do the heavy work for you.
The gravel will have to go - hard path way would be better for wheel chair.
Raised beds all round would work great for you.
There are lots you can do, but also lots of money needed. So i would just start with the path ways first so at least you can get out and enjoy the fresh air.

Hatto

thank you,I was thinking that plastic grid stuff, like Turfmat, might work to convert the gravel into a stable surface, though there'd be some heavy work involved in making the gravel paths into flat surfaces in preparation for laying on the matting grid. do you think that would work?

SueHeath

mmmmm are you thinking of the plastic grids that clip together @Hatto ?
If i have the right one, my son has it in the garden and i still can not imagine it standing up to the use, could be just me tho but he does have a lot of gravel on the top so i suppose it might work better if the gravel is level with the top of the grids. Do you think you might have problems with the gravel getting stuck in the treads of you chair.

Hatto

I see there's a resin you can pour on gravel to make it into a surface that doesn't stick to treads etc. yes the durability does seem a bit of a worry but I'm not keen to concrete over all the gravel pathways!

SueHeath

Yep it's a hard one @Hatto either way it's going to cost money - what about putting tread boards in between the grave boards to help take the pressure.

Hatto

yes I will lookintothart. May thanks for your helpful comments

L_Volunteer

Glad we could help you @Hatto. Thanks for your positive feedback.

Good luck looking into that. Please feel free to keep us in the loop, we are all here for you