In 2010, my mom bought me some flowers for my balcony, hoping that caring for them might help me to confront a bout of severe depression. I had no experience with gardening and, honestly, little interest in trying this project. But I couldn’t let good flowers die, and they were so pretty!
So began the first of what has become an annual project that has grown into something much bigger. I have moved three times, and each year I have planted more pots, have become more creative with my arrangements, and have learned more about how to care for my plants. I now have a good complement of flowers, herbs, and even a couple of vegetables.
Early in my journey, my project was fairly easy. I had a few pots out on the balcony and chose the easiest possible things to plant: geraniums, impatiens, and hen and chicks. Not only had I never grown anything, but I really had no idea what to expect. I am blind and I was getting used to what my flowers were supposed to feel like and how much water they needed. Fortunately, these are hardy plants that don’t mind Indiana heat.
In recent years, I tried new types of plants that needed different amounts of water. I was amazed when they all stayed alive well into October!
I started reading gardening books, learning about what grows well in my area, what to plant where and which things do well near each other, and how to fertilize naturally. As I began to do new things, my plants not only stayed alive but grew big and flowered often.
I am gardening not only as a person who is blind but also as a person with chronic pain. I have explored a lot of ideas but have learned to do the things I am able to do and to make better ways to enjoy them.
There is a lot of extremely useful info available online about accessible gardening in general. Some of this is stuff I am using now. In fact, this is one reason why I chose not to transition to in-ground gardening. HGTV has a wonderful introduction to accessible gardening techniques, especially for people with chronic pain. advice for support workers and caregivers provides tips for creating gardens for people who use wheelchairs. Admittedly this page is rather patronizing in its wording but the solutions are appropriate. Epic Gardening introduces the concept of a universal garden that provides accessibility for people with a variety of needs. This is an excellent site for a community garden to use to plan for accessibility.
There is not much good information about blindness and gardening. Many of the sites are about “creating a sensory garden for the blind”. The wording suggests to me that our senses are sadly deprived and need to be nurtured, and that we need someone sighted to create the space (in a safe way) that nurtures them for us. Very little information is available that would empower me as a blind person to make my own choices about how to plan, design, and care for my own space. I have found one page, from VisionAware, to be helpful but not entirely consistent with the techniques I use.
I decided to write my own series about how I have designed my space, chosen my plants, and found information to empower me to care for them well. I hope it will provide someone else with the kind of information I wanted and didn’t have.
I live with other medical conditions in addition to blindness: asthma/allergies, some pain and stiffness due to rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, and migraines. I have needed to plan for all of my personal situations, and I also wanted to accommodate my personal preferences in gardening.,/p>
Which Condition is Most Important?
When I think about all of my conditions in terms of how they impact my work in the garden, there is a hierarchy of access needs. One thing will prevent me from going out at all. That is allergies. If something in the garden makes me sick, I will abandon the whole garden altogether. This is more important than the blindness that people can see or the pain I feel after working for a long period of time. So I really need to think about what I’m growing and how it impacts my allergies.
Everyone has different allergies. I know people who cannot tolerate lavendar, but I can and I really enjoy my lavender plant. Some people really enjoy growing basil, but I break out in hives when I am caring for it. So it is important to know your own system.
Due to my allergies, I avoided the outdoors for much of my young adulthood. I had very little idea of what I sould enjoy if I worked with flowers. When my mom brought me flowers, I felt angry and thought I would end up sicker. I was surprised when I was not.
There are allergy-free things that can be grown as well as low-allergy plants. It happened that the things I grew in 2010 were allergy-free. Most of what I grow now is low-allergy. There are particular types of things I know I like, but I am also trying to branch out and try new things each year. As I experience more enjoyment in my garden, I feel more that it is ok for me to try another new plant. As I learn about what makes plants allergy-safe in general and for me personally, I have the ability to evaluate a new plant before I buy it.
I have had difficulty thinking of my chronic pain as something that needs accommodation since I was not diagnosed with RA and fibromyalgia until my mid-30s. However, these are also conditions that directly impact my ability to provide good care to my plants. If I can’t physically reach my plants or they are in locations that are too painful for me to reach, I will not continue to provide good care. So I have modified the environment with large pots, hanging baskets, and raised beds.
Blindness doesn’t put my garden at risk of abandonment. It means that I need the right methods and tools in order to make my work easier. Since I am the one who designed my space, some of the suggestions that are made on other web sites don’t apply to me. I don’t ned tactile railings to guide me around my space. My pots and raised beds are placed strategically. More on this later.
In the rest of the posts in this series, I will talk more about my methods and resources that have been helpful to me. I hope some are also helpful to you.
- Learning From My Younger Self - February 10, 2024
- more reflections on ITD - June 30, 2023
- On travel while at ITD: reflections after day 1 - June 27, 2023
- ITD day 1 - June 27, 2023
- ITD day 1 - June 27, 2023
- Job Descriptions, Inclusivity, and Equity for People with Disabilities - October 15, 2022
- Traveling without a Guide Dog: Experience with Cane and Walker - October 14, 2022
- Disability and Church, Intersection - June 11, 2022
- Review: When Chronic Pain and Illness Take Everything Away - June 11, 2022
- Grammar and Style Resources for Writers - June 9, 2022
