AT for Gardening: Containers and Beds

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

By Aimee Sterk, LMSW, MATP Staff

I’ve been a gardener for years and a vegetable gardener for at least a decade. I joined a vegetable garden farm share program about 20 years ago and loved the fresh veggies from down the road and began exploring some easy options to grow some myself. My farm share taught me the joy and beauty, as well as ease, of growing kale, chard, and heirloom tomato varieties. My kids have added in their own delight at picking and eating strawberries in our yard, juice running down their chins.

When I first began to explore gardening on our smallish lot, I learned about the Square Foot Gardening method—using your space as efficiently as possible to grow veggies and fruit that give the most “bang for the buck.” The method worked and I was quite successful right away at growing things that fed my family.

More and more people are interested in growing their own food, especially now that we are months into the pandemic, grocery workers are coming down with COVID-19, and some food shortages are happening.

There are lots of ways that people with disabilities can use AT to grow their own food! In this video, I show two options for affordably growing vegetables and fruits in containers. Containers make it easier to garden, especially if you use a wheelchair or walker or have other disabilities that make bending and stooping uncomfortable or impossible. Containers bring the vegetables to a height that works for you. Additional container gardening options and much more information is also available on a webinar on Accessible Gardening in our archives.

Other MATP resources on AT for accessible gardening:

In addition, Michigan State University Extension has great resources on choosing and growing a smart garden in our state. Other state university extensions around the US are also great resources.

Have I gotten your gardening juices flowing? What do you want to plant?

Are you a veteran gardener? What are your favorite things to grow? What containers and methods do you use to help you garden accessibly?

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