Raised beds for wheelchairs and walkers

[ckcommunitygardens]

Hey Folks,

We have a few gardeners in wheel chairs or assisted with walkers and therefore require beds that are about waist level and able to fit a wheel chair beneath. Are you aware of any plans or have any structural ideas regarding depth, lining etc? We have a few hundred dollars to invest in these and want to spend it wisely.

Thanks!

[MoniDew]

I think you came to the right place! Have you watched Patti's videos on how she constructed her raised beds? I also have a few pics from last year, here on this site, with my husband and I building our raised beds. (no written plans, however, it should be fairly easy to observe what we did). http://www.gardengirltv.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=669&highlight=monidew

As far as getting a wheelchair underneath, that's going to require some sturdy legs and a sturdy base, like an elevated platform. I can envision such a thing, however, I doubt I'd be able to draw you up the plans. I hope someone here on the site has the skills to do that for you.

[SaraM2261]

A friend of mine is using hay bales for the base of her raised beds.
I am imagining a hay bale, with a wooden structure on top filled with dirt. That would give you the height you are after.

Maybe instead of trying to get the chairs underneath you could just do one length of several bales end to end the long way then you could access it from both sides and be able to plant from the top over the side of the chair.

Let us know what you finally do end up doing and how it works!!!

[paul wheaton]

The square foot gardening book has something about that. It's by Mel Bartholomew.

As long as you are making deep garden beds, it could be worthwhile to look into hugelkultur.

[Garden Green]

You can make your box with a bottom and put legs on it at whatever height you want. As long as you make it deep enough, you can grow just about anything, I think.