Get into the Garden!
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just beginning, and regardless of your garden’s size, gardening offers numerous benefits for your health and wellbeing. If you have sight loss, adapting your space, techniques and tools can ensure you continue to enjoy being outside. We have gathered some helpful tips, and there are also some fantastic resources which we will reference at the end of this article.
If you are just starting to garden with sight loss, you may want to get comfortable moving around your garden first and get your tools in order. Adding a white painted line to the edge of pathways or the bottom of your fence will increase the contrast and help you navigate your garden if you have low vision.
Leaving a radio playing at one end of the garden, having windchimes or installing a water fountain are all audible ways to help you locate where in the garden you are. Keep your tool storage tidy to help you find things. Putting brightly coloured tape over the handles of your tools can help you locate them more easily.
There are ways that planting can be made easier and help you to watch out for those weeds!
Fix a brightly coloured string line across your plot to help with planting in a straight line. Put plant labels in a consistent place, such as in front of each plant. You could also plant in blocks or lines so it’s easier to tell the plants you want to keep from the weeds you don’t. Use a hula hoop if you wish to plant in a circular shape.
Your choice of plants and planting schemes can make a huge difference when it comes to making your garden accessible and enjoyable.
- Choose flowers in colours that you find easier to see – yellow, white and orange flowers might stand out more. Explore what works best for you.
- You might find pale-coloured flowers beside a dark shrub or fence stand out more.
- Exploring sensory plants may be of interest. Lambs ear or angel wings are soft to touch for example. Planting for sound effects can also be enjoyable.
- Grasses offer a lovely swish, and lavender attracts the hum of bees. Roses, honeysuckle, lavender, viburnum and sweet peas all have lovely scents.
Identifying plants and knowing what is what can be difficult in an abundant garden and with sight loss. There are some great free apps available for smart phones that can identify different plants. Just open the app, point the camera at the plant you want to identify and take a photo. It will let you know what the plant is along with some core information. Free apps include:
Everyone can get enjoyment out of gardening, with any degree of vision loss, with some adaptations, new skills and clever tweaks. If you would like a more in-depth dive into accessible gardening, RNIB have great articles and the charity Thrive have some publications in different formats that have some great advice and ideas.
RNIB – 0303 1239999
Thrive — 0118 988 5688