Setting up allotments for disabled people

[delboy]

Is there a site on the Net for this?

We met with the local authority the other week and mentioned we would like to do something, but there was no help being offered, so any information would be appreciated from sites where this has happened.

Many thanks in advance

[delboy]

[manicscousers]

Have a look on the allotment regeneration site, they had a link we used a while ago  :) http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/

[Unwashed]

I think a good strategy is to find people who would like to but can't take an allotment, and find out from them what prevents them and together work out what adaptations would overcome their exclusion.  It's not easy because you have to reach people who would never have thought of getting an allotment, and when you do they might not necessarily be able to tell you honestly why they are excluded, but that's the challenge.

For instance, some people need ready access to a toilet so if the site doesn't have one they're stuffed, but they might simply be too embarrassed to tell you that their incontinence is excluding them, and some people are so painfully afraid of being spoken to or being alone on the site that an allotment is an impossibility but they might not have the courage or even insight to articulate their disability.

I'd suggest Thrive is a good place to start.

[Jeannine]

I have been given part of the disabled site on our lottie, as well as the one that John and I do together. It is only one bed but it is about 3 feet wide by about 20 foot long , it is just about the same height as my dining table. I can dig or plant with hand tools and find it very easy to work. Made of stacked wood, probably 6"x6" stacked.

It was built by the members.

XX Jeannine

[manicscousers]

It is only one bed but it is about 3 feet wide by about 20 foot long , it is just about the same height as my dining table. I can dig or plant with hand tools and find it very easy to work.

It was built by the members.

XX Jeannine

they're the sort of beds we have for our disabled group, mine are creeping up, about 2'6" at the moment so's I can sit on a plank stretched between them  :)

[Alice C]

I am an Occupational Therapist with 15+ years of working with people whose life is limited by a physical disability. Think from the moment they enter the allotment (car parking, walking) to doing the good stuff of digging and planting. Unwashed is right about the toilet facilities. The best thing as previously suggested is to ask the person with the disability, remembering they come in all shapes and sizes with different degrees of difficulty (the solution for one is not the solution for all - we humans are so difficult :P). I have a passion for helping getting it right for someone with any type of disability(have also worked in the fields of psychiatry and learning difficulties) so will try to advise any way I can.

[Jeannine]

We have posh porta potties with washing facilites and toilets in them, one is for wheelchairs XX Jeannine

[Plot6b]

We have an Disability and Sensory garden on our allotment site taking up three previously unused plots. We have several raised beds of varying sizes and beds on stilts to suit most disabilities. The potting shed is an sight to behold. we also have full toilet facilities and a concrete (non slip) path is due to be laid later this year.
The funding for all this came from grants and donations with the local authorities helping out for the design and input. so I suggest you contact them. I'm new to this forum so I do not know yet how to post photographs. Which is a shame really as it does look fantastic!

[Digeroo]

I have a daughter in a wheelchair.  Gravel is a major issue.  It is almost impossible to push a wheelchair though gravel. 

[aj]

I am currently setting up veg gardens for severely disabled students so am furrowing the same field

For a lottie; I'd start with Thrive; and I've been to their place near Reading and I'd say:

Good infrastructure is vital; good quality hard paths, with a good layout and easy access to washing facilities and security is vital.

A range of different levels to garden on, or the ability to provide different levels to garden on; with smaller spaces rather than a huge allotment to start with.

Some raised beds that can fit a wheelchair underneath so that the users can sow, pot on, transplant etc etc is vital for the full range.....and if possible some undercover area like a large greenhouse or poly tunnel with easy access to water will help people to start their own plants off.

Lots of helping stations, kneelers, sticks, resting areas, seats, pedestal planting areas at different heights, water butts, composting facilities at different heights etc etc. Then help to tailor each growing space to the individual as they grow.

[PurpleHeather]

We have several plots where the plotholder is disabled. However we have no facilities at all for wheel chair riders who need to have a highly raised plot.

In fact, we have had no enquiries from any one who can not walk.

If we had, I have no doubt that we could get a grant to accommodate them and we do have an area which is near the car park and is neglected where we could put in place a suitable plot.

Wheel chair users, do unite and ask for a plot, specifically designed for you.  Most Associations should be able to get funding to put in place an area for your use.

If it happens. Please make sure that you do spend a few days a week on your plot and look after it. As an amassodor for your cause, it is essential that you outshine, or at least match the able bodied gardener with the maintenance of your plot.