How to make a wheelchair friendly garden.

Two years ago I began to reinvent my garden. I needed it to change because I was unable to walk and needed to make the garden wheelchair friendly.

If you follow the link to my previous hub on this, you can see how we changed the garage to a new studio and the untidy lawn at a silly angle to a nice flat open courtyard. Everything is now planted in tubs and is very accessible.

So this summer we set about the rest of the garden which has been out of bounds for me for a few years because it was so difficult for me to access.

You can from the pictures it was totally out of control from neglect and the grandkids playing there.

You can see that a lot of the problem was two years of neglect, so I decided to call in my builder who had done such a brilliant job of the lower courtyard section.

You can see that a lot of the problem was two years of neglect, so I decided to call in my builder who had done such a brilliant job of the lower courtyard section.

It was also another journey to the stone sales place across the border in Lancashire to find more Indian sandstone.

You can see from the picture below, that we took down a section of fencing to bring the stone in rather than carry it all the way through the garden.

Below is the top end of the garden, and then views back towards the house.

This dug out square is to make a base for another flagged area that may be used to site a log cabin at a later date.

the old brickworks was the foundation for the greenhouse which we also pulled down this last summer 2012

I’ve always been fascinated with ancient stone circles so I thought that I might have my own.

A new retaining wall was built to add another area and more interest to the site.

There is another new area just above the stone circle, there are two small steps, but I have left room for a ramp to the side for easy access.

Just to prove I’m not too hard a task manager, I let the crew have some lunch.

I’m trying to make this site look really interesting as well as being a good place to sit out and enjoy my garden

Next I wanted a water feature, I love the tinkle and splash of water, it adds an extra element to the garden. The stone is a sandstone monolith which has been drilled through to allow the water to be pumped up through it.

Underneath the stone there is a plastic water sump, [a kind of bucket] which also contains a water pump. Of course we have had to run an electric cable out there. I put a two point outdoor socket, which means we can run other electrical appliances up the top end of the garden. It will come in handy if we eventually put the log cabin up there.

I wanted this area to be different so I got the builders to cover it with white stones, they were a bit expensive, but I think they will make it a great point of interest.

This area will be an area for contemplation, not cluttered, just the water feature and maybe one plant set diagonally to it.

It's not finished yet, and as you can see it will be a few weeks before we can do any more work.

The top corner of the garden is a shady area and needs plants that can survive with small amounts of sunlight. So my first choice was to use ferns which have a wonderful primeval look and feel to them. I've also planted three varieties of Hostas which will fill up and give a variation of colour. In amongst these I have added a few evergreens that can tolerate shady areas.

I found an old mill stone and added it as a feature, the corner I will nick-name millers knoll.

Another new section is a small Alpine garden, organised by my ten year old grandson who really enjoys gardening.

He has combined plants, shells, statues and rocks to make an interesting easy to maintain area. The snail shells are from edible snails we had for tea one day. A little butter and garlic and they really are a tasty treat.

Once we had cleared the weeds, we put weed control matting down in two layers and then placed the decorative chippings on top of that.

As it matures I am sure it will be a very good little area.