Gardening Made Easy: Canadian Paraplegic Association

Gardening Made Easy

By Beverley Smith

September 2006

Much attention has been given to sports and education for the disabled but not much has been given to their hobbies, especially ones the able-bodied can have. Take gardening for instance. When the Renfrew Educational Services in Alberta received a $5,000 donation it decided to correct that problem. With the help of twelve employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway a wheelchair friendly garden was built for students at the school, where they could plant bulbs in the fall and seeds in the spring, sit in a gazebo for shade, play in a miniature house and gather in a sandstone area for outdoor class. The lilac and rose-covered area provides beauty too and praise has been given to garden designer Karen Twenion. (my own mother-in-law Margaret Jaremko, is an avid gardener but with severe back problems risked not being able to bend over to grow vegetables every year. She however had the brilliant solution of landscaping deep tunnels in every row of the garden, terracing the rows of plants so she could for many years still do what she loved, without having to bend over)

Beverley Smith is a long-time researcher and activist promoting equality for unpaid caregiving roles for men and women, to give them equal stature with paid roles, and for the state to value the family side of the career family balance.