Baxter St. Gardener: Building A Wheelchair Accessible Raised Garden Bed

Building A Wheelchair Accessible Raised Garden Bed

Well today was the day we built the wheelchair accessible raised bed at the Salem Community Garden. This was truly a community effort. Thomas Logging donated 9 - 7”X 9”X 9’ oak timbers, Todd Kinerk of Kinerk Saw Mill delivered the timbers and donated the 10” spikes, Parker’s Ready Mix of Salem donated 2 yards of gravel and Paul Camden donated and delivered the top soil. Todd suggested placing the bed on the parking lot’s asphalt. He said this way there will not be an issue of the ground being too soft to traverse with a wheelchair.

Our finished bed measured 21” high, 42” wide and 108” long, with the actual plantable area measuring 7.5 feet long by 39 inches wide.

At 42” wide, this raised bed is wider than the 36” that is recommended for wheelchair accessible raised bed. But by using 9” wide oak timbers there is a very wide and comfortable sitting surface. And at only 21” high, if a person is able, it should be an easy transition from a wheelchair to sit on the edge of the bed.

Now construction the Raised bed.

These oak timbers weigh about 250 lbs. each, so we needed to build the raised bed exactly where we wanted it! Moving it after the fact was not an option.

We then proceeded to cut the timbers to build the first course, 2 – timbers were cut 108” long and 1 – timber we cut out 2 – 39” pieces.

We then laid out the timbers in a ”running” fashion forming up the first course.

For the next course, we cut the timbers the same lengths as the first course. We then laid the timbers out insuring they overlapped the joint of the course below it.

We then drilled 3 pilot holes to drive our 10” spikes through. The spike ties the second course to the first course.

For the last course, we repeated what we had done for the first two courses, insuring again that we overlapped the joints.

We used the gravel to fill the bottom of the bed to a depth of about 7” to 9”.

We covered the gravel with tar paper. This was done to provide a cushion between the gravel and the 2 layers of 3.5mm plastic that we added next.

With the plastic, we doubled lined the bottom of the bed and stapled the plastic up the sides. We hoped the plastic would help hold moister, so the bed would not dry out as fast. We puncture holes in the bottom so the plastic would not act like a tub and hold water. The holes should allow the excess water to drain out.