Accessible Gardening

Our goal is to promote diversity in our community gardens. So, we are providing special raised bed garden plots designed in line with ADA guidelines for accessibility. Our story is about a group of dedicated volunteers and donors coming together to enable seniors and individuals with physical limitations to join our gardening community.

The 29th Street Garden offers two types of raised beds that are shown in photos below. The taller version (8’ x 4’ x 33”) is for gardeners who prefer to garden while standing, which appeals to many seniors. The shorter raised bed has a seating ledge (10’ x 3’ x 22”), which can be removed for gardeners in wheelchairs. Packed gravel pathways were added and are designed with a 5’ width to allow room to maneuver wheelchairs or walkers.  A table and chairs are also located in this area for use of all the gardeners for breaks and socializing. In addition to ADA garden addition, the City of Anacoroffertes has installed two reserved handicapped parking spaces adjacent to the accessible gardening area. Plans for these raised beds can be found in the downloadable plans below. Come visit and see how we’re accommodating the needs of our gardening community.

Thanks to the organizations that helped us make this garden addition possible

City of Anacortes “Barrier Busters” Committee - Kirk Kennedy and Carlo Magno (founder of The Spirit of Hope Foundation) for their advice, ADA references, and assistance in making our first accessible garden area a success. Contact via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Washington Conservation Corp – this amazing crew of AmeriCorps volunteers did the heavy lifting for us. The construction of the 29th Street ADA garden addition was chosen as their week-long volunteer service project for 2010, which they do each year in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day. In addition they came several other weekends on their own time to work and to help us finish the job, including hauling yards of soil to fill the boxes.  Their dedication and work ethic was very impressive and we hope to have a continuing partnership with them to support our future gardens.  It’s amazing how much they accomplished in one week – fueled by home-baked muffins and other goodies provided by our garden volunteers.

Kiwanis Sunrisers Club of Anacortes – Not to be outdone by the young guys, some of our local Kiwanis Club volunteers donated a Saturday to help us finish construction of two of the raised beds. They were also happy with the homemade muffins and coffee provided by our volunteers.

Our generous donors and volunteers – Azusa Farm & Gardens, Soroptimists International of Anacortes, Skagit Beat the Heat, and the many individual donors.

Enabling Gardens

The WSU Skagit County Master Gardener program has a wealth of information on “enabling gardens” that is available in their article about local enabling gardens “Enabling Garden/Anacortes ADA.” The WSU Skagit County Master Gardeners have built several designs that can be visited at the WSU Skagit County Discover Garden. For directions and further information visit their Web site.