Accessible Naturalistic Garden, Canterbury, Kent, UK
Accessible naturalistic garden with wide non-slip pathways, large borders and a stepped granite water feature
Accessible naturalistic garden may sound a bit of a contradiction, but a beautiful naturalistic garden can be designed and made fully accessible for wheelchair and non-wheelchair users This design has a central stepped granite water feature to mirror the amazing water ‘feature’ at the Louis Vuitton Gallery in Paris. Small silver flecks of silver in the granite add a sparkle to the crystal clear waters. Deep, abundant borders are restrained in some areas by low hedging , one border in blue and yellow, another white shady border with a generous seating area among raised sleepers under a beautiful Silver Birch tree. A grass border, leads to the existing rose and peony borders. All grass and existing gravel surfaces were removed and new anti-slip, wheelchair accessible pathways wind themselves around the planting – complete immersion within the flowers, shrubs, trees and bulbs.
Low pathway edging and capping conceals LED strip lighting to flood the pathways at night so that they are visible for the wheelchair user without blinding them, and specimen plants are lit by feature lighting. The garden has been published in The Guardian newspaper, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, Shine magazine, Which? Gardening, ProLandscaper magazine and Restoration News.