Thanks to RNIB Connect for the original interview.
If you would like to listen to the audio version, you can find it here.
by Julia Smith, STH Practitioner, at Thrive
1. Enjoy the changes in nature
Spring is a great time of year to be in the garden. Gardens wake up after the cold winter with snowdrops and crocuses. Next come lots of yellow flowers with narcissi and daffodils, many of which have a beautiful scent. These are followed by hyacinths and bluebells.
There’s more birdsong around. It’s a lovely time of year to be out, with blackbirds and robins singing away! At Thrive, we can hear a woodpecker tapping away, the leaves rustling in the wind and the smell of the flowers.
2. Think about what you want to grow this year
There is lots to be doing in the garden in spring! Think about what you want to grow – edibles, flowers or a mixture? Are you growing for scent, colour, to attract bees?
If you are growing veg, think about the space you’ve got. If you’ve only got a windowsill, you could grow herbs on a windowsill. If you’ve got a balcony, you could grow a pot of tomatoes or some dwarf French beans. If you’ve got a garden, there’s lots you can grow! So, think about what you like to eat. Also, what’s expensive in shops or what is there a shortage of? You could grow those things.
3. Making seed sowing easier
Some people find sowing seeds tricky. You can buy seed tapes online. They can make it easier to space seeds out as they’re already stuck on. You could also make your own using a length of toilet roll, seeds and glue. You could ask friends, family or grandchildren to help make them for you!
If growing veg, you could choose something that’s easier to plant than small seeds. Onion sets for example, where you just plant tiny little onions. Feel for the pointy end so you know it’s the right way up.
You could go for plug plants, which you can buy in the garden centre. These are baby plants ready to go in the ground so you don’t need to worry about sowing seeds.
Or, you could grow potatoes. Seed potatoes can go straight in the ground.
If you are sowing seeds straight from the packet, you could mix with silver sand first. This makes it easier to spread them over the soil.
4. Flowers can be useful guides
When growing flowers, you could grow perennials that come back each year and give structure.
You could position your flowers so they help guide you around your garden. You can get to know the different parts by feel and smell. It’s probably not a good idea to have spiky plants by the edge of the garden where you’re walking / brushing past.
You might want plants that attract pollinators and the sounds of bees. It depends what you prefer. Some people don’t enjoy the scent of a lot of flowers. Others find it beautiful to smell different scents.
It might help to put plant labels next to your plants. Even if you can’t see what’s written on it, you can feel and know it’s a genuine plant instead of a weed.
5. Have useful tools and equipment at the ready
If you can get down to the ground, it may help to use hand tools instead of long-handled tools. You can more easily feel the surface of the soil. One hand can feel for weeds and the other use a fork to remove them.
Yellow insulating tape is helpful to mark the handles of the tools if you have some sight.
Leave a radio where you’ve been working. If you go off to get something, you can find your way back to where you’ve been by the sound.