Category: Accessibility

RIGC Bench Project: Update Our Garden Furniture 2017

9/6/2017

Examples of high quality teak benches in "Les Jardins Suspendus, Le Havre, France"

The RIGC Board works with members to upgrade and improve our gardens. One way to do this is to repair and replace aging garden furniture in common areas as well as place additional benches around our perimeter landscape beds. During this 2017 season, we have been the fortunate recipients of some professional grade teak benches. We are working with ADA requirements per Human Rights Commission recommendations as we want our pathways and our garden site to be accessible to all.

The plan is to provide a high quality bench at the end of each pathway for visitors and members to relax and enjoy the gardens, without any temptation or need to enter member plots. These are the same benches found in botanical gardens and they are practical, long lasting and enhance the beauty of our gardens. Teak is superior for outdoor purposes and can last for many, many years with no special treatment other than washing it down once or twice a year. This wood will age to a beautiful, silvery gray color.

Board members have spent considerable time working with online and community resources that provide very low cost or sometimes even "free for pick up" opportunities for new and used professional grade garden benches and common area tables. The process takes time, and can bring surprises and also disappointments. For example, you may find a new, barely used pair of benches or you may drive out of the city to an estate sale, only to discover that the benches are not in good shape. However, we have acquired six beautiful benches already and are working to find several more. The Landscape Committee is guiding this project and chair, Johan Marfey, prepared the image below that shows the plan and progress as of September 1st.

RIGC is a not for profit 501(c)(3) organization that can accept donations. If you are interested in donating any amount towards this project, please contact the secretary at [email protected].

What is the most recent Accessible Pathways News?

6/5/2017

Timeline Update:
This four year project is almost completed! We hope to finish in only three years thanks to last year's grant from CCNYC! This year's gravel pathway work began as early as possible in April. We have almost distributed all of this gravel and will need one more small load to complete the entire garden!

We have involved many gardeners and many teens who need community service for their high school programs. Most recently we had three college freshman return to help out for the third year in a row. The work is backbreaking and heavy duty, but also rewarding and some gardeners use it as their cardio and core work replacement. Stay tuned for our celebration!

Pathway Maintenance Advice:

Step on and turn your foot on top of small weeds to loosen and then sweep or pick them up. Keep the path in front of your garden weed-free!
When you weed, use a bucket, basket, or wheel barrow to catch the organic materials (instead of dropping them in the path as some of us used to do.) This saves your back from clean up and helps you take it all to new materials in the composting area.
If you bring in dirt or plants or heavy work, cover the path with an open bag, newspaper, or tarp. This will make for quicker clean up and save the path from damage.

Important reminder:
The Human Rights Commission has visited and studied our garden. They have made recommendations for how we can make our site more accessible. Please remember to keep ALL items out of the pathways when you are not working in your garden. Pick up any boards or items that are related to ongoing projects. Roll up the hoses neatly as you do and let us know if you would like a hose stand. For accessibility purposes and for safety and insurance, we must keep all pathways open by thirty six inches and clear of any steps, chairs, or personal property.

CCNY Grant - Accessible Pathways 2016

12/2/2016

Another amazing work day with high school students at the Roosevelt Island Garden Club on Saturday, November 5, 2016. 9th and 10th grade students as well as one college age neighbor joined current garden members to finish off our Accessible Pathways Project for this 2016 season. Three of our newest volunteers are Roosevelt Island residents.

This year we received a grant from CCNYC and are continuing to re-work all pathways in the garden in order to try to make the space completely accessible for manual wheelchairs and all others who benefit from walking support.

This is 3-4 year project involves hard work of removing old gravel, laying landscape cloth, and transporting and laying in new trail mix gravel. UNIS students who have now graduated were instrumental in helping with the very beginning year of this project and we are so happy to see new interest with a new group.

We have now renovated over 500 feet of pathways of about 4 feet in width equaling more than 2000 square feet. We have finished approximately two thirds of the total garden path area.

New Hose Stands - Thanks to CCNYC Grant 2016

10/30/2016

You may be one of the lucky gardeners who opted in to receive a new hose stand. These stands were purchased as part of our Accessible Pathways Project with funds from our 2016 Grant from CCNYC and installed by teams of gardeners in late summer and early fall.

We hope to continue as they help us make our pathways completely accessible and keep our garden beautiful and orderly as well! If you are interested, please email [email protected]. Plans include continuation of this project next season as funds allow.

Garden History Spotlight: Marc Atkins

8/5/2016

Marc Atkins was a young adult, turning 18 on Roosevelt Island in 1992. Persons with disabilities were regularly part of his life. His pediatrician, Dr. Sudzin was learning to live after a stroke and another friend, Sam Brown, who was wheelchair bound, had often taken him fishing when he was younger. Marc noticed that hospitals like Goldwater were using gardening for rehabilitation.

As he approached his Eagle Scout project, Marc was working with Scoutmasters like John Dougherty and Geoff Kerr who are still garden members today. He was also learning blueprints and drafting in classes at Brooklyn Tech High School. And the Roosevelt Island Garden Club had just moved to a new location at Octagon Park.

After looking at the new space that was just flat earth lined by small trees, Marc came up with an idea to build raised planters. So he made a proposal to the RIGC Board for the creation of garden spaces for persons with disabilities, now known as H plots from the former term « handicapped. »

When Marc went to the Rusk Institute to do research, he was asked to spend an afternoon in a wheelchair to see first hand what it is like to have some movement restrictions. He realized that he would need varied heights for the beds for some tall folks and some shorter folks. He wanted to create spaces that could be approached like a desk and originally imagined two gardeners sharing each H plot bed.

The design was drawn up and approved. The space would need to be bulldozed and then leveled in order to create steps in increments and different heights. Construction took a month or more and Mark’s mom, Marilyn Atkins recalls a day or two when she had to call his school to excuse him as he waited for the contractor with the bulldozer and the contractor for the cement and drainage pipes. Marc remembers using cinder blocks to build the beds and teaching younger scouts to spread the cement mix over them.

« Then Dr. Sudzin was one of the first gardeners to take an H plot. » Marc recalled with satisfaction. Diversity of many sorts is one of the best parts of Roosevelt Island. Remembering this story reminds one of all the individual and group volunteer hours that have been and still are spent creating and maintaining our beautiful garden spaces.

Marc Atkins, LMT is still making people’s lives better today as he does massage therapy and energy work and can be contacted at [email protected].

2016 Neighborhood Grant Winners from CCNYC

6/11/2016

Thanks to so much support and so many hard hours of work from RIGC gardeners last year, we have a grant! We applied for a Citizens Committee Neighborhood Grant to help us along on our multi-year Accessible Garden Pathways Project. RIGC has just received a 2016 Neighborhood Grant for $2700. This grant will allow us to move ahead and make at least two years worth of progress in one year. Thanks to all who brought snacks, lifted wheelbarrows, shoveled gravel, weeded new paths, raked, watered, and cheered the workers along! We wrote about all your participation in so many ways and they listened. We also appreciate RIOC's cooperation and help as we have had to work with gravel in and gravel out to get this project under way.

We are working to make all of our pathways accessible for EVERYONE. Please come help or bring snacks. We will now be working again on Sunday, June 12th in a section B pathway. Check the website calendar for updates. If you see any of our teen helpers, be sure to thank them again for their willing heavy lifting!

When you are out at the gardens, look for our new grant sign from CCNYC alongside our old sign from 1988!

Saturday June 4th we laid one of the longest paths in the garden and then tried to tackle the prep of another path in the heat: Board Members, Associates, and Teen helpers at the end of a four hour work session.

Beverly and four of our five long-term teen helpers, now recent graduates of UNIS and Stuyvesant.

Our newest path and one of our longest paths...thanks to the grant.

Volunteers of all ages.