Help with designing a portable raised garden

I've been asked by our beautiful Virginia Home , very handicapped people, about finding design ideas for raised portable garden beds - ones that might be 20 to 30 inches wide and 5 ft or so long, that could be wheeled into their PT room and back out into the summer sun. They would all be working inside from wheelchairs.
It couldn't be too heavy, and would need to drain - but not necessarily all over the floor.
A troop of Eagle Scouts has offered to build the beds.
I'll be very grateful for any ideas
Pollygardening

Such a wonderful and worthwhile project! What I thought of first was something on the order of the rolling steam tables that are used in cafeterias. They are fairly shallow, but could be fitted with plant trays that have reservoir basins for drainage. But a five foot length might be cumbersome to manuever in and out because of weight. Wooden stands on rollers could hold Earthboxes which will accommodate deep-rooted plants and other reservoir-type planters of smaller size could also be grouped on such rolling benches. The wooden stands should have a standing rim of about two inches to insure that the planters would not slide off if the stands were bumped or jarred when being moved. Yuska

Thank you for your ideas - maybe I can find some rolling tables at Target or Home Depot; I think I've even seen them with metal mesh tops.
Are earthboxes a ready made planting item?
I could possible wire them onto the tops.
Still, the Eagle Scouts want to build such items for us, so what I could really use is a design of sorts.

Yes, Earthboxes are readymade, but they would still require that rolling stands be built for them. I mentioned them and similar products because they are watered from resevoirs beneath the plant roots, a system that should help prevent any flooding of indoor areas. Also, they are fairly deep so that more types of plants can be accommodated. They are a bit heavy, though, even with lightweight potting soil, and thus a five foot rolling table would probably be too hard to manuver. The stands should be built low enough to bring the surface of the planting trays about chest high to the seated gardeners, but high enough from the floor that wheelchairs could edge under them. But that requirement leads to a design problem - how to give the stands enough cross bracing to keep them from wobbling.

Do you have a Master Gardeners chapter? Members there will most likely have design ideas. The Scouts would still be needed for the construction. Do you have a nearby college or vo-tech school with a horticulture dept.? Intriguing assigment for them.

I'm a master gardener; one reason I am the volunteer in charge of the very pretty garden at The Home, but that does not make me able to design something. Your idea of going to VA Tech for help is a good one; I'll try that.
Thanks again

OOPS! I should have guessed your MG status! A couple more thoughts. While chatting with my wheelchair bound neighbor today, I realized that a rolling stand might be stablized at the base after all. The chair's wheels could roll up to the cross brace as long as the foot rests would clear it - then the gardener's knees would be comfortably under the work surface. The axles for the stand's wheels could be set a bit higher on the end pieces so that the bracing would just clear the floor.

For construction material, you could consider PVC Pipe. It is fairly lightweight and strong if the overall unit is not too large. At one time I had instructions for building a plant stand for growlights, which gave me the idea. I wish I knew how to post a sketch of what I'm trying to describe!

One more possible assist - maybe you could ask the folks on the Handyman Forum to look in on this thread and offer their expertise. Yuska

Well, I guess I could fly you in from San Antone!
You've given me some provocative ideas - I'm contacting VA Tech today, and some current MGs, plus the local Westminster Canterbury retirement/nursing community who have new structures including a GH.
Thanks again -

Polly,

Here is a thread that talked about this and there are some great links to sites for disabled and/or wheelchair gardeners. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/573481/

I will be interested in what design you come up with for your project. I was considering a similar project for my Master Gardener community service project but the home and I couldn't come up with the funds to do the job so it was put on the back burner for a while.

Hope this helps you.
Lani

This message was edited Mar 30, 2006 10:08 PM