Hi Wellspring/Charlotte! Lots of good things to think about in your comments... While everyone's experience is going to be different, I generally find the input from someone who deals with the issues themselves everyday particularly useful in highlighting details to think about. It did finally occur to me on the weekend to search on the Accessible Gardening forum here but I didn't find much. 'Introducing' my friend to her garden by walking around it and giving her a running commentary on it is definitely something we'll need to do. She's probably still in the early stages of developing those mapping skills you have so it'll be good practice for her to get very familiar with the garden space. She's still in the process of 'mapping' the inside of the house. She does have the depth perception problem (as do I...) so we're both somewhat used to dealing with that - but have the bruises to show that one can never let down one's guard! My friend just about knocked herself out last week when she mis-judged where the bathroom door was in the middle of the night apparently! (She was still following her old 'map' from the condo when she was half asleep...) I do need to get a better sense of what a garden means for her. Other than scented things, I'm not really sure. I know my garden preferences are largely formed by the gardens I grew up with as a child. I have no idea what gardens in her original part of the world look like and what expectations she might have with respect to things like foliage shapes, flower colors etc. We'll have to explore all that. There may be some unrealistic expectations to deal with too - I remember a girl from Guyana in my university days being baffled by the fact that tomatoes had to be planted again each year! And there's lots of new language issues for us to work out together I'm sure. The garden that's at the house now largely follows the foundation and the fence line. The path to the front door has garden beds on both sides. The path itself worries me. It's narrow at the driveway end - made with ~2' paving stones - and there's a 4-6" drop to the driveway at the end. At the front door end, the path widens to a landing area made with 3-4' patio stones - which are not level! There are 2 steps to the front door and then a step up into the front hall. The steps to the door are also not level and there is no handrail to provide support. It strikes me as dangerous - but is it something that she will just learn to navigate easily/safely from habit or should they be making a new entrance a priority? Is a trench edge also a hazard - i.e. if you step into it, it's easy to fall. (That's one of the reasons I spent a good part of last summer and fall replacing all my trench edging with brick... I was thinking that would be a good idea for her for areas she's likely to be walking frequently...?) Overhead obstacles are, I think, a big future issue at my friend's house. In this TINY backyard, the previous owner planted 3 (!!) pine trees of some sort. At the moment they're still only about 4' tall but in a few years they will totally eat up the yard! I think they should get rid of them now before they become an issue, but I sense it's going to be hard to convince a pair of non-gardeners to cut down these seemingly small green things! The previous owners planted quite a few roses up against the house. I've been wondering if they're likely to be an issue at all. I've seen my friend reach out her hand to the house wall for support, fairly near the roses. How often do do entangle yourself in rose thorns?! Should the roses be moved to places where she is unlikely to accidentally reach into or fall against them? I like the idea of brightly colored pots at the end of a bench that is easily reached. We haven't actually ventured out to the backyard yet so I don't have a very good sense of the space out there yet. From indoors, it looks a bit sloped and uneven and greatly in need of a level place for sitting etc. We'll probably have to wait another 6 weeks or so to really check things out. Probably some people are thinking this discussion doesn't belong here. I don't know how to switch the discussion to e-mail... But, since designing for accessibility is an issue these days in many situations, I thought this discussion might provide some insights into practical aspects from a 'user' perspective :-) There are certainly lots of well-meaning 'accessible' alterations out there that drive me nuts - and I'm sure you find the same sort of thing. As much as possible, I want to avoid inadvertently causing problems for my friend so I value your perspective on all this. Woody/Susan

sabradees- Just interested to know what your final solution was re: paths / rails. I'm a totally blind gardener and I've been doing some searches just to see if there are any other blind gardeners out there. Built my own garden paths in two lg beds this past spring. Much smaller scale than what you are doing, but I've been very pleased with the results. I was following sq foot gardening principles, which suggests 3' wide paths between gardening areas. This concept has helped me create smaller garden beds, some of them irregular in shape, which I can access from any side. What did I use? Newspaper under cedar chips. Disadvantage has already been mentioned ... I'll have to renovate these paths every 2 or 3 years. Enchanted Places has it exactly right. Scent, strategic use of a "landmark" plant or structure (like a seat), are wonderful ways to help orientation. I suspect that your DH can get around well using available clues in the landscape, so the special issues are more for your Mom. Here's one idea that I don't think was covered: Use rails on both sides of the path. Sometimes, when my blood sugar dips very low, I can get pretty confused. My mobility is v good; I average 2 to 3 miles per day with a v speedy Guide Dog, go hiking, etc. But, when the blood sugar takes an unexpected dive, I can get "lost" in my own house! Somehow ... if I can find one wall and then another immediately opposit, it triggers "hallway" in my fuzzy mind, and I can find my way to the fridge and the orange juice! Same thing happens when I'm gardening sometimes (somehow always when I forget to put the juice box in my pocket). I've been known to get "lost" in a relatively small patch of grass because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where in the heck the front sidewalk disappeared to ... it was right here a minute ago. I've been to some state / national parks that double rail some or all of their walking paths, and its very helpful. Might be cost prohibitive, but it might help to use them in certain areas. Thank you for providing these things for your loved ones. I, too, am fortunate in having a life-partner who helps me in so many ways. God bless- BA

Thank yous to all! I've been spending time off and on all day researching hostas ... Thank you, Thisismelissa! We got the blizzard today, our slightly toned-down Illinois version, but it's kept the world inside and church was canceled. So I went to the Hosta Library site. I can't see pics, so have to glean what I can from verbal descriptions. When I'm really hot on a particular plant, I'll try to look it up in multiple places. Some catalogs just don't really know what they're talking about. The written descriptions at the HL sound a little like gibberish with my voice synthesized computer, but I can get some idea about size, color, form, rugosity, etc. Many of you guys collect 100's of hostas. Me, I love them in a little different way, I suppose. Even my relatively tiny collection gives some evidence of the variation in hostas, but each is, nonetheless, clearly a hosta. A small hosta was the first plant I id'ed with just a few clues. A previous owner had 3 or 4 varieties -- one small heart shaped guy that was spreading happily all over a front bed, a white edged small to med, and the fragrant ones. I couldn't see leaf colors, but could tell that these plants that shot up flowers on stick-like stems were all cousins. I remember discovering an amateur breeder in my church at the time. He told me about "plantaginea", taught me the term "scapes", and took me on a tour of his drip-irrigated hosta collection. So I felt minis up to the giants ... Fun! But composing a bed is very hard for me . Because I love hostas, I will always use them, but I've found out the hard way that I need the ones I choose to be distinct in form and/or size. Otherwise ... well? So, I guess I was asking both about the color combination ... which I've played with before. and I'm trying to figure out a showy, sun-tolerant specimen hosta. Since I don't currently have any "large" hostas I guess I thought that might be an obvious distinction. Vase or upright form would be distinct, too, as I gave my gorgeous 'Krossa Regal' to a special friend who admired it. It was a 3 year old in a rather large pot ... heavy sucker and happy friend. Melissa- Guacamole will definitely stay put. Plantaginea may need to be shifted, but he got reduced last year, so isn't quite the monster he'd been. I mean some of him got moved to another place that I wanted solid green ... Love him though ... He's been divided before and comes back gangbusters. I think of him as northern gardenia ... Edie- That's been a want list plant for several years. Vetivert8-Yep, the Dahlia's have a number of dark-leaved beauties. Got to go to bed ... I've got 'Golden Sculpture' in my head, but, man, that would be one honking big thing some day. Should I live dangerously? Hmmm ...

buckstarchaser, my particular screen reader is Window Eyes by GW Micro, which uses an audio voice to relay information to me regarding what's on the screen (I'm not an accomplished braille reader beyond knowing and sometimes using the very basic alphabet). And when programmers don't label their graphics with text, the screen reader can't identify them. You can learn a bit more about that at this link. Due to my current version becoming what I consider more complicated and less reliable (perhaps because I haven't kept up with the changes in technology), I recently bought a MacBook because I got an iPhone 4S last year and was amazed by how accessible it is. So I'm still in the process of learning how to navigate the net with Apple's VoiceOver technology. And the only "tactile" output I'm aware of when it comes to screen readers is the use of a braille display,, which optionally translates the text I hear to braille. Hope that answers your question and thanks for expressing an interest. :) BB in FL