[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      RECOGNIZING CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN'S BUEHLER ENABLING GARDEN

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                        HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 26, 1999

  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to recognize one of the 
most beautiful places in my District, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and 
to celebrate the Garden's grand opening of the Buehler Enabling Garden.
  The Chicago Botanic Garden is a clear leader in horticultural therapy 
and barrier-free gardening. It is only fitting that in the year that 
our nation celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act, the Chicago Botanic Garden celebrates the grand 
opening of a beautiful and unique 11,000-square-foot garden design to 
encourage lifelong gardening for people of all ages and abilities. Over 
two years of design and construction work culminated in the July 17th 
and 18th grand opening of the Buehler Enabling Garden, a garden that 
will serve to demonstrate an array of techniques that can make 
gardening fully accessible to people with disabilities.
  For millions of individuals, gardening offers relaxation, social 
involvement, exercise, and a sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, 
for people with disabilities, gardening may be cumbersome and 
difficult. The Chicago Botanic Garden's Buehler Enabling Garden, 
however, is not only barrier-free but its plant materials and garden 
structures have been carefully chosen to accommodate people with 
disabilities and older adults. The Enabling Garden is intended to serve 
as a model for people with disabilities, human service professionals 
and landscape architects. In fact, on July 28th, the Chicago Botanic 
Garden will hold a symposium for professionals in the health, human 
service and design fields to learn how to transfer techniques learned 
at the Enabling Garden to their own institutions or their own 
backyards.
  Some of the examples of such gardening techniques are raising flower 
bed and containers, building vertical gardens and hanging baskets on 
pulley systems, and providing adequate seating, shade, water and paving 
within the garden for the disabled. The Buehler Enabling Garden also 
exhibits a wide range of devices, tools and plants that contribute to 
accessibility and sensory appeal for the sight-impaired. Appropriate 
tools used in an enabling garden are generally small and lightweight or 
have large, foam-padded handles that are easy to manipulate. In 
addition, the variety of plants that are best suited for an enabling 
garden could include fragrant or textural plants for those people with 
visual impairments, or dwarf plants in containers or hanging baskets 
that can bring gardening activities within easy reach.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the Chicago Botanic Gardens is sharing 
its expertise in horticultural therapy to make gardening accessible to 
people of all abilities. I invite all Members to join me in recognizing 
the grand opening of the Buehler Enabling Garden at the Chicago Botanic 
Garden.

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