Modern needs call for modern materials. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that DesignBoard composite decking featured strongly in this thoughtful wheelchair accessible garden design.

Accessible garden with smooth path making hairpin turn around green tiled raised bed. Pavillion in background.
The Greenfingers Charity Garden, designed and built by Kate Gould, includes easily navigable materials, such as porcelain paving and DesignBoard.

The Greenfingers Charity builds gardens at children’s hospices so that patients and their families can enjoy time together in therapeutically beneficial natural surroundings.

Garden access for wheelchair users

Their garden at Chelsea Flower Show 2019, designed and built by Kate Gould to celebrate their 20th anniversary, focused on accessibility. Often children are taken outdoors in a wheelchair—sometimes even in their bed—so all parts of the garden needed to be easily reached on wheels. This requires a strict eye on planting and space to manoeuvre. And, of course, materials need to aid mobility around the garden. You don't want to catch wheels in awkward crevices, or find a surface so uneven that chairs and tables wobble.

DesignBoard composite decking with multi-coloured tower of bricks by pillar and planted border.
DesignBoard decking was used on the upper storey of the Greenfingers Charity Garden to create a different feel and texture.

The advantages of DesignBoard

It's not just that Designboard decking is great for modern design, it is an ideal material for accessible gardens because its smooth, consistent surface makes manoeuvring wheelchairs and walking aids easy. Kate used it on the upper level, where a vantage point overlooked the curved path and play area below.

DesignBoard composite decking is made up of 50% rice husks, which gives it a natural appearance as well as making it extremely hard-wearing: exactly what’s needed where heavy equipment might be bumped against it. Composite decking is also lighter than stone or porcelain paving, and therefore was a practical selection for the floor of an upper storey.

Kate's thoughtful orientation of the boards enhanced the sense of space by drawing your eye across the balcony. The small and consistent gaps (too small to hamper wheels) between the boards also gave a much airier feel than solid paving would have done.

Planted border separates porcelain paving from fence of DesignBoard composite decking boards.
The DesignBoard composite decking makes a low-maintenance fence that, in the Greenfingers Charity Garden, linked the design of the ground level garden with that of the upper floor.

Versatile composite decking for fencing

The composite deck boards weren’t on the upper storey, though. On the lower level, they were used to clad the wall by the water-powered lift. This provided a textured backdrop for the contrasting shapes of the plants in the bed at their feet. Placed vertically, the boards hinted at a fence but provided a low-maintenance option that wouldn’t rot or warp, while creating a design tie between this and other areas of the garden.

Discover more ideas on the versatility of DesignBoard in Limebok Landscaping's multi-level garden design.

The Future of Greenfingers Charity Garden

Small seating pod on DesignBoard composite decking in wheelchair accessible garden with bench, tall ferns and tiled wall.
The DesignBoard planks provide a comfortable surface to play on, with a natural feel.

We're delighted that elements of the Greenfingers Charity Garden are being moved to Richard House Hospice in East London, and that London Stone is able in this way to contribute to our charity partner’s work.

This was Kate’s tenth year of designing a show garden at Chelsea, and her first on the Main Avenue. Many congratulations to her for winning Silver-Gilt and showing that accessible garden design can be every bit as beautiful as any other.

Find out more about the other materials Kate used in Greenfingers Charity at RHS Chelsea 2019.

Post updated: October 2024