Gardening Club
Welcome to CIB Gardening Club
The Gardening Club is one of many social activity clubs run by the Cardiff Institute for the Blind. Meetings are held each Friday morning between 10.30 – 1.00, primarily at our adapted plot at Rhydypenau Allotments on Lake Road North during the summer months, or else in Shand House when the frosty nights begin to close in around our sensitive petals.
We have a greenhouse and enclosure on the roof of the Institute, but we also have other meeting areas around Shand House including the Bowchier Hall.
We grow vegetables and herbs, and a selection of flowers in our raised beds and ground level plots. We annually develop our gardening methods to encompass multiple disabilities. We arrange summer trips to sensory gardens and flower shows. We run shopping trips to Garden Centres.
We invite professional and experienced gardeners to give talks and run Question Time sessions. There is the opportunity to try out adapted tools and gardening aids. Members can exchange tips and ideas, and most importantly of all, you have the chance to meet up with a group of people who share your interest in the world of gardening.
The Gardening Club belongs to the members and is run by the members. We all help to decide on the choice of plants we grow and the places we go.
So, whether you have a large garden or just enjoy looking after your house plants, you would be most welcome to join us. For more information, please contact Spiro on Cardiff 02920 485414 and we will try to ensure that your garden grows with a hoe, hoe, hoe!
ONE MEMBERS VIEW:
Penny Caston 35 from the Vale of Glamorgan has multiple sclerosis and Impaired vision. She started gardening seven years ago.
When I go out in the morning and start work on my garden I forget about my problems and my disability and instead I become Penny the gardener. Gardening has been such a tonic for me that it has helped me do without the antidepressants I relied on for years. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was 25. A year later I started to lose my sight due to a hereditary condition known as Leber’s optic atrophy. It affected one eye which gave me peripheral vision and made the world look blurred.
I went from being an incredibly active woman who cycled everywhere had a great social life and a fantastic job in fabric technology to someone who spent hours lying on the sofa with little energy to do anything. As the MS started to affect my muscles I needed a stick to get around. I found it very hard and became very depressed then about seven years ago some friends took me along to a gardening project run by The Cardiff Institute for the Blind.
I decided to start to work on my own garden at the side of my house which had previously been like scrub land. As my garden started to grow I felt I had a sense of purpose once more. It helped to restore my self esteem. I felt as if I had got my sight back. I see whites and yellows best, so by planting mainly white and yellow flowers I could see a splash of colour.
It has also helped to keep my muscles toned. MS affects the nerve sheaths and blocks the massages that the brain sends to the muscles and limbs telling them move. Consequently, it is easy to became stiff and for muscles to become wasted. Gardening involves lots of different movements and these help improve the core strength of my muscles. I need to keep them flexible to maintain movement in my joints.
I go into my garden every day. I have raised beds full of flowers and vegetables and Polytunnels for growing more exotic produce such as Hungarian peppers. It calms me and gives me a sense of creativity too.