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Gardening with sight loss

Eight tips on gardening with sight loss from the Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Anna Tylor and Colin Brown

Gardens are for everyone and provide so many benefits. There are lots of ways those with sight loss can adapt and experience the positive impacts that gardening can offer.

According to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), more than two million people in the UK are living with sight loss, with 340,000 people being registered blind or partially sighted. Each and every person living with sight loss is affected differently, and will find their own ways of gardening that suits their needs.

No two people with sight loss are the same: we are all individuals with different requirements. Some people will have gardened with full sight and some with limited or no sight, and they will bring that experience to their gardening

Anna Tylor, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Chair of Trustees

If you are just starting out on your gardening journey with limited sight, Anna Tylor, the RNIB’s Chair of Trustees and Colin Brown, member of an RNIB Facebook group that brings together gardeners with sight loss, have shared their top tips to help you get the most out of your experience.

1) Make safety a priority

Keeping safe in your garden is the most important thing. Ensure there is plenty of space to move around and aim to develop a deep knowledge and understanding of your outdoor space. There shouldn’t be too many levels and avoid a rockery, it isn’t practical – it’s a trip hazard and you don’t want to end up falling flat on your face.

Anna Tylor was born with sight loss, and has gone from being partially sighted to severely sight impaired. “In my garden, I have three steps leading from my patio to the grass and I have sprayed a pink dot on the edge of each one. I have trouble seeing the difference in surface when coming down them, so this helps me to know where they are when I’m making my way down.”

An assortment of gardening tools

Colin Brown, a keen gardener based in Devon, was diagnosed with a non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy around 14 years ago, which causes a loss of blood flow to the optic nerve.

I have taught myself to focus on what I can do, rather than what I can’t do

Colin Brown, member of an RNIB Facebook group that brings together gardeners with sight loss

His loss of sight has made it difficult for him to identify plants and find his gardening tools. Colin recommended: “Keep your garden tools clean and paint them a strong colour to make them stand out, or cover them in hazard tape for a glimpse of colour. It’s also worth keeping a seat nearby just in case you are thrown off balance.”

2) Plant what interests you

Keep it simple and straightforward; gardening should be a joy, not a chore. There is always work to do in the garden, of course, but it should be a pleasure so don’t overcomplicate it. Play it safe to start with and grow the things that interest you.

“My garden is very full now but it wasn’t like that when I started out. It was only as I had

established plants and really begun to know where everything was in the garden, that I got bolder, and started stuffing things in to see what happens. Some people like to plant things that are structured whereas others prefer the wispy cottage style – I have a combination of the two,” explained Anna.

For Colin, any green plant is a green plant, and he adjusts his gardening with this in mind. “I mainly work with raised beds and keep a reference book and magnifying glass close by, so that I can identify plants more easily.”

3) Incorporate bright contrasting colours

© Rahil Ahmad
A visitor touching the grasses in the Seeing Through the Senses Long Border
© Rahil Ahmad
Anna Tylor admiring the planting of the Seeing Through the Senses Long Border
Earning a Gold medal at this year’s RHS Tatton Park the Seeing Through the Senses Long Border, designed by Natasha Lloyd and Emma-Jayne Blair and sponsored by the RNIB, is a great example of contrasting colours within a garden. It’s not too busy with lots to feast the eyes and the hands on.

Anna doesn’t have three-dimensional vision nor any light filters in her eyes and often finds being in bright light particularly difficult, especially as a gardener.

I have a colourful garden, so if I were designing a garden for someone with sight loss, it would have to include good colour contrast, and don’t make it too crowded, we want to be able to see the different plants

Anna Tylor, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Chair of Trustees

4) Use your hands and dig in

A gardener putting their hands in soil

Don’t be afraid to stick your hands in the ground and get them dirty. “I’m very tactile in my gardening,” said Anna. “Last year I had breast cancer and now I have lymphedema in my left arm, which makes me prone to infection, so I garden with a glove on that hand.

“I can’t just use a surgical glove I have got to use a proper gardening glove, that is the only way to stop me from scratching my hands. I’m adjusting to that now, but people do adjust.”

5) Appeal to your senses

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A visitor stops to smell the lavender in the Seeing Through the Senses Long Border
© Rahil Ahmad
Touching the water feature at the centre of the Seeing Through the Senses Long Border
Don’t be afraid to touch your garden; play with leaves and run your fingers through the grasses – being mindful of any bees. “I like grasses as well because on a cool evening you can hear plants moving,” said Anna.

“People often talk about sensory gardens; human beings get so much from the senses whether you’re sighted or not sighted.”

© Rahil Ahmad
Anna Tylor infront of the Seeing Through the Senses Long Border at the 2023 RHS Tatton Park

Plant something that it’s easy to stick your nose in when it grows. I like old-fashioned smells like philadelphus, which smells particularly wonderful, and daphne bushes

Anna Tylor, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Chair of Trustees

“Maximise your other senses through your gardening, it will make it far more enjoyable,” Colin recommended. “Spend an afternoon in the garden centre – walk around and take notice of the plants whose fragrances stand out the most to you.”

6) Grow something you can eat

Growing veg using homemade biodegradable pots
You will never eat food that tastes as good as something you have grown yourself; food from the supermarket just doesn’t compare. Tomatoes in particular are easy to grow in abundance; you can grow them in pots or in the ground.

I grow tiny tomatoes from seeds, as well as black krim and pomodoro – they are tough as old boots

Anna Tylor, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Chair of Trustees

Alternatively, if all you have is a windowsill, grow herbs, basil, thyme or oregano because it’s really fulfilling to grow things that you can cook with. Even if it’s just one ingredient, it will give you enormous satisfaction to think that you are eating something you’ve grown.

“I’m especially pleased with my single grape plant,

growing on a pergola, it’s got 30 or 40 kilos of grapes on it, all coming into fruition. I’ve started giving the grapes away; anyone who comes to my garden is given a pair of secateurs and told to help themselves, which is the most satisfying thing in the world,” said Anna.

“If you have the space for a grape vine, it provides shade, so it’s brilliant for those who don’t like too much sun, and it’s practically maintenance free.”

© Colin Brown
Colin grows his own fruit and veg
© Colin Brown
Colin holding his home-grown grapes

As an allotment holder, Colin likes to grow his own fruit and vegetables. “I was like a proud father with a new baby when it came to my home-grown tomatoes this year. I’ve also tried my hand at sweetcorn, peppers, grapes, and have even been sharing my rhubarb with my neighbours living in the same cul-de-sac.”

7) Create a map of your garden

Bamboo growing in a garden

It’s not always possible to know what you have planted so keep a map of your garden, to help you when you’ve put new plants in. “I have a terrible habit of planting something and when it grows and changes, ripping it out thinking it’s an invasive invader,” said Anna.

If you have planted something small that tends to grow to be quite big like sweet peas, then garden canes can be really useful.

I grow bamboo and use it to make garden canes, and then spray paint or tie things to them to mark out where new plants are

Anna Tylor, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Chair of Trustees

8) Accept that it’s a learning process

It is a garden, it will go wrong, you will get slugs and snails, or your neighbour’s cat will come and dig it up – don’t worry about it and just accept it. “Don’t stress when you let something die, you can replace it, it’s not the end of the world. There are no fixed rules in gardening; you can do whatever you like,” said Anna.

The garden never stays the same from one week to the next, it’s always changing and there is always something new to learn

Anna Tylor, Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Chair of Trustees

For more information, see the RNIB’s advice for gardening with sight loss.

About the author - Charlotte Olver

Charlotte is a digital content editor with a focus on community and accessibility gardening.

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