Ian Armour Makes His (Garden) Bed

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Audio

Episode Synopsis

Holly and Joe speak via the Internet with Ian Armour, founder of Green Circle Gardens. Ian shares how his company developed accessible raised garden beds inspired by his grandmother's experience in a care home. The innovative design features a wheelchair recess and a 42-gallon water reservoir, making gardening possible for people with mobility challenges and in arid environments. While initially designed for seniors, the gardens are now used in schools, hospitals, and healing gardens. The beds are particularly effective for growing seedlings and above-ground plants, and Ian shares a preview of some new products in development for other applications. Ian emphasizes how the gardens promote socialization, education, and well-being, particularly in care facilities where residents may feel isolated. The circular arrangement of multiple beds creates a protective barrier, beneficial for users with dementia or Alzheimer's, while enabling both standing and seated individuals to garden together.

Links Mentioned

• Green Circle Gardens Website
• FollowGreen Circle Gardens on Facebook
• Follow Green Circle Gardens on Instagram

Transcript

HOLLY
Joe, do you know what happened to Killarney many years ago?

JOE
No, but I'm guessing you're going to tell me.

HOLLY
Sorry, Joe, but it's way "Too‐Ra‐Loo‐Ra‐Loo‐Ral".

JOE
Say that again three times fast.

HOLLY
You're evil. I barely got it out the first time.

JOE
So why are you quoting an Irish lullaby popularized by Bing Crosby?

HOLLY
Because it's green circle garden bedtime. From web.isod.es, this is GrowAbility, a digital documentary at the intersection of urban agriculture, food security, and community.

JOE
On this episode, we speak with Ian Armour of, and Holly kind of spoiled this part, Green Circle Gardens.

HOLLY
I love this. Ian's company makes garden beds accessible to virtually everyone.

JOE
Yup. Whether it's school, hospitals, retirement homes, or anywhere people gather, Ian has dedicated his career to offering beautiful and functional outdoor spaces that everyone can enjoy regardless of physical ability.

HOLLY
And we do have a few of these beds at The PATCH, don't we?

JOE
Sure do. And while we have some experience with them in our own work, I'm very curious about how and why Ian applied his industrial product design background to raised garden beds.

HOLLY
Obviously, we use them for growing food as a part of our urban agriculture mission, but I want to know, too, if that was a part of Ian's original thinking, or was that something unexpected?

JOE
I have a funny feeling Ian had that in mind when he designed these beds. But Holly, do you want to know a cool fact about this interview?

HOLLY
I feel like if I say no, this episode's going to take an awkward turn, so yes, sure.

JOE
This is going to be our very first transcontinental interview.

HOLLY
Okay, yeah, it was worth the tease up.

JOE
I'm just sad you doubted me.

HOLLY
Well, before Ian joins us from an undisclosed location in Europe, if this podcast doesn't lull you into a state of deep slumber, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

JOE
And if you're digging our vibe on YouTube, please like and subscribe.

HOLLY
Pop over to growabilitypod.com to sign up for our free Fresh and Nutritious newsletter for the best stories and ideas from GrowAbility and our guests.

JOE
Feel free to email us at hosts at growabilitypod.com anytime, day or night.

HOLLY
Send us ideas, questions or guest suggestions for the future. Like our interview with Ian proves, we do go anywhere.

JOE
And there's no Z's in Tech Alliance of Southwestern Ontario. Thanks to the crew here for letting us film these interviews in this beautiful location.

HOLLY
And now let's get into a garden bed with Ian Armor.

JOE
That looked better on paper, didn't it?

HOLLY
Definitely did.

JOE
Hi Ian, where do we find you today?

IAN
Well, right now I'm in Madrid in Spain. And it's because my mother is Spanish and my dad is Scottish. And my wife is Spanish as well, so I'm living in Madrid at the moment.

JOE
Lovely. Thank you so much.

HOLLY
That's incredible. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode, Ian. Let's start at the beginning. What is the mission of Green Circle Garden, Inc.? And how did the company get started?

IAN
Okay, well, it all started at university. I studied creative product design. And in one of the projects, we were briefed to design a leisure product for over 60s. So we started designing a few concepts. And my grandmother at the time was in a care home in England. And she said what she missed most was a garden. And I sort of- the spark clicked because at that time, a product for leisure over 60s, where I said let's go into gardening and design an accessible garden. So we started designing a bit on that. And I designed a concept in wood, made out of wood. And then since then, obviously, the product has evolved quite a bit since then.

JOE
Ian, can you describe what a Green Circle accessible garden looks like for our viewers and our listeners?

IAN
Okay, well, I'd say it's a 3D model. So it's been designed in CAD. And I would say it's an elevated garden bed. So a very high raised garden bed with a wheelchair recess. So it's got a lot of space. So somebody in a wheelchair can get tucked in nicely up to touch their stomachs so they can actually get involved in gardening because most gardens don't allow your legs and your feet to sort of go into the garden. There's usually a bit of trouble with accessibility there.

JOE
It seems like you decided to address accessibility as a question of design. How did that approach come about?

IAN
I think it was just a coincidence where at that time, during university, during that project, we could have designed anything. Basically, as one of my grandmothers in a care home at the time, I started looking at gardens and as a product designer and also studying 3D modeling because that was part of the course, I saw that design plays an important role, for example, in the accessible garden due to the facts of the material used. So if you make an accessible garden out of wood, what you'll notice is it's very difficult to get an ergonomic design that's comfortable and allows for somebody to sit in a wheelchair in the garden and then have enough soil depth to actually plant plants. And that's where I think the design comes in, where I designed it in fiberglass rather than wood. The first concept was done in fiberglass so I could create a very ergonomic shape which would allow a user, so there would be less of a compromise between accessibility comforts and then the functionality of the garden.

HOLLY
And have you expanded that target audience to include anyone else?

IAN
At the moment, we've only got one product which is the Green Circle Garden. We are speaking to our clients, to the end users, to see how they're using the garden and what other products could be made which we do have two products in the pipeline which will be coming out.

JOE
Is it too soon to talk about them?

IAN
Yes, I think so. I think it's a little bit too soon just to get the registered design and everything on.

JOE
Fair enough. How, in your opinion, is gardening linked to the improvement of mental health for seniors, for instance, living in care homes?

IAN
I think it's very important. I've been to these care homes and residences, I don't want to speak badly of them, but I think there's plenty to do. I think lots of people are in their rooms. They're not getting outside. It's actually quite sad in a way. And I think that gardening is very important. My grandmother, she loved horticulture her whole life. She always had a very nice looked after garden. And I think it brings, apart from bringing sort of well-being and being in a nice place to relax, to read a book, I think it's also good to sort of grow your own food, even if it's just herbs. If you grow parsley or some tomatoes, they'd always taste nicer when you grow them. I think it also improves appetite because in care homes, lots of people lose their appetite. So even if they grow some rosemary, a few herbs and things, when they put that on their plate, it gives a sense of appetite and it's something that they've grown.

HOLLY
100%. But what kinds of food do you think you've noticed that people grow the most of when they're in homes using these?

IAN
Using these. Well, I think probably strawberries is definitely amazing. I mean, the strawberries, I've been growing strawberries and I've got a demonstration one at home, which I've been growing strawberries and they're all year round. I mean, I don't actually do anything to them. I just let every year they come out and pick them. I think there's lots of other things. For example, here we're coming onto this other product that I was designing, which is about growing food. Basically, to grow root vegetables, you need at least 25 inches of soil depth. Our green circle garden at the moment has 10 inches. So as root vegetables grow, I wouldn't recommend those, but everything that grows above soil grows very well because it's also got a 42 gallon water reservoir at the bottom. So plants that do have large root systems will find their way into that water reservoir and let's say grow out of proportion a little bit and then obviously need to be transplanted. So I think the way that I see that people use Green Circle Garden the most at the moment is for growing seedlings. So they grow seedlings, they don't need any maintenance whatsoever, or you take a cutting from any plant, you just stick into the soil, it'll grow. And then once the plant gets to an average size, the idea is to transplant that into a larger pot or into the garden, into the ground, in the garden. So you can actually grow lots of little flowers, plants, vegetables, and then once they're strong enough and got large root systems, they can be transplanted out into the garden.

HOLLY
And do you find that they are fully functional indoors as well as outdoors?

IAN
Yes, we do have a few clients who have indoors, but you do need to have artificial lighting. So you need to have a full spectrum LED light, for example, and that will do. I mean, as I said, there's a large water reservoir at the bottom, so there's no troubles of leaking or having to water them that much because they can go on for months without watering.

HOLLY
Yeah, we actually have a few in our indoor space right now that we're experimenting with indoor growing.

IAN
Do you have them indoors?  You do.

HOLLY
Yes, yes. And we have a trellis going over each and we've hung lights on them, just to kind of substitute for the lack of light. But yeah, it's going pretty interestingly. We've grown some food, a lot of edible flowers, just because it's so beautiful, but it is really wonderfully accessible for our volunteer nights because we do have a few participants in wheelchairs. And it helps a lot, actually help them get more involved. And yeah, even when there's other barriers, they can kind of get their hands dirty still, which is exactly what we want. But yeah.

IAN
That sounds great. It would be nice to see them.

HOLLY
Yeah, maybe we should take some pictures. We'll send it over for sure. It's really interesting.

IAN
Coming on to my other products. Well, I can talk a little bit about them. But basically, yes, this would be say for seedlings with maximum comforts because there is a compromise. You can't have a huge amount of soil and have wheelchair access. It's quite difficult to play around with those measurements. Right. So the next product is going to be, let's say, a deeper soil garden. So for root vegetables.

HOLLY
So cool. Oh, that's awesome.

IAN
So I'm going to try and see. So people grow the seedlings, then from the seedlings, they can either go to the larger pots or to a third product, which is going to be something also quite similar. But the idea is that the idea is to grow seed from seed, grow seedlings with very little maintenance. And then from there, they go into the garden.

HOLLY
Okay, wonderful.

IAN
I mean, there's no need to actually buy that many plants, because when you when you got one plant, you take a cutting and you can make many more plants. So it's very nice. It's very nice for, for example, new construction projects where the garden, let's say, isn't planted out properly. Well, this gives the residents a way of planting their own plants and then designing the garden, in a sense, so they can sort of put flowers in certain areas and make the garden nicer.

HOLLY
Yeah, that's a really good idea. Actually, it's a nice space to just kind of start it off. That's not too protected or high maintenance. You kind of just let it go and then dig them out again. That's a really good idea. Yeah, I've not thought of like to use it for that. So I think that we may be experimenting a little bit. Was it a part of, was it part of your intent to link this product to food security and access to healthy foods?

IAN
No, no, not to be honest. I mean, in Spain, people eat quite healthy. I mean, gardens in general, in Spain, for example, there's not that much interest for it because everything grows so easily. I mean, in England, for example, it's completely the opposite. In England, everybody's, you have to prune at the right time, fertilizing the soil, looking after the garden. It's something that people do a lot more in that culture. And I think the American markets and Canadians, I think as well have, are closer to the English in that sense of keeping up the gardens.

HOLLY
I agree. Yeah.

JOE
I have sort of a design question for you, Ian.

IAN
Yes.

JOE
Do you think that we can create through innovative design, a world where food is accessible to all people?

IAN
Yes. I think that growing food is not a difficult thing. I mean, it does require space and it does require some planning. But if you do get the planning right, I mean, the plants come out. I'm sure you're very experienced planting different sorts of vegetables and things, and it's all got to do with soil preparation and all these things. And then once it gets going, it's going. That's my idea. I think that people should grow more because there's lots of things that can be grown. Even in your own, bean sprouts and things as well. I mean, I've seen people grow in their own kitchen. You can grow lots of different seeds which are used for salads and things. So I think that's a good place to start if there's no space in a city setting.

HOLLY
Definitely. Do the hospitals and long -term care facilities who use your product serve the food they grow in those gardens?

IAN
In hospitals, I think there's a lot of bureaucracy as well on whether they can eat certain things. For example, I'm not sure if they would allow patients to go and eat a nasturtium, for example, from the garden. Even if it is edible, they do have their sort of strict laws in place. But in hospitals, we do have gardens in hospitals and they're called healing gardens. And that's where the patients, when they're recuperating, they'll go down to the garden and they can read a book there and just be in a nicer setting than being in a room. They call it healing gardens. It's new to me, but that's what it's called.

HOLLY
Yeah, we actually have one of those at our Cavendish farm as well. I can tell it could be very, very useful having a system like that, like yours, at a hospital because of all the wheelchair access. As people are recovering, it's a beautiful thing to incorporate into the hospital.

JOE
So a question. We've talked about the healing components of the garden, but there's also a huge educational component to the Green Circle Gardens. You sell these to schools?

IAN
Yes. I think education is important. Yes, biology. I mean, we all remember when we learned about pollination and root systems and how plants work and everything. It's very important to be able to see that up close, especially for somebody who's in a wheelchair. Now you can actually go and you can feel, you can smell and interact with the flowers at a much closer level and actually see the stigma, the pollen, and all those things that go with it. So I think biology is important and being able to see how seeds grow and how seeds are made from a close distance is important in education.

JOE
And now do you see the secondary value in it creating inclusivity for students?

IAN
Yes. The garden is not only for wheelchairs, but it's also good for those who can't bend down. And the idea of the Green Circle Garden, why it's called a Green Circle Garden, is because 10 of them or 9 of them create a circle with a barrier. And the idea behind that is for inclusivity, so the standing and seated people can garden together, but also to barrier to the outside world, which is the, that's the technical phrase that the American Horticultural Therapy Association uses, which is for those with dementia or Alzheimer's that they feel more comfortable when they're protected by a barrier. That's how I took the idea of having that sort of circle, that enclosure, creates an enclosure of sort of a barrier that supposedly creates a sense of safety for the users.

HOLLY
That's really beautiful. I didn't realize that. Interesting.

IAN
There's a lot of little things you read and then you put the product together.

HOLLY
Yeah. Do you think it's important, just going back to your comment about people using wheelchairs and also people who are standing, interacting together at the same garden, how do you think that that's important for both, for many individuals to be accessing the garden at once like that?

IAN
Well, it's socializing, isn't it? I mean, everybody's doing their own little thing, helping out. Everybody cracks a joke or something. I think it's a nice way to have a social, so people can socialize. As I said, lots of these people are sometimes in their rooms, they don't leave. And it's quite sad. So any opportunity for them to go out into the sun and have a little talk and do some gardening, I think is a good thing for them.

HOLLY
Definitely. Why do you think, just to spin off of that, why do you think it's important for different generations to be gardening together as well?

IAN
I think the answer is the same to the last one. I think to build ties, to socialize, to make friends.

JOE
Holly's mentioned our urban farm, which we call The PATCH because-

IAN
It looks great.

JOE
Thank you. And that's what it is. It's a patch. It's a patch. It's a green space. It's in an urban context. And what it is, it's a space that has embraced the use of, spaces not traditionally used for farming. Do you see the Green Circle Gardens utilizing non -traditional farming spaces to create patches for food security?

IAN
Yes. The good thing about the Green Circle Garden is that 42 gallon water reservoir is really good for very arid areas. So in California and Arizona, we do have some, quite a few gardens in places which you would literally call the desert. As in it's just sand, the ground, there's no water whatsoever. There's no greenery whatsoever because nothing's going to grow there. But by putting these gardens and they have their own water supply, it's a way of bringing gardening to areas which wouldn't be able to garden otherwise.

JOE
Now in your travels and between in Europe and I don't know if you've been to North America, but do you see opportunities that maybe you haven't noticed Green Circle Gardens in that can help people grow their greens, their foods and their natural medicines? Like, are you like, yes, one should be there?

IAN
In the United States, you mean?

JOE
Sure. Yeah.

IAN
Yes, I've been to the United States many times. We do manufacture our gardens in California now. Because obviously the shipping, as such a large item, the shipping was prohibitive. We couldn't get them over. So we had lots of interest from United States. So we decided to design the product in the United States and make it more available for everybody.

HOLLY
Incredible.

JOE
When they're being shipped out, do you hear and when your consumers are taking them, have you heard of some cool innovative spaces where they've been set up and food's been grown?

IAN
 I think the most interesting place was a place I visited. I think it's Visalia in California. Basically, it's a desert. It was a patch of land which was just sand. To see the gardens, they're actually growing plants is amazing because it's like an oasis. You wouldn't expect plants to be growing underneath. It gets very hot there in Arizona.

HOLLY
Beautiful.

IAN
Very hot and dry.

HOLLY
Is there any space where the garden would have functional challenges being implanted? Is there any space that maybe it just doesn't function as well?

IAN
I don't know what to say about that.

HOLLY
Everywhere?

IAN
It's a standalone device as long as it's getting some sunlight. I think it's all good. The bad place would be obviously if you put it in the shade, or say indoors with no natural light, it's not really going to do much, is it? I think it does very well in drier areas. For example, if you go to a very humid area, say Florida, I think there maybe it would be beneficial to reduce the amount of self -irrigation of the planter because of the humidity. Obviously, roots do like moist soil, but they don't like to be drowned in water. I think that depending on the climate, there are small changes that can be made to the garden so it works as intended. To answer your question, I think that right now if you were to put the garden in a very humid, wet area, it may be bad for the roots in the sense that there would be maybe too much water saturation of the soil, which is bad for all plants, I think. Most plants.

HOLLY
The humidity. Interesting. I'm asking for a friend, but how does one go about emptying one of these systems indoors?

IAN
Okay, indoors. There you've got a bit of a conundrum. What I would do is, you know the way the water meter is, the pipe that comes out? The only way to not get any splashing, I think, would be to remove that one, put a hosepipe in there, and then do the siphon. You know the siphon effect where you suck on one side and you pull it out?

HOLLY
Yes.

IAN
I think that's the best way to get any dripping whatsoever. The other way, usually when it's outdoors, what we do is we just take off one of the side outlets, drain it. If you have it indoors and it's full up with water, well you've got two options. You can either let it dry out, which will take a hell of a long time, or put a hosepipe down through the hole I'm talking about where the water meter is, and then siphon it out. That's what I think is the best way.

HOLLY
Okay, noted. Thank you.

JOE
I know we've talked about a couple products that are coming down the pipeline without disclosing too much, but what else does the future hold for Green Circle Gardens?

IAN
Well, I think getting in touch with our clients, the end users, finding out how they use the gardens, what they would like, because I think they're the ones that have the most experience of what they want, what the client wants. I think we're going to expand on products that are relevant to the existing Green Circle Garden and that allow users to grow their own food more successfully. We're going to be doing the root vegetable garden, which hasn't been coming out, but basically that's going to be similar to the existing one, but built for growing root vegetables. It's going to be more on the edible gardening side of things. Then a much larger pot, which is going to be literally for a low -maintenance garden for schools, hospitals, which they can then grow larger plants and even small trees in.

HOLLY
Oh, wow. 

JOE
Very cool.

HOLLY
That's incredible, and where can we find out more about Green Circle Gardens?

IAN
We have our websites and we do some advertising, but other than that, that's about it. Unless you see it's in a hospital or in a school or a care home by you, there's not much other way of finding us.

HOLLY
Perfect. On your website then. Awesome.

JOE
Yes. Well, we'll put the website in the show notes, but before we let you go, we have a final question that we ask all of our guests. What keeps you growing?

IAN
What keeps me growing? Well, I just love it. I think my grandmother showed me from a young age how nice the garden is and we've always been looking after it. You see how it evolves over time. It's very nice to see how gardens evolve over time. They start small, they grow big, you cut them down, then they grow larger. It's like a work in progress and it gives a lot of self -satisfaction. That's the reason why I like to garden and to grow my own food. Another reason is also all the pesticides and insecticides that get used on vegetables nowadays. I mean, tomatoes and strawberries, those are the number two. There's something like 26 or 30 different types of insecticides and pesticides that could be on the fruit and then they have to be rinsed for, they say, up to 20, 30 seconds underneath a tap to get rid of all the pesticides. I think that's another reason. I think it's important to grow organic and healthy food because what's the point of eating a strawberry if what you're eating is chemicals?

HOLLY
You're 100 % right. Thank you so much for contributing to that accessibility for healthy foods. Ian, thank you so much for joining us today. This was amazing. Thank you so much.

IAN
Thank you Holly and Joe.

HOLLY
Yeah, thank you.

ADAM
If you like this show, please like and subscribe on YouTube and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.

ADAM
We're preparing a bunch of special extras for our fresh and nutritious newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free at GrowAbilityPod.com. GrowAbility is hosted by Joe Gansevles and Holly Pugsley. Special thanks to this week's guest, Ian Armour.

ADAM
Our show is produced by Adam Caplan, Joe Gansevles and Holly Pugsley. Production support from Oliver Gansevles, Evan Gansevles, Scott Hohn, Kevin LeBont, Paul Rogers, Doruntina Uka, and Alan Williamson.

ADAM
Holly Pugsley of Just Keep Growing Art Directed this episode and made sure the plants looked great.

ADAM
Audience strategy by Doruntina Uka and Tess Alcock.

ADAM
Our theme music is Wandering William by Adrienne Walther and can be found on Soundstripe.

ADAM
Adam caplan, that's me, is web.isod.es Executive Producer and Sammy Orlowski is our Senior Creator. Thanks to TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario, including Farida Abdelnabi and Sarah Edmondson for letting us shoot at their beautiful offices.

ADAM
Special thanks to Leanne Gansevles for the support and yummy food, hubert Orlowski for helping our podcast sound great and Gabor Sass for making some great introductions.

ADAM
GrowAbility is a web.isod.es production and is produced with the support and participation of the team at The PATCH and Hutton House.