Because gardening is a pleasure that should be available to all, much attention has been recently given to developing spaces and techniques that make it accessible to persons with any kind of disability. In 1999 the Chicago Botanic Garden opened its Buehler Enabling Garden.

The Enabling Garden consists of three rooms: a central Gallery Garden, a Container Court, and a Vista Garden. Each is lush with plantings of shrubs, grasses, vines, perennials and annuals.

Trees also feature prominently in the space. Because the garden's brick walls were already builtwhen Van Zelst set to work, some trees had to belifted into place by crane while others were winched into position. The large informal grouping of 'Whitespire' birch standing sentinel at the entrance had instant impact sincethey were 20-25 feet tall at time of installation.

In addition to technical challenges, there were complications involved in locating the specific and sometimes rare plant varieties that had been selected. Van Zelst's project coordinator searched around the world for the plants and even tracked down one particular tree peony in northern China.

Today the Enabling Garden offers a lush romantic experience to all its visitors, but without the technical expertise behind its construction, such present beauty would never have been achieved.