Buehler Enabling Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden

In 1972, with one completed garden and ambitious master site plan, the Botanic Garden of the Chicago Horticultural Society opened to the public. The Kenilworth Garden Club began a long relationship with the Botanic Garden in 1974 with the Founders Fund Award to establish a horticultural therapy garden.

Raised beds, vertical walled gardens, hanging baskets, raised water features and sensory plants were all installed in order to make gardening accessible to everyone. Wide paths between the beds were paved with concrete for improved mobility and easy access by wheelchairs. In 1975, a Kenilworth GC member secured a grant to build a greenhouse, lath house and tool house. The garden was dedicated in 1976 with the aim of encouraging gardening for people of all ages and abilities.

Over the next several years, Kenilworth Garden Club members adapted tools and drew plans for shallow beds built above ground to allow legroom for seated gardeners to tend plants. In 2001, through an endowment fund by the KGC, the garden was expanded to 11,000 square feet and renamed the Buehler Enabling Garden. Now a major learning center for horticultural therapy programs, the Buehler Enabling Garden promotes a lifetime of easy, enjoyable gardening