Is a dedicated page for accessible gardens worth it, or is a paragraph under services enough?

A page of its own pays off as soon as the firm offers the work seriously. This audience searches differently from the client wanting a new terrace: relatives look specifically for step-free access, a ramp or a wheelchair-friendly path and expect dimensions rather than mood shots. Half a sentence in a services list gives those readers neither the depth they need nor an entry point from search. The page does not need thirty paragraphs, but path width, ramp gradient, handrail height, resting area and the route to a grant should all be findable on it.

How wide does an accessible garden path have to be?

The federal accessible building guide gives two routes to the same goal. Where there is enough space, paths should preferably be laid at a width of 180 cm along their whole length. Alternatively a path width of at least 150 cm is sufficient if a passing area of 180 x 180 cm is provided every 15 m. In an existing garden the second option is usually the realistic one: the current path is brought up to 150 cm and widened at two or three places, which can be resolved as a small open space in the design.

How steep may a garden ramp be?

Under the federal accessible building guide the gradient of ramps may not exceed six per cent, and a single ramp run may be no longer than 600 cm. That yields a maximum height of 36 cm that can be taken up by a ramp without a landing. Anyone who has to absorb more height needs intermediate landings with at least 150 cm of usable length. That is the point at which the space required grows quickly: a height of 72 cm means two runs, one landing and well over twelve metres of length in total.

May a tenant have the garden converted for accessibility?

Under section 554 (1) of the German Civil Code a tenant may require the landlord to permit structural alterations to the rented property that serve use by people with disabilities. The claim does not apply where the alteration cannot reasonably be expected of the landlord, even weighing the tenant’s interests. For the firm that means: no building without the owner’s written permission. A quote that cleanly describes scope and reversibility helps, because that is exactly what the landlord asks about.

How does the conversion turn into recurring work?

Through maintenance. An accessible area loses its property when growth narrows the path, leaves lie on the ramp or a slab settles. Writing that visual check into the maintenance contract as a fixed item gives you an argument beyond price. Two to four visits a year usually cover a private garden; housing schemes need more. A short report with two photos per visit sent to the relatives makes the work visible and spares you the discussion about renewal.

Offering Accessible Gardens: A Service for Older Clients

Q: Who pays for the accessible conversion in the garden?

Usually the household itself, often with a grant from the care fund for measures improving the individual home environment. Under section 40 (4) SGB XI these grants may not exceed 4,180 euros per measure; where several people needing care live together, the total per measure is capped at 16,720 euros. It requires an assigned care level and the assessment that the measure makes care at home possible or considerably easier. The firm supplies a transparent quote for that, but does not decide on approval.

Landscaping turnover in Germany reached 11.11 billion euros in 2025 (BGL), and close to 57 per cent of that came from private gardens (BGL). Anyone looking for additional work in that segment rarely finds it with young families. At the end of 2023 just under 5.7 million people in Germany needed care (Destatis), and 86 per cent of them were cared for at home (Destatis). These households have a garden, they usually have savings, and they have a very concrete problem: three steps up to the terrace, a gravel path no walking frame can handle, a bed that can only be tended on your knees. On landscaping websites, accessibility still shows up almost exclusively as an obligation for the website itself, hardly ever as a service in the garden. This article sets out what belongs on a dedicated service page for accessible outdoor space: the dimensions for paths, ramps and handrails, raised beds and resting areas, the route to a care-fund grant, an enquiry form that prepares the site visit, and the language used to write about this group of clients.

Key takeaways

The client group is large and growing. At the end of 2023 just under 5.7 million people needed care (Destatis), 86 per cent of them in their own home (Destatis). Rebuilding the outdoor space helps decide whether that stays true.
The existing housing stock is not ready for it: a 2020 study estimated that of 37 million homes only 560,000, or 1.5 per cent, are low-barrier (KfW Research). The field is wide open.
Accessibility in the garden is a question of dimensions. Path width, gradient, handrail height and resting area are set out in the federal accessible building guide; a firm that names those figures reads as a specialist, one that writes about age-friendly greenery does not.
The care fund can contribute up to 4,180 euros per measure towards improvements to the home environment (SGB XI). The firm shows the route to that money but does not decide on approval.
The order rarely comes from the person needing care, it comes from relatives. The page therefore has to serve two readers at once: the one standing in the garden and the one checking the invoice.

Why accessible gardens are a field of work

The driver is demographic, which makes it easy to plan for. A study by KfW Research from April 2020 expected the number of people over 64 in Germany to rise from around 18 million to about 23 million by 2035 (KfW Research). These are not people who want to move out of their house. They stay as long as the path to the front door is walkable, as long as the terrace can be reached without a step, and as long as the garden can be maintained with reasonable effort. Those three points are exactly where landscaping firms already work.

The existing stock is not keeping pace. The same study produced the first representative estimate, based on the 2018 microcensus, of how many homes are low-barrier: 560,000 out of 37 million, or 1.5 per cent (KfW Research). The core group looks even starker. Of the 1.3 million households with members needing care, only 4 per cent lived in a low-barrier home on that calculation (KfW Research). Between what is needed and what exists there is a gap that new construction alone cannot close.

There is also an argument sales conversations tend to skirt around, yet it explains the urgency. The 2020 study recorded that the number of fatal accidents in private households had risen by 70 per cent within ten years, and that around 14,600 people died in domestic accidents in 2017, the majority of them over 74 years old (KfW Research). A loose slab path and an unsecured step are among the triggers that can be dealt with using a trowel and a plate compactor. This is not scare marketing, it is the factual reason relatives set this work in motion.

Two very different kinds of accessibility

Right now trade businesses mostly meet accessibility as a requirement for their own website. That is a separate topic, covered in the article on accessibility for trade websites. This piece is about the opposite: accessibility as a trade that is sold, planned and built. Mixing the two on one page confuses both sets of readers.

The market in figures: age, care and the existing stock

Care statistics describe this client group more precisely than any market study. At the end of 2023, 78 per cent of people needing care were 65 or older, and about a third, precisely 34 per cent, were at least 85 (Destatis). The care rate climbs steeply with age: among people aged 70 to 74 around 11 per cent needed care, among those aged 90 and over it was 87 per cent (Destatis). For a firm that means the garden is rarely rebuilt at 65; the order usually follows something that has already happened in the household.

On the supply side, demand is growing faster than the stock. In 2020 KfW Research counted around 3 million households with mobility restrictions and expected a rise to 3.7 million by 2035 (KfW Research). Even allowing for new construction and conversions, that calculation left a shortfall of about 2.0 million homes for 2035 (KfW Research). The shortfall concerns the dwelling, but it starts at the garden gate: a level-access shower helps little if the way to the front door consists of four steps.

In 2025 private gardens were the strongest client segment in the sector at 6.32 billion euros (BGL). Accessible conversion work is a part of that which cannot be measured, because no statistic carries it as a separate line. It hides inside paving work, fencing, lighting and planting. That is precisely why a dedicated page pays off: it turns scattered line items into an offer with a name that a relative can search for and find.

Owners in their own property

The house is paid off, the garden is thirty years old, the paths are laid slabs with changes in level that grew over time. The order usually covers the house entrance, the path to the terrace and one seating area. Decisions come quickly because no landlord and no committee is involved.

Relatives placing the order

A son or daughter does the research, collects quotes and attends the site visit, often from another city. This group reads thoroughly, compares in writing and expects dimensions rather than mood shots. For them the service page is the actual sales conversation.

Tenants

Under section 554 (1) of the German Civil Code a tenant may require the landlord to permit structural alterations that serve use by people with disabilities (BGB). A firm does not build here without consent, but it can explain which documents a landlord usually wants to see.

Assisted living and care facilities

Housing schemes, day-care centres and elderly care facilities award outdoor works as commercial contracts with a bill of quantities. Records, punctual delivery and a named contact count here, and the build is often followed by a maintenance contract running several years.

These four routes end at different forms but at the same dimensions. That is why the service page leads with the technical detail and only then addresses the audience. Reverse the order and you write a page that feels good and triggers no enquiry.

The dimensions that decide the quote

Accessibility outdoors is not a feeling, it is a set of numbers. The federal accessible building guide collects them in a form that is easy to quote, because it gives each dimension together with its reasoning. For the garden the following values matter most. They apply directly to federal construction projects, but in a private garden they serve as a factual benchmark a quote can be built around.

Dimension	Value	What it means in the garden
Continuous path width	180 cm where there is enough space (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	Two wheelchairs can pass without anyone reversing
Path width with passing places	at least 150 cm, plus a passing area of 180 x 180 cm every 15 m (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	A narrow existing path stays usable if it is widened at points
Ramp gradient	no more than six per cent (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	A 600 cm run therefore takes up 36 cm of height
Clear ramp width	at least 120 cm between the handrails (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	The handrails add to the structural width, they do not come out of it
Intermediate landing	at least 150 cm usable length (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	From the second ramp run the space needed grows faster than expected
Top of handrail	85 to 90 cm above the running surface (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	On both sides, continuously grippable, 3 to 4.5 cm in diameter
Resting area beside the bench	at least 90 cm wide (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen)	Wheelchair or walking frame stands beside the seat instead of on the path

That table is also the agenda for the site visit. Walk through the garden with a folding rule and a notepad, record those seven points, and you come away with a survey you can price a solid quote from. And naming the values on the website saves half the follow-up questions: the relative knows in advance whether the 90 centimetre gate opening is going to be enough.

Path width, surface and falls

The path decides the whole conversion. A path 180 cm wide (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen) is rare in an existing garden and often cannot be created, because a hedge, a boundary or mature trees are in the way. The alternative in the guide is local widening: at least 150 cm throughout, plus a passing area of 180 x 180 cm every 15 m (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen). In a garden that is almost a design opportunity, for example as a small open space beside a perennial planting.

For the surface, the joint matters more than the look. Coarse chippings, bark mulch and loosely laid stepping stones are out; wide joints and heavily textured surfaces let walking-frame wheels sink in or twist. What works is a level surface with tight joints, adequate slip resistance and a defined cross fall for drainage. The article on explaining paving work shows how to describe build-up, base course and jointing in plain terms; for the accessible path the requirement on joint width is added.

State the path width in centimetres and show both options: 180 cm throughout, or 150 cm with passing areas.
Name the surface the firm lays for this purpose, including the jointing and the slip resistance.
Say how changes in level are taken up: a ramped section within the path, a ramp with handrail, or a rerouted path.
Explain how drainage and cross fall are handled, so that no puddle and no sheet of ice forms.
Describe the transitions: front door, terrace door, garden gate, junction with the public footway.
Make clear which documents the firm needs for a solid quote, such as levels or a site plan.

These six points read as technical, but they are the translation of a single question every relative asks: can she get to the front door on her own? Answer it on the page and you no longer have to explain it on the phone.

Handrail, light and orientation

The handrail is the component where care shows fastest. The top belongs at 85 to 90 cm above the running surface (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen), it should be easy to grip all the way round, and round or oval sections 3 to 4.5 cm in diameter have proven themselves for that (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen). Continuity matters: a handrail broken at every bracket forces the hand to let go and loses its purpose. Outdoors there is the added point that metal gets cold in winter, which argues for timber or a coated surface.

Light is the second building block, and it sells well because the effect is immediate. An evenly lit run of path without hard shadows reduces the trip risk far more than a single bright lamp at the front door. The article on garden lighting for the dark months describes how to build lighting into its own offer; for the accessible garden the same components apply with stricter requirements on glare control and evenness.

The tree beside the accessible path

A path designed for walking frames and wheelchairs is used more often and more slowly than before. That raises the importance of duty-of-care inspections on the mature tree next to it. Anyone offering the conversion should raise the tree inspection during the same site visit; the legal framing is set out in the article on tree inspections and the duty of care.

Finally, orientation depends on contrast. A light strip along the path edge, a colour-contrasted start to the ramp and a contrasting marking at the ends of the handrail help people with reduced vision more than any extra lamp. It costs little to build and can be explained on the page in two sentences.

Raised bed, seat and resting area

The conversion does not end at the path. The raised bed is the part that turns a safety project back into a garden, because it gives the gardening back. To be usable from a wheelchair it has to be open underneath: the guide gives a clear height underneath of 67 cm, which may be reduced at a depth of 30 cm (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen). People working standing up or seated on a stool need different heights, which is why two beds at different levels are worth quoting as a rule.

Plan seat heights between 45 and 47 cm, with armrests roughly 65 to 70 cm above the ground (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen).
Provide a resting area at least 90 cm wide beside every seat, accessible without barriers (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen).
Build raised beds with an open base so that knees fit under the planting area.
Connect seating areas to the path instead of making them reachable across a lawn.
Provide a water point and a shelf within reach so the watering can does not have to be carried.
Plan parking space for walking frames beside the benches, otherwise they end up on the path.

These points are ideal material for photographs. A before-and-after pair from the same viewpoint, showing the step before and the ramped section after, convinces faster than three paragraphs of text. What matters in those shots is described in the article on showing before and after properly.

What belongs on the service page

The page follows the order in which a relative thinks: what is the problem, what solutions exist, which dimensions apply, roughly what does it cost, who contributes, what happens next. It belongs in the services overview and gets its own menu entry, not just a paragraph under paving. How such a page fits into the overall structure is shown in the article on structuring a landscaping website.

The enquiry form for this work looks different from the general contact form. It asks for the change in level, the existing path width, the surface, the access route for materials, and whether a care level has been assigned. Why pre-qualifying in the form saves time and how far it should go is described in the article on an enquiry form that qualifies.

accessible-garden-enquiry.json

{
  "trigger": "return from hospital",
  "heightDifferenceCm": 42,
  "pathWidthCm": 110,
  "surface": "concrete slabs, loosely laid",
  "handrailPresent": false,
  "gateClearWidthCm": 92,
  "careLevel": "care level 2",
  "usesWalkingAid": ["walking frame"],
  "accessForMachines": "yard gate 92 cm, no crane",
  "desiredElements": ["ramp", "raised bed", "seating"],
  "decisionMaker": "daughter"
}

Three fields deserve particular attention. The change in level decides between a ramp and a ramped path section, the clear gate width decides which machine can get in, and the question about the care level decides the route to a grant. Having those three answers before the site visit saves a journey. Whether the form or the phone number should sit higher up depends on the audience and is weighed in the article phone or form; with this audience both routes belong visibly on the page.

Language: people, not deficits

Tone decides whether the page is read or closed. Nobody enjoys reading a page that describes them as a case. Words like disabled-friendly, frail or sufferer create distance; factual terms such as step-free, reachable without steps or passable with a walking frame describe the same thing without sorting anyone into a category. How to write plainly and precisely at the same time is covered in the article on writing text customers understand.

At the same time the page needs two registers. The person who uses the garden wants to know what changes for them: they can reach the bench on their own again, they can water the tomatoes themselves. The person placing the order wants to know what gets built, how long it takes and what it costs. Both registers can be mixed if the benefit sits above the paragraph and the technical detail below it.

Care is needed with statements about safety. A firm can say that step-free access removes trip edges. It cannot promise that nothing will happen afterwards. The difference is more than linguistic: holding out freedom from falls turns it into a property the firm will be measured against.

Grants: show the route, do not promise the outcome

For measures that improve a person’s individual home environment, the care fund may pay a grant. Under section 40 (4) SGB XI these grants may not exceed 4,180 euros per measure (SGB XI); where several people needing care live together, the total per measure is capped at 16,720 euros (SGB XI). The care fund has to decide on the application within three weeks, or within five weeks where a care professional or the medical service is involved; without timely notice of a sufficient reason, the benefit counts as approved once the deadline passes (SGB XI).

That route belongs on the website as a description, not as an assessment. The firm does not review applications and does not decide on approvals; it supplies what the application needs: a transparent quote with line items, dimensions and prices. This is exactly why price transparency is an advantage rather than a risk in this trade, as the article on showing prices on your website sets out. A line such as "ramped house entrance from 2,400 euros net" answers the first question and filters out enquiries that do not fit.

From the conversion to a recurring contract

An accessible garden needs maintenance or it loses the property it was built for. Overhanging branches narrow the path, moss makes the surface slippery, leaves sit on the ramp, a settled slab becomes a trip edge. That work is predictable and recurring, which is exactly the material for a contract of the kind described in the article on offering garden maintenance contracts.

With housing schemes and care facilities it is the same mechanism on a larger scale, there with a bill of quantities, fixed visits and a report per visit. How to win and price such contracts is set out in the article on winning grounds maintenance contracts. The difference from an ordinary maintenance visit is one extra visual check: path clear, handrail firm, lighting working.

Step 1

Carry maintenance in the build quote

The quote for the conversion already contains an optional item for maintaining the accessible area. Raise maintenance only after handover and you are negotiating against a budget that has already been spent.

That makes the accessible garden the same business model as any other service with follow-on work: build once, invoice repeatedly. What should happen between enquiry and order so that this route does not break off is described in the article on what happens after the enquiry.

The build sells the maintenance, the maintenance sells the next build

A firm that has made the house entrance step-free and then returns twice a year is the firm that gets the order for the terrace, the raised bed and the seating area. With this audience the follow-on order grows out of trust and out of being there, rarely out of a quote sent by email.

Common mistakes on the accessible garden page

The following points come up regularly when landscaping websites are reviewed. They cost no rankings, but they cost enquiries, because they leave unanswered the questions a relative arrives with.

Not a single figure on the page. Name neither the path width nor the ramp gradient and you are indistinguishable from every other supplier.
Accessibility as half a sentence in the services list, with no page of its own and no entry point from search.
Photographs exclusively of newly built schemes. This audience has a thirty-year-old garden and wants to see conversions, sorted the way a portfolio gallery can show them.
Grants held out as a prospect instead of the application route being described. The care fund decides, not the firm.
A contact form asking for a subject and a message, but recording neither the change in level nor the access route.
Brochure language instead of garden language: wellbeing oasis and quality of life sit where 150 centimetres of path width should be.

Fix those points and you have a page a daughter can print at the kitchen table and put in front of her mother. That is the benchmark in this trade, not time on page.

Sources and Studies

This article draws on the Federal Statistical Office press release on care statistics for the end of 2023 (Destatis), on the study "Barrierearmer Wohnraum: Bedarf steigt durch Alterung steil" by KfW Research from April 2020 (KfW Research), on section 40 of Book Eleven of the German Social Code in its July 2026 version (SGB XI), on section 554 of the German Civil Code (BGB), on the federal accessible building guide in its December 2016 version (Leitfaden Barrierefreies Bauen) and on the sector statistics of the German landscaping association for 2025 (BGL). The dimensions quoted apply directly to federal construction projects and serve as a professional benchmark in private gardens.