Jul 26, 20237 min read

Gardens for the senses

Summary

A sensory garden is one that is designed to stimulate other senses over and above the normal sights and views.

A note on risks

Age and degrees of mobility should be considered when designing the structure and plant selections. Risks should be mitigated at all stages. Poisonous plants or irritants; slips trips or falls; possibilities of drowning should not rule out ideas but they should assessments of users and features should ensure a safe environment. For instance, plants that are pollinated by birds or insects rather than those which release their seeds into the air good for environments where users with breathing difficulties or allergies.

My garden is a bit of a hill and steps have been unavoidable. However, I have made all of the risers the same height (so far). This provides a more regular expectation for the person navigating the space. The treads are as visually clear as possible and I build in ducts to allow me to run a hose or an electrical cable across a path without leaving a trip hazard.

Design Benefits
Designing a garden for the senses
Visual aspects
Sound
Touch
Smell

Taste
Things to remember
More Reading

Design Benefits

Time spent in natural environments can provide a range of health benefits, including reduced stress and lowered blood pressure. Visual appeal is expected as standard, but a sensory garden is designed to stimulate all five senses.

Sensory gardens also have proven therapeutic value. For example, people with disabilities (such as visual impairment or dementia) can enjoy nature in a safe and tactile environment. Sensory gardens can also make a great contribution to emotional and physical health. They can be beautiful places to relax, reflect, meditate, contemplate and talk.

Designing a garden for the senses

A sensory garden should be designed to be interactive and accessible noting that people who “use” gardens are of all ages and abilities.

Raised garden beds and hanging baskets are good for people who don’t bend over so easily but the baskets might not so good for wheelchair bound viewers.

Seating in the garden is a big consideration. You may compose a view for/from a particular seat.

You could argue that walkways which wind through the garden are more attractive than straight paths. Bends slow people down and perhaps invite a slower more observant time. Walkways or routes, that start and finish at the same point are perhaps better for people with dementia.

Children are another subject for the consideration of your garden design. Sandpits and climbing frames with bouncy rubber surfaces have been used in the past but features such as willow play structures have gained popularity following consideration of accidents of falling from tree houses and the like. Basically features for children are fine, but they should not provide the impression that the garden is a place where the little people can be left unattended or supervised unless the garden has been designed where all risks are designed out. Which would be impossible. (I caught Impetigo from a paddling pool in Ridley Park, Blyth when I was a toddler!).

Visual aspects

Colours, shapes and special features can help to create a wonderful visual environment. Variation in colours and colours by season or time of day are all possible. If you are designing gardens you should be well ahead with this as each plant can have its optimal location.

Mixed colour foliage goes past the limitations of flowering periods. Indeed you could consider flowering periods more closely for the scent produced rather than the actual flower’s colours.

Plants can be chosen which can, or need, clipping or pruning. Topiary is another subject altogether.

Long grasses, strap-leaved plants and ‘weeping’ tree varieties are great to watch but these also can input into the sound and touch aspects of design.

Water features can produce visual and sound qualities to a design. Note the health and safety aspects (including Legionella risks from sprays) but do not underestimate the benefits to wildlife and the general environment of a pond.

Birds, insects and other wildlife bring interest to the garden and are good for the eco system. Plant selection can be used to attract specific groups as can purpose designed items such as bird feeders, insect hotels and even bee hives where the space and flight paths can be accommodated!

Hard landscape, hard edges, incidental features and lighting should also be considered to provide endless themes or interest for the garden. Sculpture can also provide opportunities for tactile incidents, movement or sound.

Sound

Birds, wind chimes, crunching gravel, moving water and wind whistling through leaves bring a variety of sounds to the garden

Include plants which attract birds or a birdbath. A pond will attract birds.

Wind chimes are common but there are more unusual rescope “sound” generating devices.

Water features can provide various noises as well as ions. Generally these are appreciated but the sound of Niagra Falls in a 10m by 10m garden can be disconcerting. Note that your plant choice may be limited by your choice of water noise. Water lilies prefer still conditions and will not appreciate being in a pond with a waterfall.

Grasses rustle against in the breeze are a must.

Paths make sounds as you walk on them. You can go some way with this. In the YPU Stobhill project, I specified Bredon gravel which is “self binding” but gives a crush close to that which you would experience in The Tuileries in Paris.

So there you are put some gravel down and light up a grill with some crepes on, close your eyes and you are in Paris. Don’t forget the wine.

Touch

Plant choice is infinite with soft furry or hard spiky foliage options. Size and elasticity also can come into play. I am a big leaf fan (to the extent that I aspire towards a jungle garden) but the range of textures within the group are massive and ferns do not look out of place. If you intend to have plants which are going to be handled, chose plants that can cope with being handled and not poisonous varieties. Don’t forget that the bark of trees can provide a tactile experience.

Prickly or thorny plants may be best kept well away from paths and sitting areas. Indeed, you may prefer not to include plants with thorns or spikes in your sensory garden. If you are careful you can often find species (even roses) with limited or less thorny stems. I think that the rose is such an easy pick for a scent and colour (long period of flowering) that it can not be ruled out but as with wet areas, the risks of your choice need to be managed out.

Textured paving/flooring is now required by many building/planning regulations or codes but in the garden, the texture underfoot can be used for creativity as well as signposting. Tiles, crushed gravel and stone slabs can all be used to provide a composition of tactile experience through the foot. Depending on where you are (climate/weather) the heat or cool of surfaces may be an interesting tool to compose with. Hot sand or black tiling open to sunlight compared with shaded paved areas or moss or lawn, Sunny and shady areas to offer temperature contrast. Some may not like it, but I do like brushing my way past my bamboos and have several areas where shrubbery imposes itself on the visitor. Indeed this is the best method to throw scents up from some of the plants. I draw the line at getting a badly pruned plum tree branch in the eye though. Hard surface opportunities include using smooth pebbles or rocks, wet or dry. Lichen can provide a contrast on a rock or a moss wall or surface can be incorporated.

Smell

Herbs for crushing intentionally, or as you walk can provide a tool to your palate.

However many plants are famous for their scent but even within genus the level of scent varies. So the plant choices and position, with relation to hands or noses, is up to you.

I know the olfactory artists debate about how we (in “Western” culture) celebrate or recognise “nice” smells or perfumes but fail to celebrate or “paint” with the “gritty” smells of existence. In gardens I suppose we might call that a stink and this is perfectly respectable within the scheme of the mischievous sensory garden designer. The farmyard vibe is not for me but I have been tricked into sniffing a skunk cabbage.

Taste

The taste thing is more of an individual pursuit but herbs and vegetables grown by yourself and eaten fresh or after appropriate storage can bring satisfaction, frustration and health benefits.

The casual visitor to the garden can not be expected to pull up a carrot and eat it we have foxes and rabbits for that. However, the culinary industry is now homing in on this area and several hotels or restaurants cook from specific kitchen gardens with meals depending on what time of the year it is and what is available.

For the owner/visitor though, it might not be unreasonable to eat a strawberry or other soft fruit. Indeed, we have an orchard in our local park dedicated to a local grocer who provided fresh fruit to the local school all his life. The orchard is there specifically to encourage picking and eating the fruit.

I like growing soft fruit and I love eating anything from the bushes and trees (I know I haven’t been spraying them with DDT) keeping pests off can be an issue but at least I know that the garden is popular with some of the local wildlife.

Things to remember

Lets face it, any garden is going to be a sensory garden. You may be lucky and have your own, in which case you might try some of the ideas for yourself and your visitors. Visiting gardens can be fun and hopefully some of the features may be more understandable as a result of the guide. If you are lucky enough to be asked to design a garden or help brief a designer, all visitors can benefit from the ideas of the sensory garden.

Think about the people who will use the garden. Take their ages and abilities into account with your design and planting scheme. A garden for you or another individual can include specific preferences to suit “who is paying” but a garden designed for unfamiliar guests is a different prospect and other things may become important such as way finding or signage.

If you want to avoid hay-fever or asthma risks, choose plants that are pollinated by birds or insects rather than plants that release their seeds into the air.

Poisonous plants, trip/fall hazards, drowning risks and vermin are all out there.

Water is a double edged icicle!