How to create a Sensory garden

Sensory plants  Design  Herb garden  

Traducción Española/ -para-un-jardín-sensorial

• Sensory gardens can also be therapeutic, Helping reduce stress and lowering blood pressure by offering a lovely place to escape to, take time-out and simply relax.
• Time to think after a stressful day at work or home-schooling the kids. Time to escape from the television and read a book, listen to flowing water or just feel the leaves. 
• Most gardens offer visual appeal, but a sensory garden gives more. Stimulating the senses.
• For people living with disabilities, poor eyesight or dementia a sensory garden can also be a safe and tactile environment to enjoy touching, hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting even, the plants and natural materials.
• Depending what you want to get out of your sensory garden. Plant selection, the materials you use and design will all play a part. I have included a few design, material and plant selection tips with more detail on my other pages Sensory plants  Design

 I hope this article helps transform a bit of your own garden into a lovely sensory garden experience.

These are the materials and plants you can use to stimulate the five senses in your own sensory garden.

I have given more information about plants and the senses they could develop with their different types of scent, texture, sound, taste, visual effect here plants and the senses they could develop.

Seeing.

Plants which change colour through the seasons are interesting to watch as the leaves and berries grow and change colour.

Most flowers are very colourful during the summer, whilst many trees will blossom in spring before the leaves turn to shades of gold, brown and red in the autumn.

For winter colour check out my article, plants for winter colour 

Changes in colour and appearance of materials, natural stone flagstones, walling stones and pebbles used in paving, walls and pathways change colour when they get wet, also add colour. 

Shapes are also important in a sensory garden, materials like crazy paving and rough cut flags. The distinctive shape of some trees, flowers such as the daisy and poppy, the varied fruits on fruit trees.

Movement catches the eye too, so maybe add trees such as Willow that wave in the wind.

A fountain or waterfall will add movement and attract birds rustling feathers as they bathe.

Hearing.  

There will be plenty of sound to listen to, the natural sounds of wind in the trees, wildlife sounds. A shallow stream flowing over pebbles or a waterfall, even wind chimes.

Scent and smell.

Plant a mix of plants and flowers which give off different scents. Ones you can smell without touching, honeysuckle and roses, some you will need to "get up close to" like daffodils and violets and some you will have to "get up very close to and gently crush them" mint and most herbs come to mind.

Also include plants in your sensory garden that might mean something to you personally, from way back. Composting leaves and grass clippings give off a distinctive smell and the compost can come in handy too.

Touch.

Texture is very important in your sensory garden both rough and smooth (mosses, lichens, Holly leaves, rivened stone and smooth pebbles, leaves, slate and the stuff nature will provide like frog spawn and caterpillars.

Taste.

Be careful with this one!  Only include berries and fruits which you are sure are safe to eat.-   I was given this tip by a very rich widow I know.! She has added an Orangery and a couple of garages to the house and yes, still has her sensory garden.

Children will probably want to play, explore and hide-n-seek.

So it's a good idea to include plants, materials and structures that will encourage play.

• Think about Including a maze painted or raised on the side or top of walls for the kids to follow with fingertips
• Vary the textures of walls, paths and paving by using wood, brick, stone, flints, tiles, cobbles, setts, gravel, pebbles, bark, rubber, or metals to add interest.
• Also you could include a raised bed or area for young gardeners to practice gardening skills. 

• Sound comes from the plants blowing in the wind and features you have chosen and designed into your sensory garden.
• If you live near a noisy road some of the background noise can be partially blocked by screening with a barrier of noise absorbing trees or fencing even a Bund. However, never removed totally. Remember background noise in itself is a stimulant to our senses and these days something we have to live with, so don't get over anxious about it.
• If you live under the approach to Heathrow airport or the proposed new runway. It might be easier to move house or reconcile it with the fact that your overseas holidays wouldn't happen without airports

Limited space need not be a barrier to creating a Sensory garden. Our senses can be stimulated in a small garden, patio, container even a pathway. 

• Size really is not important A sensory garden can be everything from a window box to a huge area depending on how much space you have and can maintain (somebody has got to look after it). If you don't have much space or a garden even, you can still create a sensory experience by planting sensory plants in containers.
• Pathways can be planted with scented shrubs and plants that will tolerate foot traffic, surfaced  with cobbles, rivened flagstones or slabs and fenced with rustic 1/2 rails for truly great sensory experiences. 
• Containers can be used for decked or paved areas, I recently designed and built a Sensory area using only bulbs, flowers and shrubs planted in flowerpots and containers. 
• More design information here design and build a sensory garden 

I hope I have shown on this and my other related pages how easy it is to set aside, even a small area of your gardens. To create a sensory experience for grown-ups and kids too.

• Ask your landscape gardener to include a sensory area in your garden. It's simpler than it sounds, sensory gardens encourage us and our kids to touch and feel plants. Sometimes even small structures like water features are included in the design.
• A Sensory garden can also appeal to more than just the five basic senses. Gravity i/e changes in height, slopes, etc. temperature, space and the changes between areas in the garden.
• A sensory garden and its plants will attract plenty of wildlife. Small areas or large gardens will provide habitat for wildlife and delight your senses.
• In a small sensory area you would probably not plant oak trees or encourage nettles, but big or small give it a try. What about a Bug hotel!
• No area is to small and it is not too difficult to make. Basically a Sensory garden area, is a collection of plants and materials with different textures, colours and heights, and can include a bench to sit and enjoy the plants and a range of structural experiences.