by Geneie Everett
This month, our ongoing series on Therapeutic Gardening features a second sub-type of Restorative Gardens: the Sensory Garden. As noted in the diagram below, Restorative Gardens are subdivided into three main types: Meditation Gardens, Sensory Gardens, and Hospice Gardens.
Sensory Gardens
A Sensory Garden is a green space designed to appeal to and stimulate as many senses as possible. Whereas, we previously discussed Meditative Gardens as a place for quiet reflection and contemplation, Sensory Gardens can be either relaxing stimulating, or both. Well-designed gardens should always stimulate our senses, though, in formal Sensory Gardens, the spatial arrangement of multiple garden elements is designed to guide us through various experiences that enhance all senses including sight, smell, hear, touch, and taste. Sensory Gardens are often incorporated into botanical gardens and healthcare settings as part of clinical treatment programs that will be addressed in future articles.
However, individual home gardeners can create their own private sensory gardens by integrating sensory experiences from some of the following examples:
Sight - Include a combination of bright colors, intense patterns, delicate designs, varied shapes and textures, or cool muted colors
Smell - Plant heady scents like lavender, mints, aromatic herbs, roses, rosemary, jasmine, honeysuckle, lilac, and mock orange
Hear - Integrate quiet areas for listening, be it to water spilling from basin to basin or splashing over pebbles, a bubbling fountain, birds chirping, insects buzzing, hummingbirds whirring, wind chimes/bells (metal, glass, bamboo), or grasses/dry leaves/seed pods rustling in the breeze
Touch - Combine plantings with textures of fuzzy petals, soft velvety leaves, long smooth leathery leaves, rough stems, spiky flowers, and basins of cool water for hand-dipping
Taste – Include choices of edible plants, kitchen herbs, lemon balm, mints, beebalm, chives, anise, arugula, and cherry tomatoes.
Design Factors for Sensory Gardens
When creating a space that invites someone to experiment and experience the world through their senses, several design factors should be considered including:
Proper plant placement can facilitate or hinder access to the experience
Plants intended for fragrance, taste, or touch need to be placed near edges for easy reach
Grasses and plants that produce sound need to be taller so breezes can blow through them
Wind chimes of different materials can produce a wide variety of sounds and can be hung and located at different levels for varying effects
Water features attract other garden creatures that add sensory interests of their own and can be as simple as a birdbath, a fountain, a pond, contained or free-flowing
Quiet places to sit provide the time and space to stop, look, smell, listen, taste, and touch your garden world.
The Lerner Garden for the Five Senses
Maine is blessed with an exceptional example of a formal sensory garden, located within the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. Take the opportunity to visit and learn more. https://www.mainegardens.org
Next month, Hospice Gardens, the third of three Restorative Gardens sub-types, will be featured.
To read Geneie's article on Meditation Gardens in GCFM's magazine Maine Grows ... click HERE
Author: Geneie Everett, PhD, RN is a member of the Garden club of Wiscasset and Chairs the GCFM Therapeutic Gardening Committee.
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