Creating a Sensory garden tips and advice

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This page landscape gardeners ideas for the different senses you can make use of in a sensory garden Other relevant pages Sensory garden design Herb garden	Save time, google my website i/e gardening with disabilities, adapted tools, leveling, mobility, design for alzhiemers, raised beds, gardeners with a bad back, sensory plants etc.
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Sensory Gardens

You may have seen, touched and smelt the atmosphere and aroma of sensory gardens in parks, schools and care homes. Sensory gardens or sensory garden areas are becoming popular in home gardens too, providing a wide range of sensory experiences smell, touch, vision, and hearing, sensory gardens normally include a bench to sit and enjoy the plants and range of structual experiences.
Ask your landscape gardener and garden designer to include a sensory area in your garden. Its simpler than it sounds, sensory gardens encourage us and our kids to touch and feel plants and sometimes even small structures like water features are included in the design and can appeal to more than just the 5 basic senses, gravity i/e changes in height, slopes etc. temperature, space and the changes between areas in the garden.

With a few changes a sensory garden can be a good place for people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

Seeing.

Colourful plants which change through the seasons are a delight. Watch the changing colour of the leaves and berries. Most flowers are very colourful during the summer, whilst many trees will blossom in spring before their leaves turn to shades of gold, brown and red in the autumn. The changes in colour and appearance of wet and dry Paved pathways also add colour. Shapes are also important in a sensory garden.Crazy paving and rough-cut flags. The distinctive shape of oak and sycamore trees, flowers such as the daisy and poppy, varied fruits of fruit trees. Movement catches the eye to, so maybe add trees such as willow .A fountain or waterfall will add movement and attract birds rustling feathers as they bath in your sensory garden.

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 wayback

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 !!! who still has her sensory garden.

Go for it.
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 area you would probably not plant oak trees or encourage nettles but big or small give it a try. No area is to small and its not too difficult to make. Basicaly a Sensory garden area, is a collection of plants and materials with different textures, colours and heights,  we recently created and planted a sensory garden in Bristol, planting the sensory plants in flowerpots and containers.

And a fewTips to stimulate the senses when planning a Sensory garden

Children
Include a maze painted or raised on the side or top of walls for the kids to follow with finger tips and varying the textures of  walls, paths and paving by using wood, brick, stone, flints, tiles, cobbles, setts, gravel, pebbles, bark, rubber, or metals adds interest. Also include a raised bed or unplanted area for young gardeners to practice gardening skills.

Moss and lichen
Grow it on walls to add interest over time, growth can be speeded up by painting surfaces with yoghurt.

Colour
Colour will come from the plants and materials but don't be afraid to add colour by painting and hanging things on the walls.

Games
Building a chess board from slabs, old bricks etc will stimulate most of the senses.

Natural stuff
Woven willow for fencing or cover over a seat, looks, sounds and feels good.

Sound
Sound comes from the plants blowing in the wind and features you design into your sensory garden. If you live near to a noisy road some of the background noise can be partially blocked by screening with a barrier of noise absorbing trees or fencing, but 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 an approach to Heathrow airport , it might be easier to move house or reconcile it with the fact that your overseas holidays wouldn't happen without airports like Heatrow.

Water
Moving water will make different sounds just by placing stones, pebbles or rocks in the flow and varying the speed of the pump.
Moving water is relaxing and always attracts people. But be aware of the dangers of even shallow water, some of us love the sensation of getting wet and dangling our hands or feet in a pond.  People who might otherwise rarely get wet in an outdoor situation might not.
If you are planning in a moving water features, you will need electricity and water.

The Wind
Air can generate soothing sounds as it blows through trees, bamboo, grasses and  fences. Dont forget wind chimes and the different sounds different materials make.

To see the range of Suttons seeds click on the seedling, click tulips for bulbs.
Be inspired

For Sensory garden design tips, how to build a sensory garden, materials to use,Plants to plant and related topics, you may find these pages on my website interesting

Sendory garden design Herb garden Wildflower lawn Sensory garden plants

Contact flowerpotman

We can plan and build a Sensory garden for you or provide a sensory garden planting plan.

this rolling gardening seat really does help the back

wheeled gardening seat

If the sensory garden is for an elderly person, this rolling gardeners seat can help avoid painful bending or stooping. The swivel tractor-type seat lets the person sit and work up to 23" above the ground and roll around on four wheels.

More information on the wheeled gardening seat

Your feedback please

We now have sensory garden landscapers and landscape gardeners in the following areas of Birmingham and the West Midlands
Acock's Green B27 Aldridge WS9 Berkswell CV7 Bilston WV14 Birmingham B1 Birmingham B3 Birmingham B2 Birmingham B5 Birmingham B4 Blackheath B65 Bloxwich WS3 Brierley Hill DY5 Brownhills WS8 Castle Bromwich B36 Chapel End CV10 Coventry CV1 Cradley B63 Darlaston WS10 Edgbaston B15 Erdington B24 Great Barr B43 Great Heath CV6 Halesowen B63 Hall Green B28 Hampton in Arden B92 Handsworth B21 Harborne B17 Keresley CV6 King's Heath B14 King's Norton B38 Kingstanding B44 Kingswinford DY6 Knowle B93 Lye DY9 Marston Green B37 Meriden CV7 Northfield B31 Pelsall WS3 Perry Barr B42 Rubery B45 Sedgley DY3 Selly Oak B29 Sheldon B26 Shirley B90 Smethwick B66 Solihull B91 Stourbridge DY8 Sutton Coldfield B74 Tipton DY4 Walmley B76 Walsall WS1 Wednesbury WS10 West Bromwich B70 Willenhall WV13 Wolston CV8

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This landscape gardening services and DIY information website is published and edited by Mike Ballard

Sensory gardens, simpler than it sounds to build and grow a sensory garden

Sensory gardens for smell, touch, vision, hearing and taste in your own back garden

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