Out
On A Limb / April 2007
Good Sense Gardening
Every garden stimulates the senses some way, but gardeners can intensify the experience with plants and design elements that specifically provide sights, scents, sounds, textures and tastes for visitors. Any garden can be a sensory garden, from the smallest private space to a large public parks.
One approach is to devote the garden to a single sense, like fragrance. Another is to focus on several senses, with separate sections of the garden devoted to a different sense. But, gardeners can enliven all senses throughout the garden. Or they may choose plantings in themed designs, like plants from different regions of the world, biblical plants, medicinal plants or even a pizza garden, with basil, oregano, onions and green peppers.
Like all garden therapy, a well-designed sensory garden can be simultaneously stimulating and relaxing with a little planning.
Color provides visual stimulation while adding order and balance, unity, rhythm, accents, and definition to a garden. Various or similar colors, texture, form, movement, light and shadow all stimulate the sense of sight. Contrasts of these elements add to the sensory experience. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow, are stimulating and promote activity. Cool colors, like blue, purple, and white, are soothing, and promote tranquility. Flowers are the traditional, effective way to add color but fruits, foliage and bark also add to a garden’s visual appeal.
Plants with interesting visual texture contribute to a sensory garden and can include smooth, rough, ruffled, fuzzy, or lace-textured plants. The overall texture of a plant is another consideration, contrasting fine-textured plants with small leaves and coarse-textured plants with large, full leaves.
The plant’s form is another visual element, whether it is upright, open, weeping, cascading, symmetrical or asymmetrical. Individual plant parts, like leaves or fruit, add forms that may be round, toothed, or spherical. Some plant species can serve multiple roles in a sensory garden, like mints which provide scent, taste and texture.
Movement is added by including plants that sway in the wind, moving water features, pools with floating leaves or flowers, fish in ponds, butterflies and birds. The sensation of movement can be created by design, with the eyes are drawn through a series of focal points.
Light and shadow are a visually important sensory garden element, even when subtle, like dappled sunlight through a shade tree.
Appropriately placed garden décor like sculptures, gazing globes and mobiles enhance visual pleasure. Lighting with colored or clear flood lights or torches makes the garden visually arresting at night. Seating is an important element for a sensory garden and should be placed where easily used and so that it maximizes enjoyment of the space. The seating itself can be a sensory experience, whether it rough-textured tree stumps or a single smooth metal bench warmed in the sun. Plus, seating offers the opportunity to incorporate fragrant plants over and around the visitor.
Sound is one more way to expand the garden experience. The sound of wind rustling branches and grasses can be very satisfying as is the crunch of walking over fallen leaves in Autumn. Some plants make sounds with a small amount of wind or jostling like bamboo stems and palm fronds.
Animal sounds contribute enormously to a gardens sensory pleasure–chattering squirrels, singing cardinals, chirping birds, tapping woodpeckers. Providing and maintaining birds baths, bird-attracting plants, feeders and bird houses encourages the musical visitors.
Waterfalls, fountains, water harps and wind chimes are also delightful ways to add sound to the garden.
Scent is essential for a lasting sensory experience. Gardeners can incorporate a rich variety of fragrances, from nasturtium blossoms to pine needles. Edible species like tomatoes and citrus, and many herbs and spices have strong scents.
Some plants release their fragrance with the heat of the sun, while others release scent only when crushed. A garden used in the evening should include plants that release their fragrance at night, like confederate jasmine.
A variety of scented plants alongside garden seating is a natural combination. Plants in large pots along the garden paths can be brushed and touched without stooping. Fragrant creeping herbs, like thyme, planted among pathways, release their aroma when walked on.
Tactile delights are found in soft flowers, fuzzy leaves, springy moss, rough bark, succulent leaves, and prickly seed pods. Many plant species offer a variety of textures within a single plant, like roses, southern magnolia or hosta.
In a sensory garden, treat the taste buds to edible fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. Include plants like mint leaves, strawberries, pineapple sage, or edible flowers.
Of course, nothing brings taste directly into the garden like a barbecue. PL
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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