What is a Sensory Garden?

               Sensory gardens can be designed to serve many functions from teaching, socializing, healing, and therapy.  The best designs can blend all the senses together but the different senses can be focused on in individual areas.  The sensory garden focuses on one of the five senses: sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste.  Designs can be both stimulate and help relax at the same time.  These gardens appeal to people with an impairment of one or more senses. 

Design Considerations:

·        Hardscape:

o   Raise planters to provide access to plants.

o   Think about materials you are using for walls, walkways, and seating

§  Smooth materials such as thermal cut stone, metal, and sanded wood.

§  Rough materials such as tree bark, rough stone, and tumble brick.

o   Signage in a sensory garden is a key feature.

§  Signs of plant characteristics and uses will encourage interaction.

§  If designing for the visually impaired consider Braille signage.

·        Plant Selections

o   As with any planting design choose plants that work well in your zone and the microclimate that the garden is in.

o   Avoiding plants that require a lot of pesticides or chemical upkeep as well as plants that are poisonous or can cause severe allergic reactions.

o   Many plants can provide multiple sensory experiences

§  Tomatoes provide touch with their hair leaves, smell from their foliage, and taste from their fruit.

o   Think about themes in your planting design

§  Design a grouping that are all plants used for medicinal purposes

§  Design a grouping that provides spices in another area of the world

·        Sight

o   Sight is by far the most important sense to the human species and because of this it is the most important in the garden as well.  Play with this sense by providing different colors, textures, movements, form, light, and shadow. 

o   Even people with severe visual impairment can perceive “blobs” of color, light, and shadow.

·        Sound

o   Sound is an important element in the design of a sensory garden.  Sound is a very important if you are visually impaired.  A sensory garden should play on this sense.

o   Plants rustle in the wind, wind chimes ring, birds chirp, include water, and gravel crunches under foot.

·        Smell

o   Smell is a very emotional and associative sense.  We remember smells throughout our lives.

o   Smell is another sense that is good for the visually impaired. 

o   Many edible plants have strong scents.

o   Place fragrant plants next to walkways and seating areas for the biggest effect.

·        Touch

o   Touch is an important sense but needs to be carefully regulated in the sensory garden. 

o   Plants with thorns should be avoided or placed where they cannot be touched.

o   Plants that are going to be handled should be chosen with their robustness in mind.

o   Think about soft flowers, rough tree bark, slick leaves, and sticky sap.

o   A lawn appeals to many senses including touch.  Provide an area for a visitor to lay down and enjoy the touch and the smell of a lawn. 

·        Taste

o   Taste is another sense that a designer need to carefully regulate.  Be careful to not provide plants for tasting that could be poisonous or cause a severe allergic reaction.

o   When planting a garden for tasting be sure to provide enough to ensure everyone has a chance to taste.


If you have any questions please do not hesitate to visit our web page at www.lawn-scapes.net.


-Matt Bradley

Water Features

Water is one of the most desirable elements in the garden and because of this it is the most important elements in the design.  When designing with water, it is important to think about its inherent characteristics: it runs downhill and collects in low spots.  Try to respect and design within these characteristics in mind.  For example, even the most well designed pool will look silly perched on the top of a hill in the middle of a garden.  It is also very important to consider the scale of the water feature in comparison to the scale of the space that it is placed in. 

               Water can be informal or informal.  This is decided upon based on the design of the garden.  A formal reflecting pool would not work in an informal landscape design for example.  When designing an informal pool look to nature and the surrounding local ponds.  Use the informality to inform your plant selection; use native water loving plants for the best results.  Formal pools have many more rules to follow because applying a strong rigid form to a loose, fluid element.  The formal pond should be set in a space that helps define it.  They tend to be free standing and set in the middle of a flat open space.  A formal pool can be many shapes including, rectangles, ellipses, as long as it’s a formal, well defined shape. 

               A pool tends to be the focus of the garden that it is a part of, because of this an important consideration is its appearance in the winter.  To look nice in all seasons a pool needs to have a refined proportions, clean lines, and well designed lines.  Plants can play into the winter landscape as well.  Ornamental grasses, and other plants should be chosen for their winter shape, form, and winter interest.  Making these important considerations will make your pool or water garden have plenty of year round interest.

               Streams and brooks bring movement, sound, and an opportunity to introduce naturalistic plantings to a landscape.  Streams also act as an axis in a garden, dividing spaces, and defining them.  A stream can cut a landscape in two or create and edge for the design.  A stream forces the garden design to form around it and with it.  Bringing informality or formality to the landscape can be accomplished by using a stream as well.  Fast moving water should be focused on, the banks should be treated simply.  Slower moving water can be treated with a seating area, and more elaborate planting areas. 

               Fountains are amazingly dynamic focal points.  Water in a fountain can be use as a gentle gurgle or in a huge, forceful jet.  The best fountains work within the context of the body of water that they are part of.  Elaborate displays of water work in simple spaces; where the plantings or the planning is complicated the water display should be simple and fade into the background.  When designing a fountain think about the visual effects:  How high should the jets rise?; How wide the should the basin be?; How many different levels should there be?; What angles should the jets be at?  These are always a good questions to consider.

The Kitchen Garden

            A kitchen garden is an amazing way to supplement your trips to the supermarket by supplying fresh, local produce.  The local and organic food movement is becoming more and more visible; what is more local than your backyard!  Families with children will create an amazing learning opportunity by teaching (and showing) their children where food comes from, and the amazing process of life.  A garden of about 300 square feet can keep a family of four in fresh vegetables and fruit for an entire summer though, I would recommend going smaller for your first season.  If planned correctly the spare fruits and vegetables can be canned or frozen for the winter months.  If you do not have space for a garden of that size, then Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Swiss Chard, and Carrots can be grown in pots.  My wife and I grew an amazing variety of produce on our back deck during college. 

            It is very important to plan your garden for maximum yield by choosing what you want to grow and what your family eats a lot of.  My grandparents had a garden every year for as long as they were able.  They avoided the initial plowing by hiring a local man with a tractor and plow to work their soil for a very reasonable rate.  Once this was done, they could pick out rocks and sow seed.  Your garden plot should be placed in an area that gets good sun throughout the day.  Avoid areas with large trees because of roots.  Sketching out your garden is a good idea.  An easy scale to work with is 1”=1’ (you can use a regular ruler if you do not possess a scale).  It is important to think about plant space requirements and to make sure you leave space between rows to walk.  Make sure during your planning that taller plants, such as corn, do not shade out other crops that require more sun. 

Research the plants that you are growing to learn about crop yields, space requirements, and whether they can frozen or need to be eaten right away.  I would also recommend researching disease resistant varieties and which crops do well with little work in your area.  The perfect garden soil is loamy and rich.  The key to soil improvement is working organic material into your soil.  A soil test (available from your local County Extension Office) is highly recommended.  A soil test costs anywhere from nine dollars to 30 dollars and will tell you what your soil’s pH, composition, and make up is.  Knowing your region’s frost dates because this helps determining the grow season’s length.  Southeastern Pennsylvania’s is about 200-300 days. 

Taking care of your garden is very important for crop growth and quality.  Take a walk through your garden every day with an eye for diseases, wilting, weeds, and to pick your crops.  Water whenever the soil becomes powdery and dry.  Make sure you water deep and thoroughly.  I also recommend mulching your garden.  Mulch insulates plant’s roots and replaces organic material to the soil.  Leaves, hay, grass clippings, saw dust, or wood chips are all suitable materials to use as mulch in the garden.  For disease problems I recommend purchasing a vegetable disease guide.  It is important to decide whether you want to try to deal with disease problems organically or with a chemical.  There are many organic products available to deal with pests and diseases.    

Hints and Tips for a Quality Garden:

1.     Choose disease resistant plant varieties

2.     Inspect seedling for diseases before you purchase.

3.     Pull and dispose of diseased plants. DO NOT compost.

4.     Rotate crops every year to prevent soil depletion and soil born diseases.

5.     Weed often.

6.     Do not work in your garden after a rainstorm.  Plants can be more fragile, the soil will be soft and muddy, and the roots can be trampled.

7.     Compost healthy plants at the end of their life.

            Crops to Consider:

·       Crops for Early Spring Planting:

o   Broccoli, Cabbage, Lettuce, Onion, and Radish

·       Crops for Mid- Spring Planting:

o   Cauliflower, Beets, Carrots, Swiss Chard, Beans, Corn, and Early Potatoes

·       Crops for Early Summer:

o   Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Lima Beans, Melons, Okra (bread and lightly fry in oil, to enjoy a true Southern Delicacy), Pumpkins, Squash, and Winter Potatoes

·       Crops for Summer into Fall:

o   Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Lettuce, and Radish

o   Plant in early August: Cabbage, Cauliflower

o   Lettuce, Spinach, Turnip