General > Assisted Gardening

Sensory garden

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Unwashed:
Thanks for the good ideas, keep them coming.

That's very interesting ACE.  I wouldn't have thought about colour, I'd have just assumed that blind people were blind, but strong colour is a good call.

grawrc:
My husband, who was colour-blind, could only identify yellow with any certainty of getting it right! He did some fabulous paintings where the colour was all wrong but the paintings were totally right!!

I think I would go for touchy-feely plants with different textures interspersed with strongly scented ones like musk rose and honeysuckle, lavender and many of the herbs. Mounds of thyme, marjoram, oregano and annuals like night scented stock. Ace is so right about strong colours too.

I really envy you. It's something I'd love to do myself. .... maybe I will!!

jennym:
Am occasionally involved in a garden used by those with impaired senses including stroke affected and very elderly. Part of what I'm trying to do is influence the people with the money to improve facilities so that it can be used more, so you may find it helpful to hear of the problems/successes I've seen.
Paths/grass - paths need to be wide enough to take large wheelchairs, at least a metre wide, with places at least 2 metres wide in intervals to provide passing places. Gentle bends are better than sharp right angles to negotiate. Surfaces need to be flat and hard, slopes, steps, small paviours, cobblestones, grass, bark and gravel are very difficult. Grass lawns are very time consuming in terms of upkeep. All of this applies to entrances and exits too.
If seating areas are provided, leave spaces between seats/by seats for wheelchairs to be positioned, and bear in mind that the person pushing needs access from the rear of the chair, and people need to get past easily.
Water features - can be nice, can be dangerous if folk have mental impairment, can be awkward for folk with incontinence problems (the tinkling sound).
Avoid trees/bushes with large/squashy berries which could fall onto hard surfaces and cause a slipping problem. Avoid poisonous berries, and plants with irritant sap (eg. euphorbia) or irritant leaves (eg. fremontodendron)
Avoid positioning overhanging items that may be a danger at head height - hanging baskets, branches, bird feeders.
Raised beds at hip height can be good for folk to get involved in, I've seen quite elderly folk enjoying dead heading small herbaceous plants grown near the edges, and as has been said, herbs to touch and squeeze and smell.
Bright colours - yes - such as in some primulas, crocosmia, daffs, orange trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), solidago, cosmos, gladioli, penstemon, plox, verbena bonariensis, lavender, rosemary, mint, sage. pansies, violas - all these have been commented on as being very easy to see and some easy to recognise by folks with impaired memory.
Watering may need to be considered, laying in permanent systems can be easier in the long run, and can avoid trailing hoses.
Lighting may need to be considered if the garden is to be used for long hours.
Hope this helps.
Jenny

manicscousers:
we were told to colour the bed edges in bright yellow as, apparently, this is the last colour to go  :)

triffid:
Jenny, what a fantastic and informative post! Like many people, I've only dabbled in sensory gardening, and you've really opened my eyes to things like the landscaping/paths/seating. Can this info be added to the A4A wiki or something, so it's always easy to find again?

Jenny's already mentioned including highly recognisable plants, such as heartsease: you might be able to create a 'memories' flowerbed - the sight and particularly the scent of flowers known from childhood can be an amazing stimulus for people with dementia and other memory-altering ailments.

Just a few suggestions to spark you off ...  :)
lily-of-the-valley (but planted in a big open-bottomed pot or bucket to contain invasive rhizomes)
forget-me-nots (yes they spread but they're so shallow-rooted that managing them is simple)
scented narcissus
clove-scented pinks
daisies - ox-eye and even the little lawn daisies as a reminder of daisy-chains
primroses and/or cowslips
English bluebells

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