The Sensory Garden

Gardens are not just for the eye, plants are tactile and they are living things. Plants have a dynamic and remain continually in flux (and stress). Assuredly the first thing to test a garden is the eye and that should only be its first test, is it visually pleasing, balanced, shapely, textural and so forth. While the eye will be caught by what it desires in the garden, at least to begin, allow some occasions for yourself or guests to be lead onwards by virtually any other sense.

There are the simple things like- the press of your bare foot on a clipped lawn or the meditative bubbling of a fountain and of course the prevalent scent of flowers. These ideals should be exploited in every garden. Some views are to be hidden at a distance, behind greenery or maybe in a grotto so as to make it ever more delightful to seek secrets and find features. The garden should be leaving clues of all sorts alluding to the next delight.

Bring scented plants to the foreground and group them or use them as features. Put them up in pots, cluster them by thoroughfares or stairwells and by seats. Keep them accessible to visitors or choose plants with powerful perfumes that will waft through the garden. Know which foliage to break between the fingers so it emits its odour sweet or otherwise. Consider even night scented plants and for that matter remember that white flowers will shine especially nicely at night. Use these in dark corners and along shadowed pathways or drives to guide the way at night.

Fruit is ideal in both the patch and the ornamental garden. Standardized fruit trees or fruit trees as features, even shrubs, vines and runners of fruiting plants in beds should be considered if it suits you. To have something to share immediately and to tantalise people (or simply restore your own energy) shows great forethought.

Herbs can play a multitude of roles in the garden. They are highly attractive to observe in their own right and often have a strong scent that is enhanced simply by brushing against them or crushing some leaves between the fingers. Mild herbs can be picked and enjoyed fresh. The first ripe tomato wrapped in sweet basil is often this gardeners guilty pleasure during the first days of summer. Sometimes with cheese, or wine, or both.

Likewise many vegetables are massively underrated for use as ornamental plants in bedding and borders. A cooling, crisp crunch on a warm day. A burst of fresh foliage that when full can be carried into the kitchen.

Visuals, Scent and flavour are simple elements to include in any garden and are but a glance, pluck or a lean away from any visitor.

Those other elements... a touch or a sound. These can be far more elusive and difficult for the gardener to capture, certainly in any meaningful way. There are those multifaceted elements such as bamboo that knocks and rustles at the slightest breeze and is also cool and smooth to touch. Gravels and pebbles that soften paths so solidly and crunch underfoot. Water is that pure element that offers so much to the gardener yet is hugely underutilised in our region. The drip or trickle of a waterfall or deer scarer. The fun of a hidden mist sprayer timed to go off at random intervals on a hot summer day. Or the simplest of all; a bath or bowl of cooling water, better to be carved of stone and shaded to ensure that soft mosses can quickly adorn it.

The above examples are useful to show that a garden simply isn’t for the eyes. In fact the more we deviate from the need to merely see what is happening in the garden, the more involved and immersed we are in our green surrounds.