By Candace Riddle

Walking through a garden in full summer bloom is a joy that should be experienced by everyone. A garden should engage all human senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and sometimes taste.

For most of us this experience is accomplished by taking a walk through a local public garden or park. For people with special needs, a walk through a garden is not possible because the paths do not accommodate wheelchairs and walkers get stuck in the ground. Touching plants is not possible because they are too low or too high. 

To elevate an ordinary garden to a garden that all can enjoy is simply a matter of thoughtful design. Several years ago we designed a sensory garden at an existing farm to include all visitors in the garden experience. We had limited funds and limited options in the physical location of the garden. Our first sensory garden was a terraced raised bed structure that allowed visitors to reach into the raised beds and touch, smell, and taste various herbs and flowers. The garden design, while not perfect, did allow visitors to have a sensory experience at The Farmyard, which is a part of Maryland’s agricultural tourism project in Northern Baltimore County. While the first sensory garden at The Farmyard was enjoyed by many, changes in circumstances allowed us to expand our goals and create a new sensory garden from the ground up, so to speak. At the new farm we were not limited to existing structures and limited spaces.

With the luxury of space and a healthy budget we were able to concentrate on giving our visitors the best garden experience we could provide. Of course, we wanted to continue to make sure that our special needs school visitors had a complete sensory experience, but we also decided to make the garden a place where senior citizens and stressed out parents could recharge and relax. 

Planning the design included the following items for consideration:

• Easy access to main walking paths and parking lot.
• Flat land that would provide solid footing and support wheelchairs and walkers. 
• Continuous paths to avoid sharp or tight turns.
• Height of raised beds that would accommodate a variety of plants and still be accessible to garden visitors. 
• Sturdy seating set where guests can take in the view of the entire Farmyard experience and still enjoy enough quiet time to hear the water feature and the birds.

We began plotting the new garden with a sign thanking our grant funders, and bricks and planks marking our new space. The next step was deciding on materials to create the kind of safe and welcoming garden we imagined. 

The walking paths presented the biggest challenge; we did not want to put anything in the space that was not earth/animal/people friendly. We also did not want to create such a permanent footprint that we could not move things around in the future as our needs or vision changed, so cement or pavers were out. We finally decided on horse stall mats, which are smooth and easy to wheel things over, and provide a smooth transition from one mat to the next.

Once the paths were laid the placement of the 36” high water troughs which serve as the raised beds for the garden had to be placed so that visitors could get close to the plants for touching, smelling, and tasting. 

Since these pictures were taken more raised beds have been added to the outside perimeter of the garden. This has allowed us to expand our plantings to include not only herbs, but also several vegetables and, of course, flowers. 

A water feature using a solar pump was installed so visitors could enjoy the water sounds while touring the beds.

Our raised beds contained many of the same plants we had in our original sensory garden:

Rosemary: scent, touch, and taste

Sage: scent, touch, and taste

Fennel: scent, sound, and taste (we dig up the bulbs and invite guests to taste a bite)

English Thyme: scent, sight, and herbal lore (sharing the story of tiny fairies sleeping in the flowers) 

Dill: taste and sight (especially the full seed pods) 

Lambs Ear: touch and sound (bees love this plant) 

Marigolds: sight and smell

Basil: scent, taste, and sight

This year we introduced some cherry tomato plants for guests to taste as they ripened- they had fun experimenting with green and red tomatoes.

This picture says it all about a garden experience for all! This youngster was our very first visitor!

Photo Credits: 1) Azaleas blooming along a wide garden path (Public Domain). All other photos courtesy of the author.

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Candace Riddle is a retired educator and an herbal enthusiast for forty years. She has been a member of The Herb Society of America for over twenty years and is a founding member of the Mason-Dixon Unit. She lives in Maryland.