GARDEN HOTLINE | Garden senses and sensibility

Sure, all of nature engage our senses — whether it be the sound of cottonwood leaves rustling in the summer, the painful spines of a blackberry or the sweet fragrance of lilac in bloom. While this is a fact of life, the act of beginning to connect with the natural world in a personal way is catalyzed with an amplified and direct sensual experience with the plant world. Such interactions may inspire healing, calm, creative expression or even connection with others.

So while all gardens have the potential to heal, sensory gardens exaggerate the garden visitor’s experience to create a more interactive experience, thus initiating a restorative plant-human relationship.

Various strategies exist to achieve this effect, though some are more accessible to people of all abilities than others. For instance, a garden that is not ADA-accessible or is identifiable only by visual signage will engage a far smaller audience than one with wide, stable pathways and an alternative approach to plant identification.

One simple way to distinguish between the senses is to create a separate bed or area of the space dedicated to each sense. Even if one plant is visually appealing and tasty, setting it into one category simplifies the visitor’s experience and allows them to hone one particular sense at a time.

Another option is to combine two senses in each space, such as sight and touch, and encourage garden goers to explore both at once while exploring.

A final option is the free-for-all approach that considers all five senses, yet fills the space full with nontoxic, safe plants arranged in an artful manner for visitors to explore on their own without any sense-designation.

Regardless of whether you decide to create an all-out sensory garden or simply integrate a few sensory highlights into your yard, here are a few suggestions inspired by the sense organs.

Sight

•Emphasize bright colors — Swiss chard, sunflower, marigolds, daffodils, roses

•Organize garden beds by color (i.e. blue) — Grape hyacinths, Salvia ‘Black and Blue,’ cornflowers, etc.

•Large fruits, leaves or flowers — Apples, pumpkins, dahlias, Gunnera, rhubarb

•Visual texture — Ornamental grasses, conifers, baby’s breath, hostas

•Interesting form — Corkscrew willow or filbert, Corokia, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy,’ Sky Pencil Japanese holly

•Artful additions — Mirrors, gazing globes, sculptures, lighting, mobiles

Smell

•Fragrance in day — Lilac, roses, sweet pea, heliotrope, mock orange, stock

•Fragrance in evening — Evening primrose, Nicotiana sylvestris, honeysuckle, moonflower

•Fragrance when crushed — Wintergreen, rosemary, thyme, Artemesia, lemon verbena, scented geraniums

•Fragrance in winter — Sarcococca, Osmanthus rotundifolia, winter honeysuckle, Edgeworthia, Daphne odora, witch hazel

•Unique fragrance — Azara microphylla, Voodoo lily, Helichrysum italicum, chocolate cosmos

Sound

•Wind-generated — Bamboo, ornamental grasses, cattails, cottonwood, willow, poplar, poppy or Nigella (seed heads)

•Wildlife — Oregon grape, salal, serviceberry, Pacific madrone, red twig dogwood, hazelnut, oceanspray, snowberry, evergreen huckleberry, highbush cranberry

•Artful additions — Wind chimes, water feature

Touch

•Soft — Lamb’s ears, mullein, rose petals, Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam,’ Gaura, dusty miller, maidenhair fern

•Rigid — Corkscrew willow or filbert, Dracaena, Yucca, monkey puzzle tree, red twig dogwood, Juncus grass

•Rough — Tree bark, conifers, Gunnera, Rodgersia, Western sword fern, Ceanothus, heliotrope

•Smooth — Tibetan cherry bark, hosta, Pacific madrone bark, Eucalyptus, southern magnolia

•Spined — Sea holly, rose, blackberry, barberry, hawthorn, gooseberry, Oregon grape

•Squishy — Water lilies, aloe, hen and chicks, daylily buds, carnivorous plants, Sedums

Taste

•Sweet — Grapes, stevia, strawberry, blueberry, anise hyssop, fennel, honeysuckle

•Sour — Sorrel, Oregon grape berries, Mexican sour gherkin cucumber

•Bitter — Dandelion, kale, arugula, lettuce, fenugreek

•Astringent — Cranberries, rosemary, apple, basil, grapes, Aronia

•Floral — Violet, lavender, rose petals, calendula petals

•Pungent — Chives, mustard greens, ginger, wild ginger, mint, nasturtium

•Mineral/salty — Spinach, Swiss chard, nettles, amaranth, quinoa

Note: Always be 100-percent certain of a plant’s identity prior to consumption.

For inspiration, take a visit to the Seattle Sensory Garden, on the east end of the Woodland Park Zoo’s Rose Garden. For more information, visit www.seattlesensorygarden.com.

To learn more about sensory plants, contact the Garden Hotline at (206) 633-0224 or www.gardenhotline.org.

KATIE VINCENT is an educator for Seattle Tilth’s Garden Hotline (seattletilth.org). To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.