I registered this domain years ago when my children were just babies.

Why?

For one, I was suffering from a mild case of domain registration addiction.

For another, I had two children with sensory needs. Very different sensory needs, as it happened.

What is a Sensory Garden?

A sensory garden can be very different things to different people but at a basic level is a garden aimed at enriching all the senses. Touch, smell, taste, touch, sound.

The sad thing is that I’m yet to experience a truly magical sensory garden, one that hits all the senses for me. Too often sensory gardens are left unmanaged, they’re unkempt, full of weeds, run into disrepair and a little (lot) lacking.

I think, partly, this is because they’re wonderful things to have built through charity funding, there are many companies who can design and build wonderful sensory gardens for schools, hospices, hospitals, playgroups, etc, but they don’t forward fund looking after it over the years. It’s left down to staff to manage it.

I would like our sensory garden to be as self-managing as possible. I want to include permaculture in the design. A herb spiral, perhaps, with a hands on water feature at the bottom of the spiral.

I don’t be yet know, but I’ve pulled out a few books to get list-making.

What I do know is that’s it’s going to be a challenge. Our family’s needs are very different.

Child 1. Sensory processing sensibilities. Fear of spiders and anywhere spiders might be. Dislikes getting skin dirty. Loves to bounce. Likes personal space. Private area for contemplation would be beneficial. Loves water play.

Child 2. Cerebral palsy, cortical visual impairment, hearing impairment, developmental delays, wheelchair user. Requires 1 to 1 assistance for all needs. Can reach, grab, look to stimulus, loves messy play and water. Enjoys mirrors and being sociable. Loves music and movement.

Parents. Knackered. 24h carers and in need of a private space in an open garden. Gardening and being in the garden a firm love for them both. Garden is their happy place. Need a place to be both alone and with both children.

The right space

We have a very underused part of the garden that runs the length of the back of the house.

When the developers converted our house from a barn they paved immediately outside the back doors, but graveled the rest of a 4m deep strip leading up to the lawn.

We have a washing line going across it, a little shed and a Lazy-spa hot tub on it. And pots, ladders, gardening tools, bits and pieces get dumped here.

It’s not really used and it’s a bit of an eyesore.

Child 2 can’t access it because it’s not wheelchair accessible.

First Steps to Planning a Sensory Garden

The first thing we need to do is device on the elements we want in the garden. We also need a way of making it more private. Our garden faces the garages for the development and has no privacy so it needs screening off somehow.

Then we get sketching ideas, looking through my Sensory Garden Pins on Pinterest and seeing which will work for us.

If you have favourite ideas for a sensory garden, please comment below!