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Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Reviewing Sensory Garden For A Person With Sight Loss Part Two

A drift of Blue and yellow flowers in a garden

This is part two reviewing making a sensory garden for a person with sight loss. As I explained in Reviewing Sensory Garden For A Person With Sight Loss Part One my husband is having to adjust to losing his sight and we are both learning how to handle this development.

So I have been looking into how to have a garden that will be beautiful, fun and interesting and safe as his sight declines and how I need to change my gardening style.

There are always five elements when making a garden and these revolve around the five senses.

We covered Smell, Hearing and Touch in part one.

In part Two we concentrate on Sight, Taste and Safety.

We are very much working together on this project and we aim to retain as much of my husbands independence and gardening skills as possible too.

In this article we will be using the terms sight impaired, blind, low vision, partially sighted and sight loss as these are the current acceptable terms in my country for people with sight loss. This may change over time and be different in different countries. No offence is intended by any of these terms.

Day Lily Flower with three yellow petals

Sense Of Sight -Colour and Light

Now it might seem odd to include sight in a garden for people with sight loss. However my husband and many other people with sight loss, severe sight impaired and partially sighted will have some useful sight.

It will be a case of finding out what sort of useful vision they have, what if any colour they can see easily and what if any leaf shapes they can visualise. The best way to do this is to work with them, visit other gardens, check what they can see in terms of plants and shrubs.

So with my husband we started by checking which colours he likes and can see easily. This may be different for other people.

These for him are red, yellow, purple and white so we will concentrate on these colours especially for check points around the garden. For example yellow daffodils, red geum, white snowdrops, red bottlebrush, purple clematis. We may include other colours, but these will be secondary to him.

For my husband colour contrast is important so we need to work that in for example a red poppy against a white wall is more easily visible.

Red Poppy Flower against white brick wall

In terms of how the plants look we discussed having at least some plants with large leaf forms or bold shapes so that he can use these as anchor plants whether they are in flower or not.

For example:-

Tree Peony

Bamboo

Small round shaped conifers.

Tall columular conifers

Elephant ears

We also discussed light in the garden. We have security lights but also would like softer mood lighting for dusk.

While we would love real candles, they are not perhaps the safest choice for a person with limited sight.

So we agreed on safe flameless outdoor candles and string lights to use when we are out there at dusk. We will turn these off when we go in so as not to confuse wildlife.

Homemory 6”x3” Outdoor Waterproof Flameless CandlesCheck Price

Sense Of Taste

We did not think there would be food to taste all year round, yet it will still be an important element. Many of these plants also have scent.

It is crucial that I do not include anything poisonous, an irritant or just ill tasting. Accidents can happen when you touch poisonous plants and we cannot risk this.

So in terms of positive tastes we intend growing a lot of herbs and salad crops. As we hope to have an allotment we wont be growing lots of veg or fruit in the garden but smaller edible plants are welcome.

We have grown vegetables in outdoor containers before and will continue to do this.

So we will grow:-

Different mint varieties such as chocolate mint and peppermint. These will be in separate pots as they can be invasive and take over a whole bed.

sage

rosemary

curry plant

distinctive salad leaf crops such as rocket.

baby carrots in tall pots

radish

Strawberries

Fennel

Safety In The Garden

Gardens needs to be safe for every person and there are some specific considerations when you are design for a sight impaired or severe sight impaired person.

We mentioned previously to avoid any plants that can be poisonous just in case they are touched. Also to avoid any that can be irritants such as euphorbia plants

To avoid very prickly plants such as prickly Holly , pyracantha unless they can be positioned at the back of a border where it is difficult to touch them.

Flat ground is easier for my husband now. As he is new to sight loss he still finds steps a bit of a barrier I need to help him with so we will be aiming for a flat garden if possible. If we do have steps then I think we will need a handrail. Also the steps need to be highlighted in some way with a different colour or texture.

Any ponds should be highlighted in some way depending on the level of sight. So for some a border of a different material around the pond will be enough to know to avoid it, others may feel happier with a grid over the water so falling in is not an option.

For other people a pond in the ground is not desirable but perhaps a raised pond in an old barrel made waterproof would be a good option.

Trip hazards are something we need to avoid as my husband has already had a couple of falls over things he did not see. So the aim is to have raised beds but a little higher than normal so that he can feel them with his hands. A low below the knee height is no good as they will just be another trip hazard, they need to be higher.

This also achieves that scented plants will be at a better level rather than having to bend down all the time. If necessary we can also paint them different colours or at least the top section a distinctive colour so that he can see more easily.

For him the ground needs to be flat as possible. A lawn is fine and we would still like some lawn, but we will probably go for more paved areas in large slabs that have some grip and do not get slippery in wet weather.

So with a little planning and discussing the needs of the person I do believe it is perfectly possible to make and maintain a beautiful garden.

When we take into account smell, hearing, touch, taste and safety, which should be cornerstones of making any garden we can make a lovely garden suitable for someone with sight loss and beautiful in every respect.

Wrought Iron Handrail, Step Handrails for Outdoor Steps Fit 3 to 4 StepsCheck Price Keter Urban Bloomer 12.7 Gallon Raised Garden Bed with Self Watering Planter Box and Drainage Plug, Dark GreyCheck Price

Reviewing Sensory Garden For A Person With Sight Loss Part One

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Reviewing Sensory Garden For A Person With Sight Loss Part One

My husband has been gradually losing his sight and this is something we both need to learn and adjust to.

One of the areas I have been looking into recently is how to have a garden that will be beautiful, fun and interesting to him as his sight declines. We are also anticipating a house move in the next few years to make life easier long term so I am looking into what will work and how I need to change my gardening style.

There are always five elements to take in to account when making a garden and these revolve around the five senses of

Smell, Hearing, Sight, Touch and Taste and then the next important area is safety.

It is vital that we work together on this project so that I understand what he wants and needs from the garden. Our aim is to retain his independence as much as possible in all areas of life and that includes the garden.

We aim to arrange it so that he will know where he is in the garden by the location of key plants and structures and take notice of the five senses.

In Part One we will discuss the senses of Smell, Touch and Sound and in Part Two we will discuss Sight, Taste and Safety.

I have presented these elements in the order my husband would like me to concentrate. I find the best approach to be led by him in what he needs and wants in the garden.

Elements To Address in The Garden

Smell : Scent: Scented Plants

Touch : Different textures and feel. Safe to Touch Plants

Hearing : Sound: Windchimes Water Features and Birds

Sight : Colour and form, Light

Taste : Fruit, veg and herbs Edible Plants. Avoid poisonous plants.

Safety : Moving around independently and safely

Sense Of Smell-Scent

Scented Sweet Peas

Scented plants are very important in any garden but particularly when thinking of a person with sight loss. I am aware of many scented plants. The next step was to ask which scented plants he preferred, so I made sure I included those.

I will not be limited to these plants though as I always think it is good to have surprises. Some plants are all year round scent from leaves, others only have scent for a part of the year they are in flower.

We discussed having these plants mainly in raised beds so that it is easier to smell them and easier to maintain, plus better to be able to give them the conditions they like. In addition, the plants that have Mediterranean origins like free drainage, difficult to provide on our mainly heavy clay soil.

So we will plant:-

Lavender

Lemongrass

Basil

Thyme

Rosemary

Jasmine

Salvia

Scented Sweet peas

Artemisia

Curry plant

Scented roses

Thyme

Honeysuckle

Chamomile

Scented Daffodils

Cushion Bush/Silver sand

Rosemary

Sense Of Touch

Although I love plants like Holly and pyracantha, they are both very prickly and it is not a great idea to have them central in a garden suitable designed for a sight impaired, partially sighted or blind person.

A better idea is to have plants that can be touched safely and that do not mind being touched.

Some of these plants can be the same as the ones with lovely distinctive scents, many have leaves that are evergreen and release amazing scent when touched. Also they are not harmed by being touched.

Choysia shrub pale yellow leaves and white flowers

So we will plant:-

Choisya Shrub

Curry plant

Artemisia

Lavender

Rosemary

Chamomile

Lambs ears

White Scented Roses

A reality check are our love of roses. Now roses usually have thorns which is not a great idea. However we both adore roses and do not want to give them up so we worked on what we hope is a solution by planting roses in raised beds and surrounding them with lavender and chamomile.

That way my husband will know if he smells or feels lavender or chamomile he has a safe space before he gets to roses. However once in flower the roses will have a gorgeous scent he can enjoy safely.

Sense Of Hearing -Sound

Plants

In the garden sound can be achieved by plants making the sound such a bamboo or grasses. The distinctive rustling in the wind or a gentle breeze is a lovely sound for anyone and makes it a restful place for a bench to sit and listen.

Wind Chimes

Materials are also useful in making a sound such as wind chimes. They can be a useful item in the garden to provide a different element and even announce a separate area.

Bamboo

Water In The Garden

Water is an important element but while we both want a pond for wildlife it can be a real danger for someone who is sight impaired.

So our solution is to have elements near the pond that will alert him to the water such as a physical barrier of a fence around the pond, a windchime near it and for added safety we will add a grid over the pond in case he does walk onto it.

We may have a small running water feature pump, not so much so that it disturbs wildlife but enough for it to be heard.

We will change the ground near the pond to something very different so if there is grass mainly near the pond we will put slabs down.

Bird Bath

We will also continue to have a bird bath. Even if he eventually cannot see the birds very well, he can hear them having a bath as they splash around. We love our garden birds so we intend to have maybe three bird baths in different areas.

A Bird In The Bath
by RaintreeDesigns

So with a little thought and discussion and some plant knowledge it is I believe very possible to make a beautiful sensory garden with Touch, Sound and Scent for a person with sight loss and being an interesting garden for everyone.

See Part Two in a few weeks, which will cover Sight, Taste and Safety.