A child’s garden of senses brings out the child in all of us

  • By Jennifer Kneuss
  • March 25, 2010
  • 464
                        
It is said that those who never lose their sense of childlike wonder never truly age. When spring warms the earth and renewal begins, both children and adults alike marvel at the beauty of the new season. This spring, why not plan a garden designed for the child in all of us? Children fully explore their world through all of their five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Joining with a child to design a gardening space that celebrates this sensory fascination can be a wonderful project for young and old alike. A child’s garden may be a standard, though miniature, garden plot. Better yet, consider tucking the garden into an unusual nook in the yard, leaving behind traditional measured rows. Incorporate a pretty, unbreakable gazing ball, small sculptured fairies and elves, or unusual and favorite found rocks. Allow the child to make suggestions; a marble collection dumped on the earth creates a kaleidoscope of glistening colors, for instance. In a world where children are too often admonished, “Don’t touch!” the sensory garden can instead invite, “Please do touch.” The soft, silkiness of a lamb’s ears plant is reminiscent of real lamb’s ears or the corner of a favorite silky blanket. Purple Globe Thistles have comical, spiky flower heads, and many sage leaves feel like rich fabrics. Borage has slightly hairy leaves, and the touch-me-not plant actually temporarily draws up its fronds at the slightest touch, much to the delight of little ones. Carpet-like moss can be coaxed to flourish in a shaded space, or a small, shallow tub partially sunk into the earth and filled with cool water can provide splashing fun. (A bonus is the slimy algae, which is sure to develop if the water is not periodically freshened.) Focusing on taste in the garden is easy. The difficult part is narrowing the choices. A garden under an apple tree yields delicious, ready to eat snacks. Miniature cherry tomato plants beckon with healthy treats, and once children know how to recognize different herbs, they will delight in the taste sensations of the mint family; peppermint, spearmint, apple, or pineapple mint. Nasturtium flowers, violas, and yellow dandelions are all edible, too, and, of course, succulent berries are always welcome. Bright lights Swiss chard tastes good and shows off rainbow colors, and purple beans or carrots coax even the most reluctant eater to gobble up their vegetables. Nothing is quite so sweet as the nectar drawn from a plucked honeysuckle blossom. Salad burnet tastes like cucumbers; stevia is candy-sweet, and thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley, chives, fennel, and anise taste great and add delightful scents to the mix. From spring through frost, fragrant plants provide the perfect aromatherapy in a sensory garden. In early spring, fragile lily of the valley is one of the first, and most intense, scents, and is followed by lavender, honeysuckle, mock orange and flowering magnolia trees. Clethra’s sweet vanilla scent and apple, pineapple or other scented geraniums mimic desserts. Heliotrope, lemon verbena or lemon balm, and lavender can only be described as downright heady. Chamomile (which, along with lemon balm, is also great for tea) and creeping thyme both release a heavenly scent when tread upon. Sweet In early spring, fragile lily of the valley is one of the first, and most intense, scents, and is followed by lavender, honeysuckle, mock orange and flowering magnolia trees. Clethra’s sweet vanilla scent and apple, pineapple or other scented geraniums mimic desserts. Heliotrope, lemon verbena or lemon balm, and lavender can only be described as downright heady. Chamomile (which, along with lemon balm, is also great for tea) and creeping thyme both release a heavenly scent when tread upon. Sweet Annie freely self-seeds, and will provide years of enjoyment as well as a wonderful and aromatic privacy screen for small children. Bamboo whispers in the wind, and love-in-the-mist dries, leaving wonderful, rattling seed heads that children love to shake. Trumpet vine, Canterbury bells, and butterfly bushes lure whirring hummingbirds and buzzing bees to the garden. Sweet corn leaves rustle, birds chirp, and tree frogs croak their night music, all adding to the symphony. Top off the sensory garden with climbing bean vines growing up poles, and bound together at the peak for a shaded, living teepee; a make believe world where daisy crowned princesses and skirted hollyhock dolls reside. Climb inside with a wide-eyed child, and let the adventures begin.


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