If I ask you to imagine a summer garden, most people would call to mind the bright colours of flowers possibly surrounding a rich green lawn. But when you are planning a garden, or perhaps considering replanting a single flower bed, I encourage you to think not only about what you can see, but about how gardens and plants engage with our other senses: touch, hearing, smell and to a lesser extent in an ornamental garden taste, if only for health reasons. So I will consider each of these first four in turn.

When choosing colours it is not always the case that ‘more is more’. You can have a complete rainbow in a single bed but sometimes you want to choose a more limited colour palette for a particular effect.  A very simple scheme can reflect a contemporary style, such as green and white, blue and white or something slightly more unusual like one of my favourite combinations, lime green, black and bronze.  At the same time, blue and white is often peaceful, where hot colours like red, yellow and orange may remind you of exotic holidays and be really cheerful. And of course, you don’t need to have the same colour scheme across a whole garden. Different beds in the same garden can offer different colourways with a little bit of thought.

Touch and smell are the attributes that we probably associate most closely with sensory gardening, and particularly for people who may have impaired vision.  For touch I’m talking about plants which may have very finely cut, leathery or hairy foliage plus ornamental grasses. Great examples include the emerging feathery foliage of Fennel, leathery dinner plate Bergenia, soft, hairy Lambs Ear and the surprisingly rough hairy texture of Brunnera. And don’t forget shrubs or small trees such as the dissected, feathery leaves of many Japanese Maples (Acer palmatum). Remember to check the back of the leaf too because some are more interesting than the front.  An important point if you are encouraging touch and smell in a garden, then you really do need to make sure that no plants are toxic or will irritate the skin.

And when it comes to our sense of smell, no one really needs reminding about some of our best scented summer flowers, Roses and climbers like Honeysuckle. However it is worth pointing out that for many plants the leaves are equally scented, and in many Mediterranean herbs it is the leaves that provide the scent through the oils that they contain. A particular example is the familiar Lavender.  Of course we use the flowers in lavender bags, but it surprises me sometimes that folk do not appreciate that the leaves are also scented.  You simply need to brush past and release the perfume into the air.

The final sense in an ornamental garden is hearing.  Frequently it is not the plants themselves that we hear, but something interacting with them. One of the most obvious examples is the wind rustling leaves of trees and tall grasses.  The gentle hum of bees and other pollinating insects as they buzz from flower to flower relies on you planting nectar and pollen rich flowers in a sunny position.  And birds need a perch to sing from: small trees, shrubs, hedges and even walls and fences covered with climbers are ideal.

Making the most of your garden for all your senses does not require radical changes, but as you consider replanting a bed, keep an eye out for sensory plants to include and the joy of your garden will extend beyond the bright splash of summer colour.

Happy Gardening from Alison