A veteran’s charity has recently completed the latest of its outdoor areas – an impressive sensory garden.
The garden at Veterans Central West Raynham Station Headquarters (SHQ) includes planting and features that relate to the five senses – touch, smell, sound, sight, and taste.
Each of the beds has planting that relates to one or more of the senses, while wind chimes and other features also add to the experience.
The sensory garden at Veterans Central West Raynham
People can sit under the shade of the pergola and watch birds, butterflies, and bees, take in the scent of the plants, listen to the rustle of the trees and plants, or walk around and experience the colours, sounds, and smells of the garden.
There are a variety of scents from geraniums and roses, plants that rustle in the wind, and others that have various textures when you touch them.
One of the beds contains various plants that can be tasted. Another features the Three Sisters companion scheme of planting that was practiced by Native Americans from as early as the 1300s.
The project started from a jungle of thistles, brambles, nettles, and other weeds
The scheme uses corn, beans, and squash to provide soil fertility and a healthy diet from a single planting.
The project started from a jungle of thistles, brambles, nettles, and other weeds that required significant effort to remove.
With the large structural planters in place, the decision was taken to use 50% of the space in each one as a ‘bug hotel’ – with the lower half comprising rubble, twigs, and fir cones.
The sensory garden at Veterans Central West Raynham
The plants themselves attract a wide range of bees, butterflies, and other insects. The raised beds are also at a height that makes them easier for those with disabilities, in that they do not involve bending or kneeling.
The sensory garden is one of a number of garden spaces at Veterans Central, and visitors can also enjoy the memorial garden, the herb garden, the shrubbery, the wild garden, and the ‘Dig for Victory Therapy Garden’.
The Veterans Central garden areas aim to be as sustainable as possible – most materials are recycled, from pallets and old fencing, to two cable drums.
The sensory garden includes planting and features that relate to the five senses
Its watering is from a rainwater catchment tank, which is pumped out using our solar power system.
The sensory garden is one of a number of garden spaces at Veterans Central that visitors can seeEach of the beds has planting that relates to one or more of the sensesThe raised beds are at a height that makes them easier for those with some disabilitiesThe Veterans Central garden areas aim to be as sustainable as possible
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