If we are lucky to have a full complement of all five senses we are fortunate gardeners. At different times of our life these senses may wax and wain, I for one can no longer read the small print on seed packets nor hear my wife when she asks me to do something other than gardening.

Gardeners would garden just for the sheer pleasure but they also want to take into account and compensate for those with impaired senses. Here are some suggestions to help focus on the five senses one at a time but the pleasure is doubled by combining plants that augment all the senses. I you have focal points for viewing what do you call points for touching, smelling, hearing and tasting?

Five Senses – Sight

• Bold colours spring to mind and one favourite is the brash Sunflower but in the veg garden Swiss Chard ‘traffic Lights’ is most colourful
• Different shapes and contrasting leaves can be added via Heuchera or Hostas. Ornaments and statues are good for creating focal points.
• White and yellow flowers start in spring with Snowdrops and Daffodils and continue through a variety of annuals and perennials. I suggest a range of Marigolds and Roses will give pleasure.
• Birds and butterflies are natural sights in a well balance garden

Five Senses – Sound

• Close your eyes and listen to your garden. Birds and insects add a vibrancy to your garden so attract them with appropriate plants.
• Trees with open canopies like birch and beech are great rustlers in a breeze.
• Bamboos sway in the breeze and if you can stand the added noise make a wind chime from the dried hollow stems.
• If you have running water so much the better. I saw a deer scarer run by solar power in a garden this week.

Five Senses – Touch

• Use pathways and lawn edges for the plants you most want to touch and hide away the spiky and prickly devils.
• Textured leaves like the hairy Lambs tails or Silver Sage are very touchable.
• Flowering grasses are airy and good for running your hands through.
• Again an appropriate statue can be stroked and petted.

Five Senses – Taste

• Herbs and vegetable come out strongly in the taste sense. Who would be without strawberries some varieties of which can now be grown in hanging baskets or containers.
• Mint, Rosemary and Lavender are old fashioned stand-byes for strong taste and the plus of scent.
• Members of the onion family including chives garlic and shallots have there own appeal.

Five Senses – Smell

• Sweet smelling garden Pinks and Chocolate Cosmos attract more garden visitors than you would imagine.
• Sweet Peas are my all time favourite and you can pick bunches for indoors throughout the flowering season.
• Over breeding has reduced the scent of some plants so smell before you buy at your local nursery or scrounge plants from other gardeners where you know the pedigree of the smell.

Sixth Sense

• This plant was expensive so it will die
• This nice plant will turn out to be a weed
• The weather is going to get better
• The bugs will eat my best veg