Making a sensory garden #GetKidsGardening

With Spring suddenly lurching into Summer, it was time to do something about the garden. Our garden is small, ruined by two big ugly manholes and the lawn is 60% moss and 40% weeds. Not exactly a tranquil, relaxing haven to sit in and soak up the rays whilst the children play!

We have been challenged by Plant Me Now to turn our garden into a haven of sight, touch, smell and sound – a sensory garden. A challenge for the whole family as part of a campaign to #GetKidsGardening.

To me, the most important thing is flowers. The happiness can be put into a garden with bright pretty flowers. So we ordered the following summer bedding plants:

Ipomea in Bright Ideas Green
Osteospermum in Voltage Yellow
Dahlia Marissa
Geranium Divas Raspberry Ripple
Begonia Majestic Pink Picotee
Impatien Mystic Mix
Verbena Aztec Burgandy Wink
Verbena Violet Wink
Fuchsia Dollar Princess
Lobelia Crystal Palace
Bacopa Abunda Collossal Blue
Nemesia Lagoon Blue
Calibrachoa Caberet Deep Blue

Flowers not only look pretty and uplift the spirits, but most of them smell beautiful too.

The plants arrived quickly, well packaged and in tip top condition. The total cost was just shy of £80 and there were LOADS of them. I think I may have gotten click-happy and ordered too many!

Bunny did all the planting, with a little help from Daddy and in no time, the garden went from being dull and ugly to pretty and fragrant.
 

Bunny really enjoyed getting involved in the gardening, especially as she has her own trowel, fork and rake. 

My input was to stand there and take photos of course!

Tiny and Fluffy got involved too, although their input was more along the lines of chaotic, than helpful – stealing the tools, digging up the plants, throwing dirt and picking flowers! It was very cute to watch, but we decided it was bedtime for the twinningtons, so Bunny and Daddy could get on with the task at hand.

Once all the plants were in, we moved some boulders to sit around the large plant pot, to add texture and attempt to cover part of the unsightly manhole.

The next task was to add more sensory items. After a quick trip to the local supermarket, we bought colourful windmills (£1 each), solar powered lights (£1 each) and windchimes (£2 each).

If our garden had been bigger, we would have added mirrors, a sand pit and a water feature, to complete the sensory aspect. However, with a small garden, there’s only so much you can do! We think we made a good start anyway, we can always add to it later.

It’s important to also think about keeping the garden going all year round, so I’ve been doing some research into winter bedding plants too. I like a mix of small and large flowers and I think the Ornamental Cabbages are stunning for winter and I especially love the Northern Lights White colourway. Also to keep with a heavy-on-the-purple theme in my garden (it’s my favourite colour), I would add some Blue Blotch Pansies.

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