How to Make Gardens More Accessible In Every Sense

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WSU Extension Master Gardener Monica Meyer joins host Erin Hoover to discuss the development of a sensory garden designed to be accessible and therapeutic for neurodivergent individuals, veterans with PTSD, and others with sensory sensitivities. Learn about the design, purpose, and community impact of this innovative project.

All links open in a new tab.

• Backyard Habitat Certification Program – Backyard Habitats
• Habitat at Home
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) – Nature-based interventions and autism: Nature-Based Interventions for Autistic Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis and “It Helps Make the Fuzzy Go Away”: Autistic Adults’ Perspectives on Nature’s Relationship with Well-being Through the Life Course
• Sensory Inclusive | Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
• Sensory Inclusive® Certification – KultureCity
• AHS Garden Network – American Horticultural Society
• Sensory Certification Series
• Centre for Excellence in Universal Design
• Creating Robust and Resilient Green Spaces for Nearby Nature – Other Episodes on Creating Green Spaces
• Facebook: NatureScaping of SW Washington

Introduction to Sensory Gardens

Erin Hoover (00:00)

Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, episode 71. My guest today is Monica Meyer, a WSU Extension Master Gardener in Clark County, and we sat down for a chat about accessibility in our gardens and talked a lot about the sensory garden that she is working on at NatureScaping Southwest Washington, just north of Vancouver.

 Monica, thanks for joining me today. Welcome.

Monica Meyer (00:24)

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

Target Audience and Benefits

Erin Hoover (00:27)

You’re here today to talk to us all about sensory gardens. Can you tell us what a sensory garden is and how it functions, or how it helps the people who visit the garden?

Monica Meyer (00:38)

Sure. A sensory garden is arranged or designed with the emphasis on basically tapping into the different senses that all of us experience. So there’s a section that could be for tactile, meaning touch. So there would be plants that would reference that, and then there would be like an olfactory, which is the smell.

And then it might be hearing. So we would have maybe some chimes garden. We’re in the process of putting in a bubbler. So it would be a nice kind of quiet place that reduces sound.

Let me see what other ones, the touch, the smell, actually, we will have a taste, which is part of your senses. And that will be seasonal based on the berries that we’re going to have in the garden as well.

We are in the process of designing each of those sections as well as things that cross over, but it will be designed with signs and with QR codes so people that do visit will have accessibility and to learn more about it and why it’s there. Also, it’s focused on neurodivergent individuals, those on the autism spectrum, as well as ADHD and many others, including individuals with brain injuries, deaf, blind, and even the focus on veterans with PTSD. These are all designed for people who have more acute senses so that they can go in and experience the garden.

Erin Hoover (02:21)

I guess we should have started off with where is the garden? Or where will it be?

Monica Meyer (02:25)

Well, it is right now in the process of design. It is in Brush Prairie, Washington, which is just south of Battle Ground and north of Vancouver. And it’s just in a small area that is near the Battle Ground School District’s agriculture test garden, so it’s in a rural area, although it’s beside the Battle Ground School administration building. It’s very rural. It’s literally across from a dairy farm. And you can find it on Google Maps. It will take you right to the garden if you just look up NatureScaping Southwest Washington.

Erin Hoover (03:05)

So you mentioned some of the specific groups of people that you’re kind of targeting to experience this garden. You said neurodivergent or brain injuries, hearing impaired. Obviously, a lot of those people experience their senses differently from what the majority of people do.

How does a garden help with their experience of those senses?

Monica Meyer (03:29)

Each of us, but specifically those that I have mentioned, has different ways that we experience our world, and it is all through our senses. With that being said, those who are neurodivergent, and deaf, blind, those with post-traumatic stress disorder, they can be very hypersensitive or hyposensitive, meaning they’re acutely aware of things, and hypo-, where they need actually more sensory input to be more stimulated to be able to experience things. So, with that in mind, is that a person, let’s say for instance, when I talked about there’s going to be a bubbler garden,

We had an electrician who just put the electricity in so that we can do the bubbler. So that will be a quiet, shaded area with a bubbler. There’ll be very peaceful, calming with a lot of moss, with a lot of ferns, native plants. So it’s a cool sensory experience that’s very relaxing.

There are a couple of other components to sensory input. And that is some of it is proprioceptive or vestibular, which are basically our large muscles, so that a person can go through a series of different steps with different textures. And that they get a different experience, especially those with hyposensitivities that they need more to experience their world. So it really is taking in the different aspects.

And as I was speaking also about PTSD, especially for our veterans, is having a place that is very, one, it’s inclusive, two, if a person has a companion dog or companion animal, they could take it with them. There will be seating that supports their needs, meaning that they can be in a quiet place that literally no one can really, you know, surprise them around a corner or whatever. It’s just going to be a place where a person can find kind of their niche, kind of their area that either can get them, you know, like I said, very excited and ready to look for more.

And while another could be something that’s very calming, very peaceful. We’re just working on a labyrinth today. And the labyrinth is a rock that will have herbs. So you can touch, you can smell. Visually interesting, as well as something that could be olfactory and tactile all at the same time.

Inspiration Behind the Sensory Garden

Erin Hoover (06:07)

Right, great, so what inspired you to develop this garden?

Monica Meyer (06:13)

That’s a good question. I do have an adult son who has autism as well as an intellectual disability. And he experiences a lot of sensory sensitivities, one of them being auditory sensitivity. So he really likes calming places where he’s not over-bombarded with sounds, and it could be a place that’s very peaceful for him. So that was really the genesis for this, as well as another Master Gardener in this collection of gardens.

She also has a son with autism, and we started kind of putting our heads together.  And that’s when I thought I’m going to make this a sensory garden. I started working with our Battle Ground School District, Special Education Transition Program, and Futures Program. And so I work anywhere between, like today, four to six students with autism, and they are helping me do a lot of the physical work, which is very appreciated. As I said, it’s just something that they’re excited about, their families are excited about.

And just kind of makes a full circle, the fact that this is what we’re developing, and we have neurodivergent individuals that are going to be doing that. As I said, my son we go out there and just do some exploring, which is, as I said, it’s just a place that he can go and feel relaxed. And there are few and far between places that we could do that with.

Expertise and Training

Erin Hoover (07:44)

Did you have any special training as far as the sensory inputs for neurodivergent individuals or is it mostly what you learned as a result of helping your son cope in the world?

Monica Meyer (07:56)

What I do, actually, in my real-life job I do have a business, a consulting business, and it is specifically working with individuals, adults with autism, or some people refer to them as autistic people. People who also have intellectual disabilities. So I do training and technical assistance in the field of autism and have been doing that for almost 25 years in the state of Washington.

And so I’ve been, like I said, doing this and have had a lot of training when it comes to the whole autism spectrum, which, includes a lot of information regarding sensory processing and had a great opportunity for 12 years of coordinating a Regional Autism Consultant Cadre and teaching teachers, as well as paraeducators, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists bringing in national speakers. And so I had a good 12 years of having resources to be able to get the training and certifications, and be able to put this in practice, not just in a consulting way, but in an actual physical way, is pretty exciting.

Accessibility Considerations

Erin Hoover (09:17)

Yeah, I have found that especially for adults, there are not a lot of resources or activities to help them cope with sensory inputs.

Monica Meyer (09:27)

Exactly. Yes. As a matter of fact, one of our students that I work with does really well in the garden, but even with that, he still has to have headphones on because even the birds are something that are for him very distracting and he can be overwhelmed so quickly. So, welcoming anybody and especially the accommodations that they might need, just in having access, is something that we want to address and make sure that things are available.

And that is also going to be something that I will be doing in May is identifying not only in my garden, but all the nine other gardens, and providing them information about accessibility, who would benefit if there’s limited access or full access.

Like I said, just having a place where a person would know that they can go, they can enjoy something, and also know what the expectations are that they will come across when they go to a garden. It’s basically based on universal design. It’s not only the sensory, but it’s also about having accessibility and the opportunity to make this garden accessible for anybody.

Interactive Components of the Sensory Garden

Erin Hoover (10:45)

So I think that a lot of people, when they hear accessible, they think of physical barriers, or what are some of the other aspects of accessibility in something like a garden?

Monica Meyer (10:53)

Yes, and that would be, for instance, let’s say somebody who is blind, one of the things that we’re going to have are what are, they’re called totem peace poles. So somebody can be able to touch something. And I would say somebody who is deaf, we actually have QR codes that will give them a reference that they can take a picture of that would take them immediately to what the plant would be, and what are the sensory benefits of this kind of consideration.

We are also gonna be doing some partnering with, we have the School for the Blind here in the Vancouver area that have some students be able to, and actually the instructor there, to give us some good ideas on how to make it accessible, meaning not only just being able to go into the garden and walk around, but how do I interact? How do I get more benefit from the garden other than just being present in it?

And that’s learning about plants, just being able to experience different sensory opportunities that they may not have known about or they just need more information about. And that’s the hope is not only providing the place, but providing opportunity for people to learn.

Erin Hoover (12:05)

So by providing what appeals to their other senses, for them to actually experience a garden in a safe way.

Monica Meyer (12:13)

Absolutely.

One of the other things that we want to do is to have even an interactive component to the garden. I think I mentioned about the taste that there will be, we’ll have blueberry bushes and what are referred to as bramble berries. We’re going to have like an area where going to be planting, you know, some types of vegetables or herbs so that people can like, for instance, take home a pocket of herbs that it’s not like a taboo.

It’s like, how can I literally interact with my garden? And throughout the year, even I’ll be, just providing not only for the sensory garden, but obviously for all gardeners, different classes and different ways that people can, how do you plant, you know, a more diverse planting group that are going to meet sensory needs. And with the whole concept of also making my garden at least 85 % native plants. So that’s one of the other things is just trying to get the certification to be a backyard native plant certification. So it’s trying to do the trifecta.

Native Plant Certification

Erin Hoover (13:30)

So, can you tell me a little bit more about the native plant certification?

Monica Meyer (13:36)

Anybody can apply for it. Actually, one of the gardens in our 10-garden Naturescaping we have, I think, two gardens that are certified. One of the gardens is a waterwise garden. And so it’s designed with native plants that need less water than other gardens that has plants that aren’t native. The hope is to have at least 50 % of our gardens in Naturescaping that will be certified native. It is just a way to promote, again, a native garden and promote pollinators.

And like I said, it’s just when you have native plants, especially here in the Northwest, as we just went through some of our rainy seasons that experience a lot of rain, and then during the summer we can go for long stretches of time without water. And so that’s what native plants do for us is they just adjust to the climate and it doesn’t take all the water, it doesn’t take all the things that other gardeners might need for making sure that they have the fertilizer.

All the things we want to use, whatever we can in composting, native planting and ways of being able to use natural type of cultivating. That, like I said, it’s just a way that we’re going to be able to create an environment that is conducive to, all the senses, but yet it also meets the needs of a native garden for the Pacific Northwest.

Exploring the Five Senses

Erin Hoover (15:20)

I was thinking about the five senses and having vignette gardens that experience each of the five senses or minimize the sensory input for certain senses. What type of plants would you consider using in a tactile garden?

Monica Meyer (15:34)

So, a tactile garden, for instance, some perennials might be like using a cone flower because of the seed part of the flower is very spiky. And then having like maybe some of the herbs we would have, I mean, I’m having sage and rosemary. Those two have different textures as well as Lamb’s Ear, which is a native plant. Those are kind of fuzzy, fuzzy things, as well as we have an Oregon Grape. That’s not so fuzzy.

So, you know, it’s just being able to explain what these things are and where you can find them within the garden. So the tactile part can be, varied opportunities, including a pine tree. We have a scrub pine, a coastal pine, things that people can actually touch and interact with to get some of those sensory needs met. Like I said, it’s an opportunity that it’s not like it’s taboo to touch anything. It’s actually welcomed that if you want to pick a leaf off of something and hold it, smell it, touch it, that’s what we want.

Erin Hoover (16:44)

Lamb’s Ear was the one that first came to mind for me because it is so soft and it’s very unusual in the texture for a plant.

Monica Meyer (16:52)

Exactly, yeah.

Plants to Smell

Erin Hoover (16:54)

So, then you said olfactory, that’s a lot of herbs. Besides, you know, the really pungent herbs, what other types of plants do you plan to incorporate?

Monica Meyer (17:03)

Well, I want to incorporate, and actually that’s going to be kind of seasonal because, like for instance, we have a wild honeysuckle that has this very fragrant. So having seasonal things that will be blooming in, know, so that we can help people know that during this time, during the early springtime, these are going to be some of the flowers that you can experience in the garden.

Golly, what do we have? It’s a Variegated Daphne. I mean, something like that is just, it is pungent. All you have to do is walk by it and just the wafting of the, you know, the aroma is, like you said, pungent. You know, those would be some of the things that we would. I’m kind of laughing because we also have a dairy farm across the street. When the wind shifts, you would certainly get a whole different olfactory sensitivity experience.

Erin Hoover (17:54)

I can imagine. Are you familiar with clove currents? It’s a black current. It has a yellow blossom that smells like cloves.

Monica Meyer (17:55)

No. How interesting.

Erin Hoover (18:06)

So it’s very fragrant and it’s not something you usually smell in the garden, but it’s also an edible fruit, although currants do tend to be pretty sour.

Monica Meyer (18:16)

It’s clove current is the name of it?

Erin Hoover (18:18)

That’s the name of the variety. Yeah, I don’t remember the actual species, but you might be able to find it someplace like Burnt Ridge or Raintree or one of those kind of nurseries that specialize in the more unique cultivars. And I think there’s another, there’s a similar variety or it’s called something else, also, but it also smells like clove. The demonstration garden in Skagit County has one or actually, I think they have a row of them in their garden that I remember.

Monica Meyer (18:28)

Yeah. Right.

Erin Hoover (18:43)

And when they’re all in bloom at once, there’s a whole row of them and it’s just so fragrant. It smells so good.

Monica Meyer (18:48)

Yes. I mean, and that is the thing is having something that is more than just one. You need sometimes to have a good size grouping and depending on where they’re planted so that we know that when sunlight hits something, really brings out the aroma, the smell, the olfactory opportunities.

Plants for Visual Interest

Erin Hoover (19:06)

Mm-hmm.

Visually, I can just see there’s tons of options as far as flowers and things like that. But do you have some specific plants in mind that you are going to include for visual interest?

Monica Meyer (19:21)

You know, that’s one area that I really need to have more thought into. Like I said, having clustering of like plants, how I want to design it is obviously seasonal and to be able to address the different levels of plants, you know, so that you have a little spilling plant, then you have something that’s mid and something that’s very tall.

I’m proud to say my garden has a whole section that has Joe-Pye weed, which are the really tall and just, I mean, they have big, huge blooms on it, on the top of it. Almost looks like a sedum in some regards, but it just attracts a lot of bees to it, which is, that’s kind of cool. You know, basically designing different levels, you know.

I’m having a couple areas where, even for people with mobility to be able to reach down and touch something, they’re gonna have raised gardens. Maybe something that’s more visually appealing, more colorful in some areas and maybe very muted in another. So that’s it’s just kind of having to look at that.

Whether a person is neurodivergent or has other sort of sensory needs, you know, just how a garden is designed that makes it more interesting is obviously going to make it more visually appealing.

Erin Hoover (20:39)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, I would think that would might be the hardest one just because there are so many options because in so many ways, almost any plant offers a level of visual appeal.

Monica Meyer (20:47)

Yes. Right.

A couple of, a red bark maple and it has the bark that peels off. I mean, I look at that and it’s like, although it’s not native, is a gorgeous grouping of trees. There’s three of them. And I’m just like, all right, how do I build around that? That’s going to make it more interesting and visually appealing, as well as something that could be interactive and just the tactile piece to be able to go up to one of the trees and you can actually peel off some of the bark.

So it’s a… it’s all a work in progress.

Appealing to the Sense of Smell

Erin Hoover (21:31)

Okay, there’s one more sense and I can’t remember what it is all of a sudden.

Monica Meyer (21:35)

There is smell, visual, tactile, taste and hearing.

Erin Hoover (21:38)

Hearing, that’s the one. It came to me and then it left again, because we were talking about the bubbler and using that to kind of deaden the sound in an area. So what about sound in maybe a more active area of the garden that’s more stimulating or whatever.

Monica Meyer (21:43)

Great.

What I am looking at an interactive, they’re like pipes, I mean, in one regard, in that you can basically make music, you know, making different sounds it’s going to be stationary. It’s going to be something that is interactive it will have, you know, an attachment that somebody could, just make the different sounds on the different size of the tubing. Basically the metal tubing, I don’t want to they’re pipes because they’re not pipes in that regard, but a way that a person can interact.

The idea also is to have wind chimes, some that would be like the difference between a wind chime that has more of a tinkling sound versus one that would be more of a bamboo that has more of a, just different and of course, like you said, the bubbler, which is more peaceful.

Erin Hoover (22:37)

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Monica Meyer (22:41)

So, and that the garden is large enough that with the amount of plantings like say for instance, the bubbler is in the top corner of the garden. And I would say it’s almost isolated. So the other is going to be back by the, Oregon grapes that they’re in opposite ends of the garden and opposite sides that a person can experience those different auditory opportunities that hopefully won’t interfere with another person’s experience.

Erin Hoover (23:12)

That makes sense. I know I’ve seen sometimes in playgrounds or other public gardens, they have a sound garden, basically. And it’s like three or four different stations and ways to make noise, music, whatever you want to with pipes and all kinds of fun stuff.

Monica Meyer (23:29)

For, either public park or a playground, we have to make it durable and stationary. If it’s not, we tend to have it walk off. Some of it is, it’s going to take us a little bit just to get the funding resources behind it, um, to make sure that we have those different opportunities.

Conclusion and Future Goals for the Sensory Garden

Erin Hoover (23:36)

Yeah. Right.

Right. All right, is there anything else that you’d like to add about the sensory garden?

Monica Meyer (23:56)

You know, it is a, a labor of love for me. It did take just a minute to get other people on board and understand what it is and that, that I want to make the garden accessible. And those are some of the things that, has become more of a teachable moment for a lot of people, just understanding that.

Gardens should be accessible to everyone, regardless of abilities or if they have barriers to accessibility that as a public space to be accessible. This, I am hoping that becomes a model for the other gardens our area to be able to really kind of rise up to the occasion.

That being said, one of the things that I am going to be doing not only for my garden, but I’m going to do basically an ADA accessibility mapping of the whole 10 gardens so that anybody that came in with whatever abilities would be able to know at least physically if the garden was accessible or limited accessibility or non accessible so that people don’t get frustrated.

They know ahead of time what are some of the things that are accessible so that they know where to go to and be able to experience that. Like I said, there are a lot of gardens, a lot of different things to be able to not only with just my garden, but there are the other gardens in the whole Naturescaping that could be an opportunity that’s very accessible and adventuresome

A lot of families of homeschooled children come through and do plant identification and just being in nature. and that’s one of the other things is just having this garden, there are many people, I would say, vulnerable populations, especially those with more intellectual disabilities or even our aging population that oftentimes become isolated.

And like I said, there aren’t always places for people to go that one is even accessible, but the other is sometimes the barrier of just being accepted.

This is what I feel is my calling to be able to do something that’s going to make it a place where people can go and feel comfortable and don’t feel like this place wasn’t built for me because the whole idea is it’s going to be built with everyone in mind, especially in regards to what universal design is for having an access or having a ramp to be able to access a building.

It is maybe having, like for instance, my garden is going to have accessibility by having gravel stabilizers with different types of gravel so that a person can with a wheelchair be able to roll on it easily. Somebody using a walker that would be the same thing. Making sure that the pathways that I have are wide enough for an electric wheelchair, that there is room to be able to turn around.

Just tapping into the senses, but also tapping into just accessibility. Just can I even get in there? And I’m going to have a separate parking area where people can park without having to go through a whole garden driveway that is not accessible. They can park near garden and be able to enter into my sensory garden that will have like I said, the gravel stabilizers, wider pathways, the benches are a little bit higher so that there’s more of an ADA sitting feature for people.

So keeping all of that in mind, it is the focus on sensory, but it’s also the accessibility of anybody with any potential barrier to accessibility.

My hope is that I will bring that to the forefront so it becomes a model for others and that we’ll have people who utilize it, which is obviously what I really want is people to utilize it, to be able to interact with it and share it with other people.

Erin Hoover (28:07)

It sounds like it’s a lofty goal, but it’s definitely a worthwhile goal.

Monica Meyer (28:12)

Yeah, and it’s attainable. It really is attainable. It’s just having a plan. I would say I would not be able to do all the work that I am doing currently if it were not for my students who support me. They do so much work. For instance, we moved two large plants. We repotted multiple ferns today. We reworked some pathways.

They’re just, they’re hard workers, and they’re just excited to be there. And I can tell you with just having the five individuals that I had today, we worked for two and a half hours.

And then we have two paraeducators. Basically, I have over 20 hours of work that we’re able to achieve in, like two and a half hours. So every Thursday that we’re able to do this, we’re making leaps and bounds.

Erin Hoover (29:02)

That’s wonderful. Well, I’m excited to come down and see it once it’s open.

Monica Meyer (29:04)

Awesome. I will make sure you have an invitation.

Erin Hoover
Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you so much for being here today and explaining your sensory garden and the importance of making gardens accessible to all people of different sensory and mobility, whatever other ways they experience the world.

Monica Meyer
Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity, Erin. It’s been a lot of fun to be able to share the information.