School Sensory Gardens

In addition to the bird tables and bug pit, sandpit and access ramps, this project for Marian Vian School in Orpington boasts an array of plants chosen for their sensory properties and many for their ability to grow produce that the children can observe during the various developmental stages.

How about this for a living Den? Can you imagine the fun watching this “igloo” grow over the season? Tunnels and Walkways constructed from willow are fabulous – particularly so when incorporated within a larger sensory development.

When the pond is large, the addition of a bridge or jetty ensures children can get close enough to safely inspect and observe pond life. Bogs and marshy areas are an absolute haven for all sorts of wildlife and can be incorporated into a wider scheme

This self contained 1.5m wide dipping pond is only 500mm deep and comes complete with a mesh cover. In addition to the usual garden location, this item can also be incorporated into a deck.

Another area of the decked sensory garden at Marian Vian School was given over to a pit with accommodation suitable for a whole host of wriggling and scuttling creepy crawlies.

A quantum leap in technology from the old bean tins and piece of string item that we all made as children although less portable! This image was chosen so you could see both sound trumpets but the distance between them is some 6m and it could be great fun if there is no visual contact.

The Rare Breeds Centre in Woodchurch, Kent welcomes a huge number of visitors every year who come to see the wide variety of animals. This very well established visitor centre seeks to inform and educate as well as entertain and is thus very responsive of the needs of its visitors. Here the younger ones can continue their outdoor discovery under a canopy that shades sand play, mirrors and white boards, spinning cube games as well as other smaller toys dotted about.

We have mentioned quite a few of the elements included in the large project for Bedfont School and here is another. There were some cobbles and a few paving slabs that we could have disposed of but it seemed sensible to us to make better creative use of them by incorporating them into an interesting floor.

It is difficult to show all the mediums used in this rambling path that wended its way through new and existing planting. Stopping at points of interest such as information and puzzle boards, mirrors and noise making items along the way the track included bark, gravel, timber decking – grooved, flat and made from half round timbers, bricks, stepping stones – both timber and moulded concrete and Wetpour to name but a few. All chosen to create tactile and visual variation as well as alert walkers to the differing sounds their own feet make.