Sommers Design Firm

Rehoboth Sensory Gardens within
The Meditation and Memory Garden includes a gazebo (roofed structure), adult swing chair, dry pond / river bed with water bubbling boulders. The plant material chosen for this space needed to be calming and natural (e.g. Tall grasses in mass to provide a soothing motion as wind passes through them), evergreens are used to enhance the feeling of stability. The plants are all indigenous looking to the area with soft silver and blue, washed out gold and greens. The plants are Alberta wild roses and other indigenous selections to perhaps trigger pleasant memories in Alberta forests.  
The Sound Portion is scattered throughout the overall garden. This is reflected in the sound the grasses and leaves make as wind passes through them, the sound of the water in the memory garden and a drum circle built from indigenous boulders used as seating.
The Sight Garden is in the center of the spiral path. This area is dedicated to different plants of the same color planted in mass together.  The whole garden provides textures, colors and vista’s to visually explore.
The Taste Garden can be engaged in the berry and fruit orchards, as well as the community annual garden boxes.
The Touch is a very important aspect to the sensory garden. Just by touching the different leaves in the diverse assortment of hardy perennial and woody plants the garden has to offer, one can experience: soft, spiky, smooth, rough, wet, dry, warm, cool and fuzzy. There are two beds within the spiral path dedicated for touch plants.
The Pavilion has been donated to Rehoboth by a local charity. The Rehoboth group will use this facility for their own functions, as well as looking for ways to make it available to the community for private functions. For example the garden would be a fantastic place for a wedding.
The Sport Court is located beside the pavilion to allow for vehicle access and again providing access to the community who may be interested in the pavilion facility. The main objective of the sport court is to provide the much needed facility for playing sports with the clients.
The Community Garden Boxes are to provide the clients with an outdoor growing space to garden in. Two of the boxes are designed with upright trellising to intensify the growing space. Training plants to grow up instead of out frees up the ground level for more plants = more food.
The Spiral Walking Path is designed to promote a long walk in a small area. The plants surrounding the paths undulate to open and block views to the rest of the garden. There was thought to providing several entry/ exits to the spiral walk so one never feels trapped of confused. The paths are wide enough for two wheel chairs to pass one another. The surface is concrete for the longevity and maintenance of the walk while also provides the best outdoor surface for wheel chairs.


Recommended Construction and Maintenance of the Sensory Garden:
-Organic solutions to weed control and pest and disease prevention, for example smothering weeds with cardboard and four inches of wood mulch as opposed to spraying with herbicides.
-Providing a four inch layer of wood mulch over all the exposed soil will not only suppress weeds it will provide water retention, reduced compaction, reduced soil loss from winds and humus matter for the soil health.   
-The garden is designed so that once the plants are established they will act as a forest unit. The diversity in plant species strengthens the garden from disease and pest problems that can spread quickly between monoplantings. This forest unit will become more stable as the garden matures. Large rooting systems of trees harvest water and nutrients further out then feed the understory with this moisture and nutrients in the leaves as they drop to the ground. There is a shelter belt surrounding the garden to protect the interior plants and people from the local strong winds, reducing soil evaporation and soil loss. The interior has smaller trees located throughout to keep the winds above 20 feet. This creates a micro climate that is a real retreat.
-The tree canopy shade doesn’t exceed 40% which is a permaculture standard in designing a food forest. It allows for enough light into the understory for optimal growth.