According to the project timetable we set ourselves, the first two weeks were dedicated to research and planning. As I’ve only ever visited sensory gardens my knowledge on them was limited, so before drawing up the plan I wanted to see other supported living facility gardens to see how they utilise their space. There was an issue as there weren’t other homes like ours within reach. Instead I contacted several sources which normally provide sensory gardens with the necessary equipment to gain insight on what’s more popular.
I organised several meetings with different gardening agencies to gather their perspective and used that as the foundation to the planning. Some of the advice they gave was impractical due to budgetary or time limitations, for instance, removing some of the paved area in the garden and replacing it with compost was outside our capabilities. I quickly realised smaller scale ideas could be just as effective as the larger ones. One smaller scale project we started was designing murals for the garden walls using bright vivid colours as this was a common feature in sensory gardens. It’s particularly useful to the residents who are visually impaired as large murals with bright colours, which are basic in design, can still translate to them.
I used several programs I have had experience with at university to help visualise the plans. This was done mainly to help the staff and residents picture what I would be doing and to clear my choices with them first.