The Blooming of the RHS Multiple Sclerosis Garden

Show gardens at UK flower shows increasingly put accessibility and sensory richness at the centre of their designs — wide level paths you can wheel along, seats at the right height, and planting chosen to be touched, smelled and listened to. The principles translate directly into a small back garden, and make a garden more enjoyable for visitors of any age, mobility or sensory preference, including those living with dementia, sight loss or fatigue-limiting conditions.

What's happening

A sensory garden is a planting scheme designed to be experienced through more than one sense. Sight still matters, but it sits alongside scent, texture, sound and taste, with a layout that lets people reach the plants rather than just view them. UK designers tend to build overlapping layers: structural evergreens for year-round shape, fragrant shrubs close to a path, tactile edging plants at hand height, and a soundtrack of grasses and seed heads that move in the wind.

Level, firm paths at least a metre wide will take a wheelchair, a walker or a pushchair without the user having to ask for a different route. Raised beds around 60–75 cm put flowers within reach without bending, and a contrasting edge colour helps anyone with low vision see where the path ends and the bed begins. Scent is best staged close to where people linger — by the seat, beside a door — and fades through the day, so plants with evening fragrance earn their place near a patio used in summer.

What this means for your garden

Start with the path. A single firm, level route about a metre wide, in a colour that contrasts with the surrounding planting, gives the spine of the garden and lets you reach everything from one surface. Avoid loose gravel, bark or cobbles; compacted hoggin, brick or paving survives British winters without rutting and is kinder on wheels and unsteady feet.

Plant close to the edges. The biggest gain in a sensory garden is bringing everything within arm's reach. A 60–75 cm raised bed along the path brings flowers up to a seated viewer's nose and hand. If you only build one feature, make it a raised bed near the seat.

Choose plants for more than one sense. English lavender gives silver foliage you can stroke, flower spikes you can rub to release scent, and bees to listen to on a calm afternoon. Rosemary, sage and thyme do the same on a smaller scale and tolerate free-draining soil. Leave ornamental grasses and seed heads standing into winter for sound.

Layer scent through the year rather than peaking once in July. Early spring leans on winter-flowering honeysuckle and Daphne bholua; high summer on lavender, philadelphus and roses; autumn on mahonia and late sarcococca.

Finish with low-voltage LED path lights at 30–50 cm. A soft edge-glow lets the garden be used safely on short winter afternoons, when many people with fatigue-limiting conditions most need a calm outside space.

Key points

• A sensory garden is built to be experienced by sight, scent, sound, touch and taste at the same time, not viewed from a distance.
• A level, firm path about a metre wide is the single most useful accessibility upgrade.
• Raised beds at 60–75 cm bring plants within reach of seated or wheelchair-using gardeners.
• Lavender, rosemary, sage and thyme deliver scent, texture and pollinator noise in a small footprint.
• Layer scent through the seasons rather than peaking once in July.

Related GardenWizz guides

For plants that combine scent, texture and pollinator value in a small space, see our profile of English lavender and the rest of the drought-tolerant planting notes in the July garden calendar.