Garden for the Blind

Garden for the Blind

“Some great gardens unfold like a narrative or a piece of music as we move through them and view their carefully choreographed wonders.” “To really know why San Francisco is not Paris you must sense it.” These words, quoted by Moore, Mitchell and Turnbull and Malnar and Vodvarka respectively (in Sensory Design), are what inspired me to create not only a garden for the blind, but a sense of place and feeling for those lacking sight. While reading the selected excerpts from both Sensory Design and The Rise of the Creative Class I realized that there is more to designing a garden for the blind than simply selecting plants with specific textures and scents; it is creating an entire place, a gestalt of the senses if you will, that creates a whole sense of being in the garden. Florida refers to creativity as “the process of destroying ones gestalt in favor of a better one.” My ideal garden for the blind creates a gestalt without a visual field. Using the kinesthetic sense of the distinctive land behind Hume, along with carefully selected auditory, olfactory, and tactile experiences, the garden for the blind will create a gestalt of its own, where even a seeing person feels they no longer need their sight.

I want to appeal to the senses, but not overwhelm them. This is why I decided to divide the garden almost into sections. The only predominate sense not divided at all will be sound. Ideally, in the center of the garden will be beautiful statue, with many curves and crevices, that also has running water (a bird bath would be perfect). While this might not work on the slopping land behind Hume, hopefully at least a small structure will be feasible and provide something else for the hands to explore as well as the constant, pleasing sound of running water. When walking through the butterfly rainforest with my eyes closed, my favorite part was when I was near water. The sound of water truly made me feel like I was in a nature scene; it also gave me a sense of direction and was remarkably soothing in a somewhat stressful situation (I do not normally walk through unfamiliar areas with my eyes closed). The sound of water is a must for my garden.

Also providing sound, I want to attract birds. I read that Bee Balm is an excellent attractor of hummingbirds and butterflies (which I learned from the butterfly rainforest can create quite a sensation when they land on you).