Project Name: Nazareth House: Sensory Garden for Nursing Home

Location: Dromahane, Mallow, Co Cork

Client: Nazareth House

Role: Landscape Design

Architect: Reddy Architecture and Urbanism

Contract Value: €40K

Current Status: Sensory Garden complete August 2018. Domain Gardens are still in progress.

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Description:

The sensory garden is located within a small courtyard in the heart of the nursing home. The courtyard is exclusively for the use of residents with dementia and the garden is designed to provide a therapeutic and stimulating outdoor environment.

The plants for this courtyard are selected from a variety of plants known for their medicinal and therapeutic qualities. Fruit trees, vegetables and herbs are mixed with ornamental plants to provide fragrance, texture, movement and colour, all year round.

The installation of the garden proved to be a challenge due to local shallow bedrock and the absence of top soil which resulted in the necessity for raised beds with mounded soil to achieve the required depth for planting. The raised beds allow elderly residents to engage with the garden and help to maintain it, without having to bend. The elevated plants and trees also serve to create natural screening so that residents will be able to “disappear” into the garden when it matures over time.

A painted teak pergola is located in the centre of the courtyard to frame a central seating area and provide instant height and an inverse, light coloured silhouette against the dark zinc clad walls of the surrounding buildings. The pergola is planted with old fashioned climbing roses which will eventually cover the entire pergola creating a fragrant gazebo within the courtyard.