Why do we need one?
A sensory garden can help people experiencing dementia to enjoy socialising and connect with others. This is achieved by creating a shared experience, taking part in physical activity stimulates the senses and memories and these things greatly improves their well-being. A sensory garden can also help improve physical fitness, health, mood and cognition. Spending time outdoors, breathing in the fresh air and being exposed to sunlight can be beneficial to overall health. The experience of a sensory garden could help decrease confusion, anxiety and agitation which effectively results in a more comfortable state of well-being. Natural sunlight helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythm and the physical aspect can help the people we care for have a better night’s sleep.

How we are funding it?

To raise the money to help create our sensory garden, we set up a JustGiving fundraising page and within six days we reached our target of £1000. We are incredibly grateful for all of the support and donations that we have received from the community, relatives, family and friends of the home.
We had a very generous donation from Moon and Co Chepstow who purchased us a water feature and a gazebo. We have also received incredible donations from anonymous individuals, we’ve used this money to purchase sensory items for the garden.

The benefits to the people who live here
In the sensory garden, we plan to have something to stimulate all of the senses. We intend to help stimulate sight by planting bright coloured plants and flowers, we’ll hang bright coloured objects on the walls and cover the short fence around the area with faux foliage with flowers entwined in it. We will hopefully be able to stimulate people’s smell by planting flowers which naturally let off a sweet aroma and utilise the large planter we have for a herb/vegetable garden for people to enjoy the smells. Touch will hopefully be stimulated in the area by attaching sensory pads that have different textures to the fence. We are also planning to put down artificial grass for a different textured surface but also to help make the area safer for people to independently walk on. By having a designated herb and vegetable planter and growing the plants ourselves, people will be encourage to taste when the harvest is ready to eat! We have kindly been donated a water feature from a local business which will be greatly beneficial to the people here to help stimulate sound. The sound of trickling water can be very therapeutic and can help reduce agitation.