Nancy Savage had been walking by a mostly empty planter box in front of the Mineral Industries Building a while when she had an idea.
“It was begging for, more plants to be put in,” Savage said. “I used to work at UK in the Department of Horticulture before I worked for HDI, so I have a big, big love of plants.”
But Savage, who works at HDI as a research administrative assistant, didn’t picture herself cultivating a regular garden there. Instead, she saw a future with something a bit more adventurous – a sensory garden, created and tended by all of HDI’s community.
A sensory garden aims to engage all five of the basic senses in some way. Savage has extremely positive memories of a large scale sensory garden she explored in Bernheim Forest. At that garden, Savage said she felt incredibly welcomed and happy. So when she kept passing that lonely planter box, eventually she decided to bring a piece of that calming environment to her workplace. Now, that planter box is home to HDI’s own sensory garden.
“They’re supposed to be a welcoming, inclusive space that incorporates plants and other materials that will engage the five senses,” Savage said.
The garden has a number of options to engage all the senses – flowers, of course, are often grown for their scents and colors, but in this garden, there is also lamb’s ear, with its nice soft texture, contrasted with both rough and smooth stones. Signage around the garden, designed by Greg Bow and Cory Cameron, encourage visitors to stack the stones into cairns and explain many of the other ways in which the garden engages the senses, from the rustling sound of the grass as it blows in the wind to the sweet taste of stevia plants, used to make a common sugar substitute, and the cherry tomatoes which grow there as well.
It’s not just Savage’s work, either. HDI’s sensory garden was a result of the whole community’s contributions. Other individuals and university departments donated plants and, after a plant swap left some plants without a home, they became a part of the sensory garden too. There are also signs welcoming anyone who passes by to tend to the garden – a responsibility Savage said they’ve happily taken on. Fittingly for a garden created by the community, it now belongs to the community, even beyond HDI. Savage hopes that others take advantage of the calming environment it provides as well.
“The box is located right at the entrance of MIB, it’s right on campus,” she said. “Students who are taking classes at MIB during the spring, they go right by the box…it’s very accessible to anybody who’s going into the building.”
