Specialized garden will engage sight, smell, touch, taste & sound

North Hempstead, NY – –“Please touch the plants” may not be the advice you would expect to see at a public garden, but in a sensory herb garden visitors are encouraged to explore the prickly and tickly feel of plants, to listen to the tingle of wind chimes, to smell the fragrances and to even eat some of what is growing there!

The Town of North Hempstead’s Clark Botanic Garden (CBG) will be establishing a sensory garden in 2019, using the design skills of students Michelle Callahan and Dona Damaltis, and Professor Michael Veracka from Farmingdale State College’s Department of Urban Horticulture. The students designed a 25 ft. by 10 ft. sensory herb garden that will include plants, shrubs, trees and other features to stimulate the senses. Sensory gardens can be enjoyed by everyone. Visitors to garden who may have disabilities will particularly benefit from the specially selected plants which offer scents and special tactile properties to experience.

“The new sensory garden will be a delightful addition to our beautiful Clark Botanic Garden,” said Supervisor Judi Bosworth. “As it engages all the senses it will also further the educational mission of the garden.”

Some of the special “zones” in the garden design include: fragrance, tickly touch; edible; movement; sound; color; and prickly. The design also includes a water fountain, pergola, stone walls and walkway and more than two dozen plant varieties.

The actual construction of the garden will be done sometime in 2019 using the students’ design. The cost of creating the garden is covered by a New York State grant.

Founded in 1969, Clark Botanic Garden (CBG) is a 12-acre living museum and educational facility dedicated to understanding and appreciating the world's plant life through horticulture, education and research.
Among the numerous plant collections at CBG are native spring wildflowers, wetland, rock and rain garden plantings, hydrangeas, pines and conifers, bearded irises, lilacs, hollies, hostas, daylily and dahlia display gardens, a tropical garden, butterfly plants, sensory herb garden, medicinal plants, rain garden plants and over a dozen collections of particular plant families.
CBG was a recent award-winner in the All-America Selections (AAS) 2018 Landscape Design Challenge and is also listed as an official Daylily Garden by the American Hemerocallis Society.
CBG features a family garden section, which allows residents to lease a garden space for the season, three connecting ponds, an apiary, a formal rose garden, meditation garden, family gardening area and a Long Island Gold Medal garden.
In 2019 CBG will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The Town is planning a year-long celebration filled with events and workshops to help commemorate the landmark anniversary.

(left to right) Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Jill Weber, Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Michelle Callahan, Dona Damaltis, Professor Michael Veracka and Town Horticulturist Bonnie Klein hold the plans for the sensory garden at Clark Botanic Garden.