Venturing the colourful world of scent gardens

Hosea Omole

They say scents trigger memories more vividly than any other sense. Imagine getting back home after a long day to the tantalising aroma of roses, lavender and rosemary. As you take in the first whiff of their intense natural goodness, the memories of the city’s polluted air ebb away.

Fragrance, like colour, texture or form, can be creatively planned to enhance a garden. It adds an extra dimension to the landscape, which can be controlled to increase the garden’s enjoyment. A garden may be pleasing to the eye but fragrance will take the pleasure to a whole different level and enhance the experience.

Scent gardens are known to unlock the possibility for visually impaired persons to experience the fragrances through their sense of smell. In fact, fragrance can be used to help visually impaired persons to navigate around gardens, streets and even building. Children, too, will love the wonder of natural perfumes.

If you ever wish to venture into the wonderful world of scented gardens, here are a few tips to take you through:

Fragrant Plants

There is no scent garden without fragrant plants. These are plants that produce scents either through their flowers or foliages. Others produce scents when their tissues are broken by crushing (by the feet), brushing or touching. Whichever way, all these categories can be incorporated in a scent garden.

Choose scented plants from your area. There is always a wide range of ground covers, shrubs and even trees that you can choose from. Thyme (rosemary or sage), for instance, makes a wonderful fragrant ground cover, and so do many other culinary herbs. Ground covers can be placed between stepping or patio stones so their scents are released when stepped on. The heat created by the stones during hot weather will also release the scents into the air.

Flowering shrubs such as roses and honeysuckle should be in every scent garden. They are highly scented and are often used in making perfumes.

Many also attract bees and butterflies bringing new life into the garden.

A tree full of fragrant flowers is a rare treat. Catalpa and linden trees, for instance, have intensely fragrant flowers that can permeate a whole garden.

Other fragrant trees include the popular Amur Maple, Golden Chain tree and Purple Robe Locust. Fruit trees are usually not planted for their fragrance but the light fragrance of their blooms herald the coming of the fruits like no other event.

Placement

To get the most out of your scented plants, place them where they will be easy to smell. Start by planting a few directly under the sitting room and bedroom windows. If you have an outdoor living space such as a patio or deck, concentrate some of your favourites within sniffing distance. The same goes for garden paths and children play areas.

Find out the wind patterns of your garden area and plan with this in mind. The goal is to encourage gentle winds that direct the scents into your living spaces and block off strong winds that can quickly disperse the delicate fragrances. This is where wind-breakers come in. Trees and other landscape elements can be placed strategically to control, with reasonable accuracy, how wind conveys scents around your garden.

Remember to place your plants in full sun. Heat brings out more scents in plants hence the warmer your site, the more fragrances you get.

It is, therefore, important to choose or alter your site to meet these optimum conditions.

The writer is a professional landscape architect.