A Sensory Garden for the Dallas Arboretum

Abstract

Design is most often carried out as an aesthetic exercise in visual affect and spatial treatment. If more stimulation of other human senses (orienting, auditory, smell / taste, visual, and haptic) were to occur in a place, perhaps the place would become more meaningful and memorable. In an effort to address this hypothesis, a Sensory Garden was designed, and hopefully will be implemented. As far as can be determined no other gardens in the United States exist which were designed explicitly to stimulate all the senses. There is a Fragrance Garden at the Strybing Arboretum at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and several Gardens for the Blind exist in San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas.