Working together to finish Blaketown Sensory Garden

A small primary school in the West Coast town of Greymouth needed a space that catered for students with sensory issues. Guided by a design concept from Boffa Miskell, the community and corporate sponsor built a space which encourages exploration, imagination and growth.

Landscape architect Topsy Steele says, “The school had an area which they were looking to transform into a sensory garden, full of texture and varied play to go alongside the existing more traditional playground they already had.”

After meeting with the school, Topsy delivered a landscape concept for the garden, which upgraded and enhanced the area between the playground, road frontage and courts, creating a space which encourages exploration, imagination and growth.

Low-maintenance planting with sensory elements scattered amongst informal paths connects to larger spaces for groups of children to gather; and smaller more intimate spaces for quieter play.

“In keeping with the desire to provide various sensory experiences for the children, colours have been carefully used and visually amplified through planting,” Topsy explains. “We’ve also used planting which is texturally rich, playing with movement, shadow and light.”

The concept re-purposed and recycled existing facilities and materials to reduce costs, but it was the local community that made the difference, Topsy says.

“We were fortunate to have Dan Miller from Onus Projects in Nelson really driving this project and seeing it through to construction.”

Dan says, “We completed the Blaketown School sensory garden with a massive community push the last week of December. We had Mitre 10 Helping Hands join the project with pretty much all materials and plants donated, and their legend Stan Scott on site for the three days and a film crew to document the project.”

“We have one very happy Principal, and the students have loved getting let loose. It has been a very enjoyable process with a fabulous end product.”

See the video here