Interacting with nature is understood to improve physical, sensory, social, and emotional well-being. Now more than ever, it is important to provide adults, children, and youth with carefully designed outdoor environments that meet their unique needs and increase the meaningfulness of their daily lives.
This has led to the development and features of a newly installed sensory garden at The Bishop Farmstead in Southampton, NJ.
The garden offers a diverse sensory experience, is easy to navigate, and provides accommodations for a range of mobility and sensory abilities. Those qualities all make for a garden that honors individual strengths and preferences, reduces stress and anxiety, and encourages social engagement.
With careful attention to detail and thoughtful arrangement of plants, materials, furnishings, and spaces, the garden balances a range of stimulating and calming sensory experiences intended to allay stress and anxiety and gently elevate the senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, sound, as well as sense of balance (vestibular) and position and movement in space (proprioception).
Come check out the garden! The garden is located at Pinelands Preservation Alliance, 17 Pemberton Road, Southampton, NJ and is located behind the big red barn. It is accessible by a concrete walkway or by gravel from the parking lot.