Lavenders are featured prominently in the Sensory Garden, with their own “Lavender Hill” in the center of the garden. Here, drifts of several lavender varieties in beautiful shades of blues, purples and whites provide distinctive herbal fragrance.

Lavender is known for it’s ability to reduce stress and induce relaxation, and this effect is apparent when strolling through the Sensory Garden this time of year. Combined with the hum of bees and trickle of water from the nearby fountain bowl, the wafting lavender scents calm and refresh. 

Lavenders prefer sunny, dry conditions, and require good drainage. Amending the soil and planting on a mound will help with drainage issues. They also look much better with an annual heavy pruning after flowering. Lavenders may develop dead branches after a few years, and it is usually best to replace rather than attempt to “save” them.

Types of Lavender

One of the easiest lavenders to grow is Lavandula ‘Goodwin Creek Grey’. As it’s name implies, the foliage is a soft silvery grey, growing to about 2 1/2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It tends to flower almost year round, so it is hard to know when to prune it back; however, a heavy pruning each year keeps it compact and the foliage fresh. Although the violet flowers may not be as showy as other varieties, ‘Goodwin Creek’ doesn’t have the dieback problems that plague other lavenders. 

Lavandula intermedia ‘Grosso’ is a very fragrant and very high in essential oils; thus, it is widely grown for use in cleaning products. It is very showy in bloom, usually July through September, and flowers dry well. Plants grow as large as 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide, with sage green foliage and tall violet purple flower stems. Pruning after bloom keeps it from getting woody. (Recommended as one of the best lavenders by Rose at Morning Sun Herb Farm http://www.morningsunherbfarm.com/ssp/home)

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’ is a dwarf English Lavender variety that grows about 1 foot tall.  The sweetly aromatic flowers and gray-green foliage are excellent for cooking. It is an early bloomer, with purple flowers that dry well.  Good drainage is essential. Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote Blue’ is similar low growing English Lavender that is also recommended as one of the best lavenders by Rose at Morning Sun Herb Farm.

Lavandula stoechas ‘Otto Quast’, or Spanish Lavender, is also easy to grow and very showy in bloom. Spanish Lavender is one of the earliest blooming, often starting in February and continuing for months. It has distinctive rosy purple flowers with “rabbit ears” that stick up on top, which are quite impressive en masse. The angled afternoon sun can make the flowers light up and glow purple. Plants are about 2 1/2 feet tall by 4 feet wide.

You’ll find Tricia Christopher in the Sensory or Mediterranean Gardens most work party days (the first and third Saturdays of each month). She’s happy to answer your questions about Mediterranean gardening and/or visit her website http://www.tchristopher.com/

The Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt are offering free tours of The Gardens (a top five California Public Garden) every first and third Saturday of the month.  The tours begin in the Sensory Garden at 10:00am.

The tour, lasting approximately 30 minutes, will feature the Gardens’ many unique and nationally renowned horticultural collections. Tours are designed to be enjoyed by the entire family. Kids will love it.

For more information regarding The Gardens at Lake Merritt tours, or to arrange a private group tour, contact Ron at ronele@earthlink.net.

More than 70 volunteers  enjoyed the results of their weeding and mulching in the Gardens in honor of Earth Day.  The Gardens are beaming from all the good attention.

Please join the fun at the regularly scheduled volunteer work party days: the first and third Saturday of each month; every Thursday from 9:00-noon (meet at the Succulent Garden) and Tuesday evenings from 5:00pm-7:00pm starting in May (meet in the Sensory Garden).

See you there!

• Entry Attraction: Colorful and fragrant plantings at the entry gate  invite exploration

• Tactile Pathway Edges: Fragrant and textured plantings are touchable in a five foot wide strip along raised planting beds

• Color and Sound Meadow: Bold drifts of plantings provide a spectrum of color and rustle in the breezes

• Central Water Feature: Visible from the entrance, the water feature provides lively sounds and movement in the heart of the garden

• Lavender Hill: A mass planting of several lavender species provide an impressive display of color and scent
• Bold Salvias: Vibrant colors of an array of sages draw the visitor into the garden

• Seating Area: Renewed benches provide a destination and resting spot for visitors

A special thanks to Laney College Roundtable Club students for their terrific enthusiasm and hard work.

Remember a loved one, celebrate a grandchild, commemorate a wedding, or honor a friend or organization – permanently in the Sensory Garden.

The Sensory Garden tile donation program offers an opportunity to place your hand-crafted, customized tiles(s) in a beautiful garden setting for the enjoyment of generations to come.

The tiles, with your personalized message and/or custom art design, are made, artfully designed, and hand painted by award-winning ceramist Dianne Farber. Dianne has taught ceramics at regional colleges and practiced her art for nearly 40 years.

Pricing for permanently mounted tiles on the Sensory Garden walls are: $50 donation for first tile, $45 for a second tile and $40 for a third. A block of four tiles is $175.00. Tiles can be donated in blocks of two, four, six or eight with a single message or separate messages. Non-scripted tiles with plant impression are $40 each.

To discuss your personalized tile(s) and to receive an order form,
contact Dianne Farber at 510-531-6404.

Walking along the sloped curved path, inhaling the lavender on one side and fragrant mediterranean perennials on the other, I felt my shoulders drop as I exhaled… and then I heard it, the rhythmic, persistent trickle of water on my right just ahead, occasional buzzing around me, and soft sounds of leaves moving in the light breeze. Where had I gotten to? How could I just minutes ago have been in a traffic snarl on Grand Avenue? Was this still Oakland? I closed my eyes and listened carefully, becoming still and breathing in the fragrance around me. Only then could I faintly hear traffic sounds and the irregular schop-schop of someone pruning a shrub nearby.

I felt awakened by those moments. This was my introduction to the newly refurbished Sensory Garden, where I was to meet Susan Veit, one of the community activists responsible for bringing this treasure back to life. Originally opened in the 1970s as the Fragrance and Herb Garden, the intention was to make this corner of Lakeside Park more accessible to visually impaired people. Along with the better known Bonsai and Japanese Gardens, it is but one of ten distinct areas that now constitute the Demonstration Gardens that are adjacent to Lakeside Garden Center.

The Sensory Garden is located inside Lakeside Park Gardens, near the Garden Center building at 665 Bellevue Avenue.

When Susan, a long time resident of Oakland, retired realtor and a devoted hobby gardener arrived to meet me, she proudly walked me around the one-acre serpentine garden talking energetically about the project she and Bruce Cobbledick have developed.

It began two years ago when Susan, while visiting at Lakeside Park, found herself disoriented by the lack of signs, maps and interpretive materials in the 10-acre maze of separate gardens and buildings. She wandered until locating her friend Bruce. Out of that meeting a partnership was born that has transformed the former Fragrance and Herb Garden. A broad coalition of individuals, garden clubs and private benefactors has been formed under the aegis of the Oakland East Bay Garden Center Inc., which they organized under the sponsorship of their fiscal agent, Friends Of Oakland Parks and Recreation. Their story is worth telling for it’s a model of cooperation, generosity and awakenings.

The first order of business was to make the garden more user friendly and develop an overall plan. Tricia Christopher, Landscape Architect and instructor in Merritt College’s Horticultural Program volunteered to do both, producing the legend and map for the Lakeside Park garden complex and shortly thereafter the plans for improvements that increase accessibility, reduce maintenance and water usage, improve compliance with ADA requirements and transform it into a true Sensory Garden that appeals to additional senses by adding color, texture and sounds.

Implementation of those plans required the support of numerous organizations and agencies and countless community volunteers. The Hillside Gardeners of Montclair were core contributors, providing important planting expertise and financial support. Their parent organization, California Garden Clubs provided initial funding through a special grant. The Lake Merritt Breakfast Club Charitable Foundation provided financial support, along with city council members Nancy Nadel, Ignacio de La Fuente and Pat Kernighan who tapped their discretionary PayGo accounts. The Merritt College Pruning Club pruned the mature trees and shrubs in the garden and set large boulders (left over from the old waterfall) improving the overall sense of space and balance. The City’s Public Works Agency completed removal of the old pond, trucking in 50 yards of topsoil and installing new water and electrical hookups.

Giving credit to the many individual volunteers and groups who have come forward to support the Sensory Garden will be part of the grand opening celebration on October 22, 2006, from 3–5 p.m., but for now I have to mention two amazing and inspiring contributions which you will see when you visit the gardens, first, the source of the “persistent trickle of water” I’d heard is a large, stunning, cut-and-polished green granite boulder fountain designed by Oakland landscape architect Paul Cowley of Potomac Waterworks. The new water feature, selected for its sounds and touch-ability, is sure to become one of the Sensory Garden’s most beloved features. From a sloped garden path accessible from a wheelchair or on foot, one can feel the trickling water. The fountain’s recirculating flow creates soothing stimulation to keep one’s senses in the garden.

Another extraordinary feature of renovation is a revolutionary irrigation system that reduces the water usage by about 30 percent as it perfectly nourishes the low-water mediterranean plantings. Called “evapo-transpiration,” the system provides water to each microclimate by employing a state-of-the-art weather station that detects the need for water. Designed by Lori Palmquist and the Urban Farmer Store, this system assures that the Sensory Garden has an economically sustainable future.

The Sensory Garden is a tranquil delight, a sure awakening for both your senses and your spirit. It’s available any day from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. You’ll have your own sensory awakening I’m sure. And then you’ll want to take others to enjoy this wondrous sanctuary. After your visit you may well decide to help with on-going restoration and maintenance. During the summer months volunteers are needed to help with light weeding and pruning every Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 7:30. There is an additional volunteer workday from 9–12 noon on Saturday, September 23. And if you care to make a financial contribution, you may purchase one of the hand-made mediterranean tiles that will be installed in the arced wall in the center of the Garden. These will be available for only $25, after the grand re-opening of the Sensory garden on October 22nd.

For more information about the Sensory Garden project, contact Susan Veit (volunteer coordinator) by email or (510)763-1959 or Bruce Cobbledick by email or (510)655-5894.

I both thank and salute Susan and Bruce and the Oakland East Bay Garden Center for awakening my senses, while reminding me of the many individuals and groups helping to preserve and restore Oakland’s treasured parks. After all I am the gardenless gardener!