WORK is set to start in the next couple of weeks to begin the landscaping of an exciting project to build a sensory garden in Tavistock Meadows and an appeal has gone out for plants to fill the beds.

Tavistock Community Sensory Garden, a joint project between Roots to Transition, Tavistock Town Council, Tavistock Rotary Club, Tavistock Lions’ Club and Tavistock Dementia Action Alliance, aims to create a garden alongside the Rose Walk area in the Meadows, which will engage all five senses and provide a peaceful place for all members of the community to enjoy, but with a special appeal for people living with dementia and their carers.

Funding for the garden, which will include a water fountain, gazebo, beds full of flowers, herbs and vegetables and a petanque court, has almost been reached and landscaping work is due to start in the next couple of weeks, depending on the weather.

It will involve the construction of the petanque court, the dry stone walling and the construction of paths and the central granite feature. After this, the raised beds for the ‘fifth sense’ garden will be placed in position.

With the landscaping taking place, the project team is already looking ahead and trying to plan for the planting of the garden and is appealing for people to donate plants, cuttings and seeds.

Ali Sedgwick, on behalf of the project team, said: ‘Work is about to get underway with the start of the landscaping for the sensory garden. The funding is finally in place to let the committee spring into action.

‘The first phase will be completed by the summer, but we are already thinking ahead and trying to plan for the planting of the garden. This is why we are appealing to green-fingered gardeners in the community for assistance. We do not need your money, but your plants. Some of you will be seed-savers and we are looking for donations of hardy annuals such as honesty, pot marigolds, forget-me-nots, love in a mist or snapdragons. These plants will help with the reminiscence section of the garden, unearthing memories of a by-gone era of garden design.

‘Later in the year you may peruse your perennials and decide that some have outgrown their allotted space and be in need of splitting. We are hoping to plant lambs ears, different grasses, scented day lilies, old-fashioned pinks, ice plant (Sedum Spectabile), houseleeks and sweet violets for texture and scent. If you have any spare, please think of us.

‘When semi-ripe cuttings are your priority, we would love you to plant a few extra purple and green sage, rosemary, lavender, thyme and scented geraniums.’

Planting will be delayed until the autumn to give the plants the best chance of establishing.

Tavistock Town Council, which currently owns the land, said if designed well, the sensory garden would provide a ‘valuable resource for a range of uses from education to recreation’.

Tony Parker, chairman of the Tavistock Dementia Action Alliance and representing Tavistock Rotary Club, said: ‘It will be a concentration of different experiences. There will be passive places designed to be calming but appealing to the senses; other areas which will stimulate activity and even those which can be used within therapeutic or educational programmes.’

Representing Tavistock Lions’ Club, Richard Jones said: ‘The garden will be easily accessible and enrich the current area of the Meadows with shade, shelter and seating as well as activities such as petanque — so it will appeal to a wide range of groups and people in the town.’

Following plans for the sensory garden, designed by members of Roots to Transition, this garden will form an extension of the redevelopment of the Rose Walk area in the Meadows, which has been the group’s focus for its activities for the past two years.

Anyone who would like to donate to the planting can deliver donations to Local Matters in Elbow Lane, Tavistock (in the former Job Centre). It is open between 11am and 1pm, Monday to Saturday.