Green Fingers: Senses Series

Dec 18 2008

The best gardens appeal to our senses on many levels, including one that is rarely considered when planning a garden – SOUND.

Choose between rustling leaves, splashing water, the playing of wind chimes or the whistle of the wind. A garden of gentle repose, muted from the outside world, or one filled with stimulating, soft sounds and sensual serenity.

Sound is more than simply ‘noise’ – it is one of the ways in which we navigate life. An ability to hear is counted as one of our traditional five senses, helping alert us to the warning signs and sirens of every day.

The ability to listen is often taken for granted. Sound levels are defined according to the quietest tones we can make out, measured in decibels. With outside noise all around us, the capability to physically ‘block’ or tune out some sounds is often a cultural advantage.

Solid barriers may have either one of two profound effects; screening out and muffling some sounds, ie. passing traffic or, acting as stereo speakers and reverberating noise around a ‘tight’ neighbourhood of buildings in close proximity.

Adding your own ‘desirable’ sounds, such as running water, may help soften the ambience and effectively drown out the outside world, whereas muffling leafy hedges or shrub-topped earth banking – as used by the railways – can make a permanent reductive difference.

Gentle, repetitive, rhythmic sounds, such as breaking waves on the shore, or burbling brooks, often have the most calming effects on the nerves, with the gentle knocking of a bamboo deer scarer or subtle wind chimes and bells, providing soothing synthesized options. Bamboo, tall grasses and the fluttering leaves of the Aspen poplar, Populus tremula are especially vociferous, adding pleasing background music to our time spent outdoors.

Reducing unwanted or unnecessary noise within our gardens can contribute to a quieter neighbourhood overall. Choosing a less-noisy mower, cutting down on power tool use and opting for hand-operated trimmers and push-mowers will cut out a lot of the general background din, preserving the most desirable acoustics of nature, such as rustling leaves, melodic bird song, crickets in long grass or a splashing stream.

Trees that remain leafy in winter, or retain many of their brown autumnal leaves, such as evergreen pines and eucalyptus, russet beech and semi-green bamboos; flutter foliage with the movement of the breeze.

Encourage more bird life into your garden to enjoy a delightful chorus of natural song and leave un-mown ‘nature reserve’ areas, providing habitats for chirruping crickets and the buzz of insects and bees. Water can also be a popular garden feature, be it natural or imaginatively ‘man made’. A small circulating pump in a self-contained pool can provide relaxing background music, or add a waterfall or fountain for greater harmonic symphony.

The choice of landscaping in your garden can play an important tune too, with crunching gravel or muffling woodchips in the mix. The echo of boot heels on a solid, hard surface or the denser thud of footfall on timber decking, all offer an original jukebox of natural melody.

Close your eyes and listen – is your garden sounding as good as it looks? Apply a little sound logic and tune your senses into the music of your dreams.

Softening Unwanted Sound:

Noise from traffic is one of the most common ‘pollutants’ of our time. The low frequency ‘drone’ from heavy goods vehicles, lorries and busses, combined with the fact that the sound is constantly on the move, makes effective ‘proofing’ extremely difficult.

However, the closer one is to a soundproofed screen (preferably in its shadow), the more positive the results. Acoustically absorbent surfaces, such as soft ground, earth berms, straw bales or gabions work best at effectively pacifying noise by a process of ‘absorption’.

Whereas, green shields work by ‘diffraction’, dispersing sound waves in different directions. As well as providing a pleasing visual distraction from the actual sight of the traffic, tall plants can form a pleasant natural barrier, offering an immediate living screen.

Most effective of all, though often requiring planning permission, is a solid brick or stone wall that works by ‘deflection’. And if backed by dense evergreen planting (Laurels, Holly, Conifers etc) this can provide useful attenuation to higher frequency traffic noise, whilst at the same time softening the visual impact of the sound ‘deflection’ shield.

Vociferous Plants:

Bamboos – Arundinaria, Fargesia, Phyllostachys and Sasa.

Tall Ornamental Grasses – Arundo donax, Cortaderia, Miscanthus and Pennisetum.

Trees – Fagus, Pinus, Populus and Quercus.

Popping and Shaking Seed Pods – Alstroemeria, Euphorbia characias, Impatiens glandulifera (Indian Balsam) and Papaver somniferum.

IN THE GARDEN THIS WEEK...

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