The term ‘mini garden’ in our context can also be used to imply to a therapeutical garden. Gardens can provide some sense of therapy when they are well designed (Shamsuddin, Lesk, Ugail, 2011). They can be used to satisfy and fulfil the needs of a certain group of persons. In our case, the special group of persons to be considered would be children with special needs. As we all know, children at the ages of about 3-9 years are in a developing stage and everything that is exposed to them matters a lot. When special needs children or any other children for that matter are exposed to the continuous passive pleasure of being outdoors amongst plants, then this greatly helps in their development (Shamsuddin et al, 2011). Moreover, mini gardens for special needs children should be designed by considering quite a number of things but most importantly what should be given a priority is the unique human element. This should never be ignored no matter what the circumstances because it is this human element that brings life to any garden or mini garden.
Plant selection for a mini garden meant for special needs children should also be put into consideration. Plant selection for a mini garden especially for children with special needs should be carefully done. For these plants, it is often important to consider their sensory effect and the smells and scents they bring in a garden (Souter-Brown, 2014). The scent should be so natural in such a way that they can fill the air and can be felt and smelt even without necessarily touching the plants or getting any much closer to the plants or having to squeeze the leaves of these plants so as to get the smell or scent.
Having an attractive school environment is very important. Statistics have shown that it facilitates the entire process of learning. In relation to this, this discussion basically aims at designing and constructing a landscape or rather a mini garden at a school compound. It is also important to note that this particular school is for children with special.
Children with special needs need to develop gardening skills that are vital (Zhenjun, 2011). Gardening assists children with special needs in different ways such as; fitness whereby in real sense gardening serves as a great exercise for them. Also, gardening helps in developing gardening wellbeing and also as a source of food for the children. They are able to indulge themselves in gardening opportunities that will help them get adequate healthy food and thus in the position to improve their skills. In addition, children with special needs are in a position to access knowledge and confidence through gardening. This suggests that there is an apt chance to learn more on environment and nature and also meaning that gardening will help them develop new skills that are useful in daily activities.
Some of the important things that will be looked at in this write-up would be, the purpose and importance of the mini garden to children with special needs, the landscape plan of a mining garden, the description on the selection of plants on that particular mini garden and description of selected landscape elements (Zhenjun, 2011).
The purpose and importance of a mini garden to children with special needs
Gardening with children who have special needs is very important and an extremely rewarding experience (Etherington, 2012). The creation and maintaining of these gardens can be a very great and healing therapeutical experience since through this then children will be in a position to develop various skills that could be of very great importance as they grow up. It boosts their overall confidence and makes them embrace the world as it is.
An example of very important skill that a special need child can adopt is social skills. The child is likely to enhance his/her social skills and also their creativity in terms of handling and also tackling staff and issues affecting them. It has also been proven that gardening has a very high probability of reducing stress and greatly helps children cope up with high levels of anxiety (Severtsen, 2015).
Gardening is very important to all children leave alone children with special needs. Well, for children with special needs, this is a typically different case. These are children which often have challenges when growing up because they are somewhat challenged either mentally, physically are even technically.
Statistics and research conducted have shown that a garden/mini garden for special needs children helps them lead a much happier and even healthier life (Lucas & Dyment, 2010). It basically aids them to acquire some very essential skills that they actually need in their day to day life. With a mini garden, special needs children grow much stronger. There a number of ways in which mini gardens help children grow to be much stronger, these ways are outlined below;
Through the mini gardens then children with special needs are in a position to become very active learners. These mini gardens have some tend to trigger some mechanism in the child’s mind that makes them capable of thinking straight and also independently (Lei & Harris,2011). With this new thinking, then they are able to face challenges in their daily lives with much ease.
These gardens also tend to make the special needs children gain some levels of confidence in their speech, thus making them more responsible. With this new sense of responsibility that they do develop, they are in a position to view life at a very different perspective and this gives them an advantage since they are special needs children. Moreover, they tend to embrace a much more active role in school and also in off school activities, this is usually depicted at some later stages since they are in a position to develop proper communication patterns and can communicate well with people from all range of ages.
Mini gardens also give special needs children ample time to play with each other and explore. Playing to all children is very important since it helps in the reduction of muscle tension and also greatly lowers the blood pressure for these children (Grayson, 2015). Special needs children are often considered to be so delicate and fragile with this, however, the fragility and delicacy are reduced to a certain amount.
Through the mini gardens, then special needs children are given the opportunity and favourable chance to develop their speeches and other important discoveries as they play. These children are basically provided with the right kind of avenue to learn how to corporate and work with one another (Hussein, Abidin, Omar, 2013). This builds them and makes them mentally strong and unique.
With the mini gardens, then various negative attitudes and dis-functioning behaviours are reduced among special needs children. For instance, it helps reduce leaves of anxiety and aggressiveness among these children.
A landscape is often regarded to those features about a piece of land that is visible. It often incorporated with some man-made features or even natural ones to make it unique and particular for a particular occasion (Armstrong, 2012).
In our case, the landscape of a mini garden for children with special needs should be so unique and very distinct in a number of ways. Various modifications need to be incorporated into the landscape to make it significant and serving children with disabilities. First and foremost a number of considerations need to be looked at and made, these considerations and specifications are outlined below;
The garden beds should be raised (Katz, 2012). This would help these various children with special needs such as those that are physically challenged to avoid unnecessary bending and also stopping. This would reduce some great amount of strain that they were going to get if the garden beds are not raised.
The garden should be made much more accessible the special needs children. A number of specifications can be made in regard to this, for instance, the use of pots, window boxes and also raised containers can be employed in gardening (Robinson, 2016). This would play a very important role for children with special needs because they would come in handy more so when space and sunlight are limited.
The paths leading to all corners of the mini garden should be kept smooth and not slippery. This reduces any possible chances of hurting the children as they play and engage in their daily activities.
There should also be a permanent shade, maybe three or two that re-incorporated in the mini garden. These shades would be used specifically for working during the summer periods.
A ready access to the toilets and washrooms should also be created (Lane, 2014). This helps and is very crucial for special needs children. As we all know, these children are kind of special in a way that they should be looked at carefully, providing an easy and ready access to toilets is one way of doing so.
In summary, the landscape incorporates raised garden thus restricting special children from bending and also the aspect of stopping. The other aspect is availing tables and wheelchairs which will assist children to access some areas thus in the position to plant (Von, 2017).In addition, watering buckets should be accessible by the children. The other issue is maintaining the paths within the garden smooth and accessible in the sense that they are non-slip. Equipment storage area should also be availed and maximum shade supplied too.
Plant selection for a mini garden especially for children with special needs should be carefully done. For these plants, it is often important to consider their sensory effect and the smells and scents they bring in a garden (Von, 2017). The scent should be so natural in such a way that they can fill the air and can be felt and smelt even without necessarily touching the plants or getting any much closer to the plants or having to squeeze the leaves of these plants so as to get the smell or scent.
Plants selected should also have some sense of endurance. This is in the sense that they should be in a position to thrive and survive that particular type of soil in your garden and other important conditions present in your garden such as sunlight and shade (Scanlan & Snyder,2010). Plants that cannot endure such conditions should not be used since they would quickly die even before they start growing.
In the case of plants for taste, then fruits and vegetables should be included. It is, however, important to ensure that the selected fruits and vegetables are safe for consumption (Omar, Hussein, Abidin, 2016). Examples of such fruits and vegetables could be tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, and strawberries.
Some examples of plants that can be used in a mini garden for special needs children are outlined below;
(a). Cornus Kousa (Kousa dogwood) – This is originally an Asian native plant. It is very beautiful and produces either white or pink flowers. The flowers usually blossoms between late spring and early summer.
This plant can perfectly fit in a mini garden for children with special needs because of this ability to produce small fruits just like small-berries that are edible. Another important feature that makes this particular plant beautiful is its glossy green leaves that usually turn red and at times purple when the fall. This plant also provides a very nice shade and this is exactly what makes it preferable especially during summer (Maczka, 2013). Apart from all those features mentioned above, this plant also has a very amazing scent. Its scent can be felt from a very far distance. It is a very perfect plant in a mini garden for children with disabilities.
(b). Buxus sempervirens (English boxwood)-This is an evergreen plant that is usually found in the formal European landscape. It is usually very beautiful and works with all and any style of a garden. For our case, a mini garden for children with special needs this particular plant can serve quite a number of functions. For instance, it can be used for instilling order, physically defining garden rooms and also edging pathways in the mini garden (McMaster, 2014).
This plant also has some unique features that make it quite different from all other plants that can be used in a mini garden. First and foremost, it is tolerant to quite a wide range of light conditions and it can thrive and survive in a wide range of soils as long as a proper drainage is maintained. Another feature for this particular plant is that it has one of the best dwarf varieties in the world. It reaches a mature size at about three feet to three and a half feet tall. This minimizes the need for constant pruning.
(c). Rosa ‘Flower Carpet’ (Landscape Rose)-Roses are considered to be the most loved flowers in the United States and also across many areas in the globe. There are varied varieties of these plants and some have been developed to be resistant to various types of diseases (Null, 2013). This plant can be a perfect match for a mini garden meant for special needs children since they are easy to take care of and also have a considerable a much longer blossom time than any other plants.
(d). Acer palmatum (Coral bark Japanese maple)-Japanese maples have been traditionally used in home landscapes and gardens but can also be incorporated in a mini garden meant for children with special needs. It is usually mostly preferred because of a wide range of leaf colours and its brilliant fall foliage which is of various forms and sizes (Brook, 2010).
Also, this particular plant has an outstanding feature which is the coral-pink bark. This bark becomes much brighter during winter and almost fluorescent. It also reaches the size of about 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide.
Plant selection should have a certain criterion that is useful in guiding the children. This means that sensory and textual plants should be used. Therefore this suggests sensory plants need to have smell, sound, touch, taste and also other related visual qualities found in plants. Different plants tend to possess these features .For example, taste which is commonly found in strawberries and peas.
The images shown below are the pictorial representation of the mini garden that I have designed. There are various parts of this particular mini garden and they are discussed in the selected landscape elements.
Some of the parts of the mini garden that have been represented below include the path ways, the sheds, the playing space, the various plants that would be included in the mini garden among others.
This image shows the playing space for the special needs children. It is simply designed in such a way that its wide in space and it is not rocky in nature so that the children cannot hurt themselves as they play.
This image shows a representation of the pathways of the mini garden. As it can be seen from the image, the pathways have some kind of pattern that makes it much more attractive.
This image shows the shades for the mini garden which also acts as the playing and also resting space for the children. As it can be seen from the image, the place is guided from direct sunlight and also rain,
This image shows the (Plants), flowers that have been used in the mini garden. This is just a section of the plants used in the mini garden, there are quite a number of them used that makes the mini garden much more attractive.
Since this garden is for children with special needs then there are some certain elements about the garden that needs to be put into considerations (Brook, 2010). It is these elements that will make the mini garden distinct and unique from the rest of its kind.
Some of the most important elements are discussed below;
Shape, this refers to the outward/physical outlook of the mini garden. It is important to note that for a mini garden meant for children with disabilities then the shape is a very important element. The shape should be quite simple, yet distinct. Flowers should be incorporated, research and survey conducted has shown that various types of flowers such as daisy, the poppy and also bell flowers provide the best shape for gardens. The shapes should be designed with all sorts of plants with huge stems such as bamboo canes, rectangular paving, round and squares (Brook, 2010). These shapes make a mini garden quite amazing and appealing thus enhancing the probability of making these special needs children adapt to it much easier boosting their levels of growth and development.
Patterns refer to some kind of regularity that can be physically observed. It is often man-made and it tends to repeat itself in a predictable manner. Patterns in a mini garden for children with disabilities have the unique capability of providing some fascinating effects. These patterns can be made of various types and shapes (Moser, 2013). For instance brickwork, cobbles or even fencing or even the placement of pine cones and dandelion clocks can be used. These patterns provide a very beautiful outlook for the mini garden and this really helps especially for children with special needs.
Smelling and Scent, Scent is very important in any mini garden to leave alone a mini garden for children with special needs. The use of scented plants should, in fact, be the first priority in the design of a mini garden for children. Various materials should also be used that bring scent and nice smells in a mini garden. Some of the materials that can be used to bring sweet smells and scents in a mini garden are pond water (Moser, 2013). Well, pond water does not only bring a nice scent, but it also makes the mini garden much more attractive. Other materials that can be used to bring this sweet smell and scent are wet soil, fresh hay, leaves, and composts heaps among others. It is also very important that the plants to be used in the mini garden have different types of smell and scents. The scent should be so natural in such a way that they can fill the air and can be felt and smelt even without necessarily touching the plants or getting much closer to the plants.
Path design, the design of pathways is very important in a mini garden meant for children with disabilities. The pathways should not be made simple and neither should they be complex. They should be made in such a way that these children can easily connect with them (Moser, 2013). They should also be made in quite a mystery manner, this is really helpful more so for the children with special needs. It has been proven that these mystery pathways improve the memory of children.
Tasting-with this then it is always important that one strictly sticks to some of the vegetables and fruits that children can consume. They should be safe in the sense that the children can consume them even when there is so any supervision around. This is very crucial since at times children get so picky and naughty and they eat things anyhow (Moser, 2013).
Texture- texture refers to the appearance and feel of a certain surface or maybe substance. For a mini garden meant for children with disabilities it should ensure that the feeling and touch of surfaces and substances be rough. For instance, the use of highly rough surfaces such as lichens, bark, hairy leaves and others.
Colour-the colour for a mini garden should very appealing. It should be ensured that it’s made as attractive as possible, this tends to make the children happy and boosts their general growth and development (Cook, Klein, Chen, 2015). The colour can be improved by either use of colourful flowers, paintings or even beautiful patterns.
A water source should also be present in the mini garden. Water is considered as a very important element since it provides the special needs children with the opportunity to respond to various senses in terms of touch and also hearing. The water should also be clean for consumption since children get dehydrated so easily each time they engage themselves in various
Conclusion
Generally, gardens and mini gardens have proven to be of very great importance both in the growth and development of young children especially those with special needs. It tends to improve their growth in such a significant amount (Marco, Cerezo, Baldassarri, 2013). As discussed in the earlier in the text, there are a number of considerations that need to be made in regard to the design of the mini garden for children with special needs. One of the element to be considered is the plants that need to be put in the mini garden. It is important that the plants in the garden are clearly understood and how they behave and respond to different environmental conditions. There should also be a specific design or pattern that is supposed to be uniform to make the mini garden much more appealing.
Statistics and studies conducted have proven that incorporation of mini gardens in schools for special needs children helps the children in a number of ways. For instance, it greatly helps in the creation of a typical outdoor environment which has the unique ability to offer quite a wide range of multi-sensory learning and learning experiences especially for the children with special needs (Tomlinson, 2012).
Through the mini gardens, then special needs children are given the opportunity and most favourable chance to develop their speeches and other important discoveries as they play. These children are basically provided with the right kind of avenue to learn how to corporate and work with one another (Tomlinson, 2012). This builds them and makes them mentally strong and unique.
With the mini gardens, then various negative attitudes and dis-functioning behaviours are reduced among special needs children. For instance, it helps reduce leaves of anxiety and aggressiveness among these children.
Special designers should, therefore, be recommended to come up with these mini gardens designs that should be integrated into these schools. Children (special needs children) should be actively involved in all the activities both physical and mental in the mini gardens so as to make them much more proactive (Tomlinson, 2012).
These mini gardens also provide an opportunity for the children to learn about various types of plants and their natural habitats. Children are in a position to understand the various types of plants and how these plants survive.
It is therefore very important to incorporate these mini gardens in schools meant for children with special needs since their advantages are numerous.
References
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