BRECON Hive has unveiled details of its plans for the Brecon Peace Garden.
They will be working with students from the Supported Learning Department at NPTC Brecon campus working to produce a sensory garden created in the oval-shaped area at the top of the garden.
The idea of a sensory garden is to produce a calm area that stimulates the senses.
The students will also be making some totem poles, which they will decorate in a ‘peace’ theme as well as growing herbs at the college both to plant in the garden and to sell to raise funds for the project.
A letter sent out by Brecon Hive to residents who live near the Peace Garden says: “For those who aren’t sure, a Sensory Garden is designed with people with disabilities and children in mind and usually has easily accessible raised beds with planting to represent the five senses.
“We plan to have four raised beds for Sight, Sound, Touch and Smell, having decided that the possible repercussions of encouraging people to eat plants was probably not a good idea! However with the students growing herbs there may well be plants to be harvested for eating.
“We plan to create a stable, wheelchair friendly but attractive ground surface by using ‘eco deck’ blocks, which are recycled plastic blocks with a grid pattern of gaps which not only make them strong but allow soil, gravel or grass seeds in compost to be poured into the gaps after the blocks are installed. This means that the ground surface will be sturdy and suitable for wheelchairs but will also have grass or wildflowers growing through it in some areas and gravel (which, being contained, cannot wander off!) in others.
“On top of this we plan to build the four raised beds. These will be made of treated timber and be around 6ft long, a foot wide and 3ft high. In the spaces between the beds we will install the totem poles and are thinking of creating a ‘sound wall’. This would be made of plastic downpipes in various lengths which, when tapped, will each make a different note. They will not make any noise unless tapped, not like wind chimes which blow in the wind. At the entrance to the sensory garden the students are going to create a herb garden using old tyres, painted in bright colours and stacked in a short pile. The potted herbs will stand inside the tyres. We may also be able to install a living willow arch at the two entry points of the sensory garden.”
The letter includes pictures and designs showing elements of the plans. The letter also asks people living close to the Peace Garden to provide feedback as well as come up with their own ideas by contacting members of the group when they are working at the garden or by attending the group’s weekly meetings in Brecon Tap on Wednesdays, which start at 6pm.