How to Design your Garden

There’s all sorts of science that can be applied to create a great garden—from studies of what sorts of fertilizer are best for dahlias when to how many hours of daylight petunias actually need to oodles and oodles of other insights on the ins and outs of keeping our green comrades in good health.

This article covers none of those topics!

It’s about neuroscience research you can use to create garden spaces where you, a human, feel good spending time.

What have neuroscientists learned about the garden spaces where you’ll have the best time? Well, for starters:

• Whatever you decide to plant in the space, lay it out in curving paths, they’ll draw people in your garden forward, to experience more of the space, particularly if the end of the path is around the bend, not straight ahead.
• Think biophilically and feature benches and other design elements that are made out of wood and other natural materials, particularly those that will develop a patina over time as wood and copper do. Also, create seats that have views out over the garden from a protected nook where people will feel safe; views out from safe locations are a key tenet of biophilic design.  Better yet:  make sure those seats are in dappled light, the sort that filters through the leaves on trees.  Why bother with biophilic design?  If relaxes people at their core, eliminating tension as it acknowledges the key features of spaces where we were comfortable in our early days as a species.  To earn lots of biophilic design bonus points:  make sure seats, benches, tables, patterns in cushions, etc., feature more curving lines than straight ones—the most primitive parts of our minds link curving lines with comfort and relaxation but tie straight ones and angular design to functionality and efficiency.
• Use warm lighting at night—the hygge-folks have got it right, warm light is more relaxing than cool.
• Add a water feature with gently moving H2), even if it’s only a few feet tall the visuals and acoustics of seeing and hearing that moving water will keep the stress-gremlins at bay.

• Create private places where people can spend time out of the view and acoustic reach of others—when we can’t get privacy when we need it our brains perform poorly, like a stereo system with a skipping record.
• Support all different sorts of conversations, just as they enable time alone. Have pods of seats to accommodate groups of different sizes, some side-by-side talking spaces (men prefer these) and some face-to-face (more nose-to nose than side-by-side; women respond positively to these) places to talk for example, and, to the extent possible use chairs light enough so people can drag them around a little bit and create the layouts that are best in any situation.  Humans thrive when humans control.
• Make sure there are cushions on those seats—conversations go better, they’re more pleasant, when our butts are feeling good. Another tip if conversations are likely to get test-y—when provoked, we’re less likely to get mad at someone if we’re reclined than if we’re not reclining—maybe every teenager’s parents should spend all their time in sun-loungers. And the best sorts of conversations, the ones where all contributions are equally respected, happen when the people talking are sitting in seats with legs roughly the same length; when we’re talking to someone in a taller seat, they seem more powerful and experienced/skilled, while those we look down onto because they’re sitting in shorter seats seem less.
• Encourage songbirds to visit the space with feeders or whatever it takes. Gentle bird songs are great for keeping stress levels in check.

Plant lavender to help people relax and to build trust among those present.  Floral smells in general are good for reducing anxiety (particularly jasmine and hyacinth).  The smell of rosemary is good for the performance of our memories and the smell of peppermint keeps us alert (which rosemary does as well).