About The Sensory Garden at Oyster Bay Manor and Harbor House
Members of the North Country Garden Club of Long Island (NCGC) have been working with the Harbor House team to design and install a sensory garden for the residents of Harbor House and Oyster Bay Manor. NCGC is delighted to undertake this project as both a learning opportunity for its members and to contribute to the club’s ongoing commitment to the enrichment of the Long Island community. This project had been planned for last year but was postponed due to the pandemic.
The sensory garden will be inside the planter on Harbor House’s upper terrace. It will include plants that entice the senses – smell, sight, touch, sound and taste. Plant material includes catmint (Nepeta) and Biokovo Cranesbill (Geranium cantabrigiense Biokovo) for smell; lamb’s-ear (Stachys byzantine) for touch; balloon flower (Platycodon grandifloras ‘Astra Blue’) and false indigo (Baptisia australis), with its rattling seed pods in the fall, for sound; butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) and Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ to provide beautiful plants to see; and a tomato plant in the center so residents can pick one to taste! Flowering verbena will cascade over the sides of the planter. The installation will also include wind chimes and a water feature.
NCGC has also added plant material to the planter in front of the Harbor House/Oyster Bay Manor campus on South Street. To accompany the existing dwarf Japanese maple tree, hydrangea bushes and astilbe, NCGC will add four Japanese holly shrubs and Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis). All hardy perennials, these plants will enhance the pedestrian experience on South Street for years to come.
About the North Country Garden Club of Long Island
Founded in 1913, the purpose of the North Country Garden Club is to promote the knowledge and appreciation of gardening. This is demonstrated through conservation of natural resources; support of education in the fields of gardening, horticulture and natural sciences; and improvement of local parks, roadsides and wildlife sanctuaries. The club also makes contributions to educational and environmental organizations for these purposes. NCGC is a member of The Garden Club of America. Our members are dedicated to the well-being of the gardens and green spaces that surround them and the environment as a whole.