Sensory enjoyment in the garden

22 July 2026

July seems like a rich month for scent in the garden. 

Working in, on average, 4 gardens a day, means I am tasked with lots of different things during this busy month. Some of the lavender has gone over, the flowers exchanging vivid purple to muted beige or brown. Cutting these off has meant I have drifted home with the gorgeous, calming scent upon me. Same too for brushing past salvia - of the sage family, and at times smelling of ripe blackcurrants. I pass two varieties of salvia in my own garden when leaving for work in the morning and love to catch the scent on my clothes. 

Other tasks this month have included pinching out side shoots and staking tomato plants - possibly the best ever summer smell. It can instantly transport me to my grandparents’ garden as a child, and picking Gardener’s Delight tomatoes straight off the plant and eating them like sweets. Also pruning the basal shoots of a bay tree means I spent an hour among the deeply herbal smell of bay, which for some reason makes me feel like a time traveller to ancient times.

I deadheaded camomile one afternoon, a pungent, earthy herbal smell. Deadheading roses - my favourite summer garden task - also sending rich, heady perfume up to my nose. I have a David Austen rose in my garden - Golden Celebration - a gorgeous orange-yellow. I have deadheaded this routinely and saved the petals to dry, and when I put my nose to the bowl of petals, it honestly smells like a bowl of ripe raspberries. 

We know that the benefits of gardening reach way beyond the physical - and something about these scents can make me feel calm on a busy day. Have a think about what scents you’d like to introduce to your garden so you can have some of these moments of tranquility - and even time travel - yourself.