scent gardening - choosing plants that smell nice

this is kind of in the 'artistic' section,

I'm doing a design for a friend who has an outhouse on her property, and as a nice touch it would be cool to have some nice-smelling perennials around the outhouse. The front part gets part sun and around the outhouse there's shady spots.

What are some ideas?

Lavender! but I imagine it would be nice to have something year round. How about cedar? some mint would be nice to be able to crush and toss inside occasionally. I have a plain old golden privet that I think smells wonderfull in bloom others disagree. other ideas...

sage
honeysuckle
thyme
artemesia
lilac
magnolia
butterfly bush


I always thought it would be fun to have "scent" garden.

You might want to throw in a jasmine and a summer sweet as well. It seems you'd want the nice smelling stuff mostly blooming in the summer since smells don't tend to be much of an issue in winter since it's cold out.

Roses are always a winner too.

Dave

I like the way my golden privet smells when in bloom.

I second honeysuckle - my absolute favourite smell in the world! Lavender might be good, attracts bees too. Or if your climate is mild enough, some lemon verbena. The smell of that always gives me a fit of giggles for some reason! I've got an article summarising aromatherapy lying around somewhere, maybe a look at that would give some better ideas.

Perfume, funny how nobody ever talks about that in permaculture but I'm sure that having good smells around does something wonderful to your spirit.

My favourite is honeysuckle too !

Try Star Jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides an evergreen climber.



Oriental Lilies smell glorious and do well in woodland.

I've recently discovered the flower
Winter Daphne which has an amazing scent.
Really easy to propagate.

First, I'd rather reduce nasty smells than attempt to cover them up with nice ones. This can be done by: using buckets in the outhouse and having a toilet seat that fits to whichever bucket is currently filling; dropping sawdust on each deposit; and peeing elsewhere, all of which we do (we have what I call the pisseria in the house, another toilet seat over a bucket within a wooden frame, which I empty onto a rotating series of compost piles).
But this post reminded me of the outhouse we had in the next county when I was married to my ex--it was the nasty kind utilizing none of these schemes, but it had a big window on one side--not the side facing the house. It faced a little garden with a cedar tree, under which I'd planted wildflowers and bulbs--looking at them was enjoyable, and one year there was a colony of mushrooms--watching that develop day by day was even more entertaining than the flowers.

Of the plants that I have planted Sweet Alyssum has such a sweet smell.

Honeysuckle has a sweet smell, too.

French Marigolds in contrast are just the opposite.

I've been thinking of gardening for sent this year.  I suffer from insomnia and imagine it would be a nice treat to have some night scented flowers just for me.

Apparently stocks might do it.  Not sure what else yet.  Suggestions?