One of the nicest things about gardens is the diversity. No matter your passion, a garden can be built around it. Known as specialty gardens, these gardens are designed to capture and showcase the particular fondness of the gardener.

Of all the specialty gardens, water gardens are among the most fascinating and popular. Water gardens become a tranquil corner or focal point. Our nerves are quieted by the soft sounds of rippling water, and our eyes rest in the sight of deep, dark pools. Hot summer days seem cooler near the pond’s edge.

For the gardener who chooses the challenge and fun of this specialty garden, the rewards are many. My neighbor mentioned he felt vindicated after watching my young granddaughter and her aunt strolling near his water garden.

“I’m glad to see them enjoying it,” he said. “It makes me feel that my efforts in maintaining it are worthwhile.”

Wisely, more gardeners are planting wildlife gardens. The lure of wildlife into the garden has a bonus — a biological pest control service. A single toad will eat up to 24,000 insects during an eight-month period. They are known to feast on ants, aphids, cutworms, slugs, spiders and squash bugs. Frogs dine on sow bugs. One bat gobbles up to 1,000 mosquitoes a night. Birds have a hearty appetite for cutworms, leafminers, leafhoppers and beetles.

A specialty garden that has long been popular is the herb garden. With plants going straight from the garden into the cooking pot, herb gardens are considered highly practical. Generally, herb gardens are easy to maintain and are best located in a sunny patch of land with easy access or in containers.

Grow the herbs and spices you use in your favorite recipes, perhaps dill, coriander, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary and basil. Though the culinary use of herbs is perhaps the most obvious, some people cultivate herbs for their medicinal value.

Consider a specialty garden built for fragrance. Include plants such as lilac, mints, night-scented stock (Matthiola bicornis), nicotiana, blue-flowered petunias, scented geraniums, honeysuckle and Madonna lilies.

The wildflower garden takes more effort than its appearance shows. Wildflowers are planted in bunches or clumps rather than neat rows. They can be chosen so their bloom times are spaced throughout the year. Once established, the wildflower garden is ever-changing, its features organized by nature.

The cutting garden, on the other hand, is well planned to maximize the number of flowers in the garden space. The mixture of annuals, such as cosmos, geraniums and zinnias, with perennials such as daisies, irises and daylilies, along with early bloomers like tulips and daffodils with late bloomers like mums and asters assure gardeners of this specialty garden an almost constant supply of flowers for cutting.

Flowers from the cutting garden, such as stacice, baby’s breath, and strawflower also furnish material for dying for use in flower arrangements. These long lasting bouquets become wonderful reminders of the growing season.

The entire landscape may be devoted to the garden’s theme, such as one that attracts birds and wildlife or provides a peaceful retreat amidst a chaotic life. Or, only a portion of the garden may follow the scheme. For example, a fragrance garden may be planted near a patio, the herb garden near the kitchen door or a cut flower garden at the rear of the yard.

Sometimes specialty gardens are designed by default. Gardeners take advantage of the terrain, making the most of what the land provides. When they find the space too wet, they build a bog garden. Gardeners create a rock garden in areas that are too dry; a terraced garden in areas too hilly; and a container garden in too tiny of spaces.

The common element of specialty gardens is that they are tailor-made to captivate all our senses. Unique plantings invite us to see, smell, touch, feel, taste and listen to them.

No need to restrict yourself to one specialty garden. If your space is large enough, contemplate how you might satisfy several gardening urges. For myself, what I call my fragrance garden becomes a water garden when the spring rains flood it. What I call my shade garden emits the wonderfully sweet perfumes from the blooms of Royal Standard hosta and wild honeysuckle. My cutting garden has been revamped and many of the flowers transplanted to other locations. Yet, I know that I can find flowers suitable for cutting somewhere in my garden.

— Carol Boncella is education coordinator at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and home and garden writer for the Journal-World.