Flowers, gardens and restored landscapes are not only inviting in themselves, but great "natural ambassadors" to understand that how we use our land has significant impact on local ecosystems. Visit these enticing places and see:
- featured plants and points of interest
- beautiful gardens and landscapes appropriate for our climate and conditions
- ecologically sound horticulture in practice
- restored areas that may inspire you to engage with ecological restoration work
- natural areas that are part of our regional heritage
With so much to choose from, you may need more than one visit. The links below highlight each special place.
The Exhibit Garden area, located between the Conservatory and the grassy Commons, is never the same from year to year
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The Gateway Garden of New World Plants presents ornamental plants originally native to South, Central or North America
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The Gaffield Children's Garden is a place for exploration and fun in a natural setting specially constructed from a kids'-eye view
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The perennial garden demonstrates exuberant, color-coordinated waves of bloom from plants appropriate for our region
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Every culture has traditional herbal remedies. Our herb knot garden is a modern interpretation of a Tudor (16th century English) garden style featuring plants used in Asian, Native American and European cooking and healing traditions
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We all love to have a great-looking lawn, but we also want to reduce water use and minimize, or eliminate, our use of fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides
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Expand your definition of ground covers. Mass plantings of a few genera demonstrate alternatives to the often aggressive invasive exotics so commonly used in our region
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More than 100 native species of spring wildflowers, ferns and woody plants of the southern Great Lakes Region thrive here
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Located in a restored prairie area north and east of the main entry off Dixboro Rd
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The Marie Azary Rock Garden presents a range of plants suitable for our calcareous (high pH) soils and water
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Marilyn Bland established this as a demonstration prairie to provide "researchers and students an outdoor ecological laboratory for grasslands investigation, and the public a small living museum of the region's native plants"
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The current Matteson farmhouse dates to the 1860s and occupies the site of a settlement-era home that is no longer there
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The Normal Memorial Grove is a natural gathering place near the west entrance to the Sue Reichert Discovery Trail
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"We hope you enjoy this pretty sitting garden" is the welcoming statement on the entry stone
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The challenges of an awkward, difficult and simply ugly "utilitarian" site that can't be hidden need inspired design and thoughtful plant selection related to urban ecology to be transformed into restful spaces
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