Albuquerque Botanic Garden

If you ever get to Albuquerque, be certain you have time to go to the Albuquerque Botanic Garden.  You will be impressed.  I'm not certain I have ever seen any botanical garden as wonderful as this one.  Read on to find out why.

The Japanese garden was beautiful.  The waterfall made it special.

The farm garden was lovely.  It's my garden dream.  If only my vegetable garden looked like this!

The rose garden was blooming.  They had planted climbing roses in the most unusual way.

Fabulous planters.

Gorgeous pavilions.

Lovely walkways.

The butterfly habitat was thrilling.  There were so many butterflies, it was hard to not step on them!

And the garden railroad, complete with its own town, was fascinating.

Now, all of those areas were lovely, beautiful, nice, and enjoyable.  But, don't you kind of expect that from a public garden?  No, those areas, as pretty as they were, was not what made this garden unforgettable, unique, exciting, wonderful, creative, and imaginative.

What made this botanical garden stand out was the children's area.

In the children's area, you suddenly seemed to be the size of an ant.  It was if you actually became an ant!

Vegetables were huge.  Tracks were embedded in the ground, and it was fun to figure out what would have made them (rabbit, people, earthworm, etc.).

Here we are inside of a pumpkin!

This bee, giant size to us ants, made a buzzing noise when you passed under it.  I didn't realize it was above my head, and I kept looking for some giant killer bee hive!  hahaha  It was finally pointed out to me that the bee was above my head!  Makes you think of the sounds ants hear!

And there were ant tunnels.  Lots of ant tunnels.  Inside, outside, around and back.  A maze of tunnels, leading to different areas.

So much fun!
So much laughter!
So much delight!
And I bet children would like it just as much as I did!

In fact, Albuquerque Botanic Garden was all about experiencing and learning.  With discovery stations located all throughout the garden areas, children of all ages were encouraged to touch, feel, learn, experience, and discover gardening.  Isn't that as it should be?  Shouldn't we be teaching our love of gardens to all generations?  Albuquerque Botanic Garden has succeeded, exceptionally.

Definitely put this one on your list.  And bring your kids.  That way you'll have a good excuse to run through the ant tunnels over and over again!