Alaska Botanical Gardens is located in Anchorage, Alaska.
The gardens, opened in 1993, cover about 110 acres and contain over 1,000 varieties of plants native to southcentral Alaska. There's an herb garden, rock garden, and a wildflower walk. It's a great place to hike with spectacular views of the Chugach Mountain Range. Nature lovers will enjoy it for bird watching, and occasionally will spot moose and bear.
The gardens are open year round from dawn to dusk. The cost of admission for adults is $7.00. For children, admission is $5.00.
Smiley Park Children's Garden, located in Van Wert, Ohio, was opened in 2007, and was created so that children could learn about the gardening process and all that is involved with caring for a garden.
One very nice thing about the garden, is that produce that is grown in it is given to a local food pantry.
Children will really enjoy the butterfly house, which is a colorful green and pink house with window boxes filled with petunias. The back part of the house is screened in, so that butterflies can fly around inside.
There's another cute garden called Melody's Secret Garden where children can pass though and arched entry way with climbing roses. There are two weeping Mulberry trees, so kids can see what Mulberry "bushes" actually look like.
Kids will also get a kick out of Roscoe the Rhino who guards the International Garden.
The newest feature is a crooked house. Kids can have fun playing inside.
The garden is open daily from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Admission is free.
One more thing before I go: I shared this on my other blog, but if you don't follow me there, you haven't seen it. This is a video of me playing at Dragoncon in Atlanta. I'm the violist on the far left. Thought you'd like to see it.
