Garvan Woodland Garden Adventure

July 1, 2008
by Garden Girl

Everyone's idea of an adventure is different. For some an adventure is skydiving, white water rafting, fishing on white river or cycling a 100 miles in one day with 600 other bike riders. 

For me an adventure is immersing myself in the tranquility of nature and the great outdoors and last Thursday I had the adventure of a lifetime.  I've been to botanical gardens like Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada and national parks and wildlife refuges like Denali in Alaska.  And although they are spectacular beyond belief, I found a wonderful woodland garden located in Hot Springs Arkansas called Garvan Woodland Gardens that ranks right up there with the best of them.  It was by chance that I found this wonderful place.  My husband had a meeting in Hot Springs and the members of the board he is on were invited to tour the gardens.  Lucky for me they let me tag along.

I learned that the garden is the result of  one woman's vision of a naturalist garden celebrating the natural beauty of the Arkansas Ouachita mountains.  Verna Cook Garvan was a self-taught gardener and conservationist who inherited 210 acres of woodlands along Lake Hamilton.  She invested both time and money to create the gardens. Upon her death donated the land to the University of Arkansas, so that they could keep and preserve the vision of the garden.  Hearing her story alone is an adventure.  For 35 years she worked on the development of the garden, supplementing native plants with exotic plants (some which she was told would not live there - but she proved them wrong).  During her life time they created a 1 1/2 mile trail loop, planted a Japanese Maple Hill, developed a rose garden and constructed a pavilion that could function as an event location.

I love hiking, well maybe walking is more of what I like to actually do.  The garden has several paths that make strolling along easy. In fact, some of the pathways are made of stone and beautifully crafted like this one below which is connected to the Anthony Chapel.

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There are also fabulous places where you can sit in peace and enjoy nature as it surrounds you with its beauty.  I think I could sit on this bench for hours in a blissful adventure of tranquil meditation.  Just me and the flora and fauna.

Oh yeah, it is public so I might have to share.  But that is the wonder of this garden, everyone seems to be in the same peaceful mood.  Happily enjoying the atmosphere without a care in the world.  A mini stress free vacation that occurs among the statuesque trees, willow ferns and perky flowers.

AH! Back to the rest of the adventure.  As I said we were touring the gardens with a group and therefore we had a guide.  Garvan Woodland Gardens is extremely accommodating.  With groups you have the option of a tour with a guide or you can conduct your own self-guided tour.  They even give you a fantastic map of the garden so you can explore on your own. 

Normally I'm the Indiana Jones type preferring to explore on my own. But, Robin our tour guide was delightful. As we walked through the garden with her it was more like taking a stroll with an old friend. She would tells us interesting facts about the garden in a more friend to friend conversation.  Similar to what you would tell someone coming to your home for the first time.  "That's the Old Brick Hill created from the bricks that came from the broilers of her father lumber business" or "this is the pavilion that she (Mrs. Garvan) envisioned would look down on the rose garden, but unfortunately didn't get to see completed since she died from cancer before it was finished".   I could feel the story of the garden as we hiked around. Even though the garden contained living things, Robin's storytelling made the history of the garden come alive. 

One of the most interesting things we saw on our tour was a new part of the garden not yet completed. Growing up my family vacationed together and we always toured gardens, museums, cemeteries and an assortment of places.  Most things we went to except for Disneyland were really geared to adults.  But the trend over the last few decades is to make these "educational" or "adult" venues children friendly places.  Garvan is no exceptional and they are creating what I think is going to become the best family vacation spot around -- a Children's adventure garden.  When the garden is completed it will have a waterfall, tree houses, a bamboo maze and a lot of other things that will encourage children to explore the wonders of nature.  I thought it was awesome and it wasn't even finished.  Even in the construction phase the perfect placement of rocks and the bridge that will give visitors a bird's eye view of the children's garden demonstrated what an amazing architectural feat this garden would become. The area in the picture below will become a cave in the children's garden and all of the stone have been purposely placed to create an adventure spot that all kids will love.

Water plays an important part in the garden and there are several venues that involve some type of water feature.  There is a sensational Koi pond with a marvelous waterfall.  I contemplated standing up the waterfall to cool off.  It was a little hot around the Koi pond.

Looks refreshing doesn't it. 

Of course every where you have water you need a bridge and they have several great ones.  I like the Full Moon Bridge and I understand that this bridge inspired a visitor to create a quilt in the image of the garden and the bridge.  Amazing!  My husband's favorite part of the garden was the Bonsai garden collection.  They have a staff member specially trained in the art of Bonsai.  It was amazing to see the different types of plants and containers used to create the bonsai.

The big boulder is actually the bonsai container.  How cool.  I could ramble on and on about my wonderful adventure. There were many parts of the garden I didn't get to see; since we had to get back home and had a long drive ahead of us. If you are looking for family adventure or a mini vacation visit Gavan Woodland Garden and spend the day you won't be disappointed.  Make sure you allow plenty of time.  I've been studying my calendar and I think I will need a adventure vacation this fall. This time I plan to spend the whole day. Maybe I'll see you there.

Tags: hiking, botanical gardens