As Seen at Tucson Botanical Gardens

Last week, as mentioned in my previous post, I visited Tucson Botanical Gardens (TBG). Below are a bunch of images I captured while strolling through. TBG really is a great place to beat the heat. Temperatures were around 95 degrees Fahrenheit (~35 C), but with the low humidity and abundant shade at TBG, the heat was tolerable.

The first few pics are from the Nuestro Jardin (Barrio Garden). Per the TBG website, Nuestro Jardin honors Tucson’s traditional Mexican-American neighborhood gardens with a charming and colorful display of flowers, trees, herbs, and objects commonly seen in barrio gardens.” A barrio is a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in a city or town in the US, especially in the Southwest.

This is the exit from the Barrio Garden.

 

There’s definitely an eclectic collection of objects in the Barrio Garden.

 

It’s amazing to see all the different items that were not intended to hold plants that can be used as planters.

 

If you look closely, you can see that a small piece of the bicycle frame has been cut open and now holds a collection of succulent plants.

There are also various artworks scattered throughout TBG’s grounds.

Stained glass screen.

 

Beautiful bronze sculpture that’s about 15 feet (~5 meters) tall. It looks like a cornucopia to me, but I’m not sure if that’s what it was intended to be.

 

There’s also an amazing array of trees at TBG, including fruit trees, which grow well here in Tucson.

 

Can you see the oranges?

 

Another shot to show the variety of trees.

 

There are so many interesting pots, planters, trellises, etc. scattered throughout the grounds, too. I really like the triangular trellis.

 

I also like the way those grapevines are hung along the wall on a trellis that resembles the pattern on a chain-link fence. The pattern was more obvious in person.

 

Pretty pot overflowing with sweet potato vine.

 

More pots full of annuals.

 

A cozy resting place in the Herb Garden.

 

Colorful details.

 

Tranquil shady spot.

 

Me and a bee!

 

Bronze sculpture of a bird’s nest. You can’t tell by looking at the picture that the art piece is about 6 feet tall.

Finally, what looks to me like a messy palm tree. I see lots of these around town and have often wondered why people don’t trim the wilted fronds from below the top, green fronds. It would certainly look nicer, in my opinion. As it turns out, that’s a great spot for bats to roost at night and there are lots of bats here in Tucson.

Palm tree with wilted fronds that serve as a great bat roost.

In my next post, I’ll shares pictures of some of the quilts that were on display at TBG.