Get a sneak peek at the Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden in late January.
Mark those calendars for Sunday, January 26, 2020. That’s when the long-awaited Houston Botanic Garden will host a free community celebration in honor of its new Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden.
The discovery garden is the first of three included in its $35 million first phase of master planning, and the event will be the first opportunity for neighbors to get a look around. Mayor Sylvester Turner and other elected officials are also expected to attend. There will be a self-guided scavenger hunt, and the garden will recognize Mike Garver and his daughters Beth and Gretchen (and their husbands) for making the transformational gift that completed the Grow Houston’s Garden capital campaign in memory of Susan Garver, a longtime Girl Scout troop leader.
Boardwalk views from The Garden.
The Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden will allow families to fully engage with nature—there will be simple water machines, including an Archimedes’ screw, and various ways kids can build, dig, splash, and have more fun. There’s a boardwalk maze around a lagoon and a loblolly pine forest for exploring. There will also be a handful of hands-on educational programs for school kids and select families during a soft opening phase of the discovery garden this coming spring, including Nature 101 & Ecosystems Adventures, a Flower and Pollinator Lab (wherein kids can dissect a flower), and Wetlands Observations: Habitats and Plants.
“We’re not just growing plants in the Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden,” Claudia Gee Vassar, president of the Houston Botanic Garden, said in a press statement. “We are also providing little future botanists with tools they can use to solve the next set of challenges humanity will face.”
The new 132-acre Houston Botanic Garden will provide a place for visitors to learn about plants, conservation (like natural flood mitigation), and nature, with a master plan rolling out in phases over the next 30 years. Located on the site of the former Glenbrook Park Golf Course along Sims Bayou (near Hobby Airport), it’s set to officially open in fall 2020.
Visit hbg.org for more information.
The event is on Jan. 26 from 2–4 p.m. at Houston Botanic Garden, 8205 N. Bayou Dr.
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