My friend Brian Reinhart (the weather witch) has inspired me to document some of Carrboro’s amazingness for others! Okay, so it’s nowhere exotic like London, but Rachel Kinney, noted Carrborophile, has definitively proven that it is “the best place. EVER.” She is currently working to secure funding for a further study titled “Carrboro: Paradise or Poseur?” Today I bring you another great place to walk in (okay, near) Carrboro, the North Carolina Botanical Garden! It’s part of UNC and mostly features plants native to North Carolina, through a variety of different habitat areas! I always enjoy going because it always looks different at different times of year.
Steven so excited to be accompanying me!
Probably my favorite part of the botanical garden isn’t even the plants (sorry), it’s the random sculptures and art that are used to enhance them!
This entrance to the poison plant garden is maybe one of my favorites!
The poison plant garden is actually really interesting; there are signs telling you how the plant is poisonous (ex. if you eat it or just if you rub against it or maybe just to certain animals etc.). I never knew daffodils were poisonous!
Life size chess!!!!!
This might be my favorite part of all, even though I’m not very good at chess. I’ve hardly ever seen anyone else playing on it either, which is super weird, since who doesn’t like life size chess??
This tree is strewn with kitchen implements since it's at the entrance to the Kitchen Herbs Garden!
I could probably go on some kind of tour and figure out what all this art means, but I’d rather wander and guess. For instance:
I have no idea what this is, but lizards like to sit on it!
This one’s pretty self-explanatory:
You'd be surprised how many real kids you see at the Botanical Garden too!
That’s probably not surprising to anyone else. My family was never very big on growing things. Which means I am both fascinated and terrified by the Botanical Garden’s daily plant sale:
This was my favorite for sale this time: Bog Cheetos!!!
Once you get away from the herb gardens, it gets a lot more shady, which is great for this time of year. Plus, storytelling chair:
Steven, eager to hear a story!
I also really like the marshy/coastal section, maybe just because you get to walk on a boardwalk!
Everything is better on a boardwalk!
Plus, ponds, and the possibility of seeing fish and frogs!
They were all pretty low; too bad Irene wimped out on his, we could have used some rain!
It's amazing how much cooler it is in the shade; hurry up, fall!
I did take SOME pictures of plants
These Botanical Gardens aren’t as big as some others I’ve been to, and it doesn’t have any particularly weird plants, since most of them are North Carolina natives, but it’s a nice peaceful place to walk that changes with the seasons.
Awesome! Those sculptures and poison garden look amazing.
I played Giant Chess one time and got destroyed. Sigh
Thank you for the tour, Pladd!
Next time in our parts, you should check out the black water cypress swamp at Cypress Gardens – they have small boats – you can make Steven row you around the swamp! And when you tire of photographing alligators and turtles close up, you can visit the indoor butterfly house!