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Family Garden
The Luci Baines Johnson and Ian Turpin Family Garden
The Luci Baines Johnson and Ian Turpin Family Garden, now in the fundraising phase, will be an adventue and educational experience for children and families.
The lead gift for the garden was provided by Luci Baines Johnson and her husband, Ian Turpin.
“Mother’s dream was that the Wildflower Center would inspire future generations to care for and take care of the environment,” Ms. Johnson said in announcing the gift. “By providing this gift, Ian and I have the chance of a lifetime to help Mother’s dream come true, just as she did so many of ours.”
The Family Garden will occupy 4.5 acres of woodland and meadow at the Center, providing an enchanted play land that will teach biology, botany, ecology, geology, history, hydrology and more. And, although we call it the Children’s Garden, it will provide plenty of fun for children of all ages.
This garden is designed for interaction with native plants through features like the Secret Spirals, a mosaic-inlaid limestone wall that demonstrates the spirals found in sunflower heads, agaves and Turk’s caps. Giant bird nests, a metamorphosis maze and a canopy walk and many more features will provide fantastic experiences in nature.
Children can learn about the Edwards aquifer at the Garden Grotto cave and about Hill Country geology at the Parallel Rocks. An enormous play lawn will be a place to run and have fun.
This whimsical world is the brainchild of landscape architect Gary Smith, an award-winning designer who created Enchanted Woods at Winterthur in Delaware and the Tropical Mosaic Garden in Florida.
The project is being designed and constructed according to the most rigorous guidelines for sustainable landscapes, and has been selected as a pilot by the Sustainable Sites Initiative, which developed a national rating system for "green" landscapes.
