Tyler Arboretum – 6/25/09
Our field trip this last week was to Tyler Arboretum in Media, PA.
It should be pointed out that it was an extremely warm day… And very sticky. So we were all a little sluggish… haha. We got there a few minutes early, so we hung out in the parking lot for a little bit. While we were there I noticed that many of their parking spots were actually grass. The ‘aisle ways’ were paved, but the actual parking spots were turf. I’d seen that at the Dankso parking lot as well, but its still fun to see people ‘greening’ up area’s that are normally heat traps and not so environmentally friendly.
(An example of the sluggish, er, excited group. haha)
They had the cutest little ‘green roof’ at their entrance. It was small but I thought it must be a create learning tool, especially for kids. It was even on a palette, so they could move it around easily. Such a cool idea!
I think my favorite part of the gardens was a display called “The Three Little Pigs Go Green”. Haha, so cute! Unfortunately I don’t have any great photos of it. But one of them had a solar panel roof, one had a green roof, one a rain collection system. They all had sustainable building materials. Also, there were the three pigs and the wolf in all natural materials, which was also fun.
Tyler Arboretum is around 650 acres, so its a fairly large garden. We only spent time in the ‘gardens proper’ though. They “maintain over 20 miles of hiking trails that traverse through 450 acres of their uncultivated natural areas. You can meander through meadows, wind your way through dense woodlands, and forge sparkling streams as you observe the diverse wildlife and historic ruins of centuries-old buildings.”
(This map was taken from their website)
We were given a tour around the garden that showed us some of the original trees, some of which were very old. The group was also taken through part of Tylers meadow maze (technically a labyrinth I suppose), which seemed like it would be very fun for the kids in the fall when the grasses are tallest.
(Some of the interns checking out the soft bark of the Giant Sequoia {Sequoiadendron giganteum}
And as always, here are some random photos from the trip…
