Enjoy the beauty and wilderness at this botanical garden for free

Spring is right around the corner, it is the time to visit botanical gardens to find the new growth among the wilderness, and search for the beauty of Mother Nature in your local botanical gardens.

Since I found my new passion in gardening and became a plant lover and an enthusiastic volunteer advocator for botanical gardens a few years ago, I have built a small garden in my own yard, filled up my living room, bathroom and the top of my desk with succulents that easy to care and other indoor plants I adore. Now you may have already sensed my ambition to bring a garden online to our blog. I believe that engineers and other professionals who spend so much time focusing on our careers need to take a break from time to time and immerse ourselves in nature.

  

Short Version with Selected Photos

I have been visiting different botanical gardens across California with my husband and recording the fun journeys. Last weekend, we went to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Berkeley. Right into the entrance, we pulled out our membership cards to show the staff that we're members of one of their botanical garden associations who may visit this garden for free. The staff laughed and told us that the garden is free for everyone and gave us a brief introduction about the park.

He told us that the garden's primary goal is to create beautiful landscapes displaying diverse plants from northern to southern California from different counties. According to the garden's website, "Its mission embraces not only aesthetics, but also native plant conservation, public education, and horticultural experimentation designed to bring new native plants into the nursery trade."

We spent a little over two hours toured this 10-acre garden and planed to come back next time to see the whole garden. The most memorable plants to me are their collections of California Manzanitas that we saw at least dozens of them across the garden. You could tell them by their red trunks and branches right away from other plants. Manzanitas are really cool plants, literally. A gardener told me that their trunks could be 10°F degrees cooler than the temperature in a hot summer day! They have not only adapted really well to the hot and dry weather in California, but also protect the plants surrounding them. Touching them generally, I could feel the coolness even in the sunny day in winter. 

Original Version with All Photos

Now that we have this long weekend in observation of Presidents' Day, I have prepared a video of our tour to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Berkley to show you the beauty of Mother Nature that I have found in San Francisco Bay Area. I hope that you may be inspired to visit one of your local botanical gardens to appreciate the beauty in your around own home town if you are not in the Bay Area, or maybe find some baby succulents, my favorite plants, or some easy indoor houseplants to start your own mini garden on your desk.

If you don't have a plan to go out, I just updated my first official post on this blog for you, The science every professional should learn for career advancement and personal happiness. I hope that you will enjoy your reading here and find our blog interesting and valuable to you and visit us here regularly.  

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