Episode 46
Do you know that you can experience all seven regions of Kentucky without leaving Lexington? And you’ll see plants and ecology that are native to each of those regions?
You can do that at The Arboretum.
The Arboretum is THE State Botanical Garden of Kentucky located on the University of Kentucky campus off Alumni Drive.
When I want to impress my Fitbit watch this is a perfect place for me to go to log my steps, and every minute is interesting as the scenes change from one physiographic region to another.
The mission of The Arboretum is to showcase Kentucky landscapes and serve as a resource center for environmental and horticultural education, research, and conservation.
It has three main features.
The Walk Across Kentucky is a 2-mile paved loop where you walk through beautifully designed and maintained environments that feature wild collected plants that are native to the seven main regions of the Commonwealth.
The Horticultural Gardens have features such as the home demonstration garden, the perennial teaching garden, the fragrance garden, and the Flight 5191 Memorial Rose Garden.
The Kentucky Children’s Garden is two acres for children and their families to connect with and learn about plants and the environment.
The Arboretum is open daily from dawn to dusk. Admission is free except for the Children’s Garden which costs $4.00 for each person two years old and older. Parking is also easy and free.
The Visitor’s Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm.
If you’re like me and you like to plan things out before leaving the house, take a virtual tour of The Arboretum on your computer on Google Maps. It’s pretty cool what Google did here. You can see the trip all the way off of Alumni Drive up to the parking lot and Visitors Center. But there’s more. The camera team actually walked the trails and filmed it. You can see the paths without getting up from your computer. But you won’t get any steps in. You’ll also see on Maps that the entrance is across from the UK baseball stadium, soccer and softball fields.
Of course, besides Google Maps, spend some time on The Arboretum website. I recommend watching the 9-minute Walk Across Kentucky video. It will orient you to what you can look for on that two-mile walk.
Click on all the tabs. Their website is well done. You’ll be an Arboretum expert when you arrive.
Links are below along with some amateur photography and video that I took. Their Facebook page and website have much better pictures than I could take, so I keep my amateur photography to a minimum.
You can go to get your exercise in on the trails or take a blanket and picnic basket and a book to relax and get away from whatever you need to get away from.
If you have an out-of-town guest, this is a wonderful Bluegrass Region gem to show off to them.
And that’s why I do this.
Walk Across Kentucky – YouTube Video
My Amateur Photo Gallery
photographed 13 April 2024
