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It was difficult to leave the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. And not just because we got lost in the winding, juniper-scented paths of the new maze garden.
I recently visited for the first time with my preschooler and some family friends, and we spent more than four hours exploring only a fraction of the rambling gardens and model landscapes.
For a parent who loves the outdoors but can't tell an elm tree from an ash, the arboretum offers a delightful setting for meandering walks as well as a friendly, living field guide to help teach children more about the wonder of the natural world.
We started our morning in the great hall of the Oswald Visitor Center, built two years ago to house a gift shop, auditorium, meeting areas and a restaurant. We picked up a couple of self-guided tour brochures, including one for tree identification. And we consulted a large interactive map where our 5-year-old sons had fun pushing buttons to light up sections of the gardens.
We wandered out the back of the center past beds of blooming roses and bearded irises. At the gate of the Japanese Garden, we bumped into a school group on its way out. There were plenty of school groups and families the day we visited, but the gardens are so spread out it never felt crowded.
Our boys scampered down the rock and gravel path to a waterfall and pool.
"See the fish," my son called out. They counted the rock lanterns and explored a bamboo teahouse with lattice windows they declared to
The arboretum gardens flow into each other much like rooms in a house, providing a sense of discovery every time you turn a corner. We passed from the Japanese garden into the dappled shade of the Hosta Garden, where the boys raced loops and the grownups enjoyed the textures and shades of different hosta varieties and chuckled at outlandish names, such as "Neat and Tidy" and "Zounds."
MAN BEHIND THE MAZE
Next, we headed to the arboretum's newest permanent exhibit. The Maze Garden opens to the public on June 16, but we had an appointment
for a sneak preview.
Every year the arboretum puts on a large summer exhibition. Previous years have featured giant bug sculptures, artist-designed tree houses and secret gardens.
This year, the arboretum selected 15 Minnesota artists to create sculptures exploring the relationship between humans and nature. These pieces will line the path to the new maze garden and will be called the "Art to A-Maze Walk."
One half-completed piece caught our attention. It was a mound of earth the size of a shed that had been carved into a grumpy face with grass hair, peering up like a giant about to emerge from underground.
Visitors enter the maze through a swinging wood gate nestled into an arborvitae hedge. Crisscrossing gravel pathways meander into dead ends, past garden benches and through more swinging gates. The walls of the maze are made of a variety of plantings, including juniper and Northern Lights azalea interspersed with tall wood-framed panels of fabric, bamboo and lattice.
The maze also includes a separate children's section that incorporates several plastic tunnels. The boys' favorite spot was where the path stopped in front of three gates and they had to discover which one did not lead to a dead end.
While the boys ran through a second time, I climbed the observation platform to talk with the man behind the maze, Northfield landscape designer William Frost. He specializes in designing labyrinths, networks of paths meant to be walked through in reflective meditation.
"When I was asked to design a maze, I had to put on my devious hat and figure out a way to frustrate and confuse," Frost said with a laugh. "I had to make the shift from a man of peace to a man of confusion."
Luckily for us, his maze provided just enough confusion to be fun and enough peace to balance the confusion.
ON THE WILD SIDE
By then it was lunchtime, so we headed back to the visitors center's cafeteria-style restaurant. Our hotdog and sandwiches were tasty and reasonably priced, but next time we'll plan ahead and bring a picnic.
(If you order two days in advance, the arboretum will pack a picnic basket for you to enjoy on the grounds. We ordered a basket for a previous trip, only to cancel because of rain. They don't offer refunds.)
After lunch, we decided to experience nature in its more untamed state. We ambled down a slope planted with dwarf conifers, past a waterfall and intriguing shaded nooks. I fell behind because I kept reading plant labels. The path leveled off at a pond and the start of the Bog Trail. We stepped to the side of the path to allow two geese and their five goslings cross a wood bridge.
"We didn't make way for ducklings," my son said with delight. "We made way for gooselings!" We saw turtles and a toad on our half-hour walk on the boardwalk around the marshy edge of Green Heron Pond. We were rewarded at the end with a patch of rare yellow lady's slipper in bloom, which the boys agreed looked like tiny moccasins.
On the way back to the van, we joined a group of school children rolling down the grassy hill by the Cloistered Garden, and the boys dipped their hands and sandaled feet into the fountain in the Perennial Garden to cool off.
STILL A SECRET
Before heading home, we stopped at the Marion Andrus Learning Center.
The weather was so glorious we didn't bother stopping indoors to check out the interactive displays. Instead, we made our way out back where the canopy of a massive oak tree shades a children's play area aptly called "Under the Oak." It was held over from last year's Secret Garden exhibition because it was so popular with families.
Children are invited to use a variety of natural materials in pretend play. They can construct forts out of slender branches and pieces of burlap or set a "table" on a tree stump with "plates" made from cross sections of sawed logs and pine cone "food." The whole place has the feel of a fairy village, and it reminded me of the hours I spent playing house in the grove of my grandparents' farm.
It was late afternoon by the time we finally made it back home. I thought our trip would have maxed out my son's appetite for the outdoors. But he headed straight to the back yard. He wanted to see if the leaves of our elm tree had "toothy" edges, just like the one at the arboretum. Then, he built a fort with some branches.
Maja Beckstrom can be reached at mbeckstrom@pioneerpress. com or 651-228-5295.
FAMILY OUTINGS THE SCOOP
What: University of Minnesota's Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Where: 3675 Arboretum Drive, Chaska
Information: 952-443-1400 or www.arboretum.umn.edu
Summer hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays and Fridays-Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays
Cost: $7 adults, children 15 and younger free.
Kid pleasers: Japanese Garden, Bog Trail, Marion Andrus Learning Center, Under the Oak nature play area.
Tip: Admission is free after 4:30 p.m. Thursdays in June, July and August, and the arboretum stays open late for family music and performance art starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Ordway Picnic Shelter.
Special events: Grand opening of Maze Garden and the Art to A-Maze Walk on June 16.
Nature fun: Family programming from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the learning center. June and July programs focus on mazes and elfin villages.
