We have reached April, the best month of the year! I am only slightly biased because it is the month of my birth, but April also has a lot to offer in terms of being outside in the ever-warming sunlight and longer stretching days. This month I thought it would be fun to focus on a garden that I love to visit at all times of the year, but especially in the spring.
The State Arboretum of Virginia, home to Blandy Experimental Farm, is located just off of Route 50 in Boyce. Originally owned by the Tuley family in the 1780s, Blandy has a murky past. Like many large farms in Virginia, it has a history of enslaving upwards of 73 people in the 1840s and still has a graveyard of enslaved individuals unmarked and unknown to this day. Research is actively being done to get a better idea of the individuals who forcefully kept the farm moving, and you can read more about the history and the current efforts to reconcile what was done there on the arboretum’s website.
By the 1980s, the farm was still a privately owned and operated institution, now an experimental farm designed for college students to learn farming methods. By 1986 (the year yours truly was born!) the state of Virginia designated it as the State Arboretum of Virginia, and it became open to the public. It has remained a public institution filled with wonderful programs, festivals, and wide open spaces for folks to roam as they please.
When you arrive, make sure to check out the former shop-turned-educational area near the bathrooms in the lovely large building near the parking lot. They have a lovely, kid-friendly exhibit about wildlife you might find on a stroll in the gardens. The bathrooms have also recently been renovated and are clean and well-kept.
If you continue your walk from the main building out back, you will eventually come to a spring-fed pond called Lake Georgette that has been the source of many a dramatic photo on my Instagram feed. If the wind is calm and the sun is bright, the pond has a mirror effect. Tadpoles flit around the edges of the shallow water, while our state’s native prickly pears sprout out of the interesting rocks that rise above the ground.
Another fun and otherworldly experience is a little further through the arboretum. Near the southern edge is a stately bamboo forest. While bamboo is terribly invasive and a bear to control, this patch is interesting to explore. Watch your step as the bamboo is cut in some places and leaves a narrow and hard stump that is easy to trip over. There are cut paths through the forest, and when you come across the other side there is a horse path you can follow to outside the bamboo enclosure and back into the park.
The arboretum also has a lovely wild meadow filled with plants native to Virginia, and a story walk with a seasonally appropriate book for families to read and discuss together. The trail is a loop and is called the Native Plant Trail. There is an observation tower at one point on the loop called the Hewlett-Lewis Pavilion that has a free telescope that you can use to look out over the grounds.
Finally, if herbs are your jam, near the main entrance and parking area is a well-maintained herb garden featuring a plethora of medicinal and culinary herbs. The website states that it is one of the oldest gardens in the arboretum and was started in 1972. Be sure to gently rub the leaves of the rosemary, thyme, lavender, and oregano and smell their lovely scents.
I have only mentioned a few of my favorite places in this vast and lovely garden. It is free to enter and open 365 days a year. As someone who has been there in every season, there really is no bad time to go. If you’re there in the spring, you can watch life start to return after a winter’s nap. Summer provides so much wildlife and plant sightings for everyone to enjoy. Autumn arrives and the famous ginkgo grove lights up the world in bright yellow hues, and winter tones everything down with sage greens and greys. More information, events, and directions to the gardens can be found at their website blandy.virginia.edu. I hope to see you there!
