A Gardener's Perspective

If you enjoy gardening and consider yourself a garden chances are you walk around with the same perspective that I have. Everywhere I go I find myself observing, mentally recording, and analyzing how plantings work in various gardens. It might the house down the street, a business, a park, or any other place with some semblance of a garden that catches my eye.  This was very true today when I walked around the Nashville Zoo with my family. Kids and zoos go naturally together but gardening does too. Most zoos make an extra effort to incorporate plants that appear to be native to the animal's natural habitat and while that's very interesting there is another perspective that I enjoy. I like to observe those things that aren't meant to be exhibits but are special in their own way.

For example, I doubt many people even noticed this lonesome dove sitting on the fence post outside the zebra exhibit. A moment of peace and calm on a busy day.

 

I wonder how many people stopped to notice this oak leaf hydrangea still carrying its dried flowers underneath the towering bamboo near the alligators. I took the picture standing below the hydrangea since it was planted on a ledge about five feet up above. Oak leaf hydrangeas were planted all over the zoo along with many other natives.

 

I noticed the wild hardy ageratum blooming with the elephants.

I enjoyed watching the swaying ornamental grasses as they stretched toward the lantern shaped light post. 

Since I'm a fan of rocks I observed the placement of this large boulder among the ornamental grasses. I like how it sticks out just enough to give itself presence and is softened by the grasses around it.

  

I stopped to watch a monarch butterfly rest and taste the flowers of the ironweed which is blooming all over Tennessee.

  

But I did have to stop and wonder like this red panda did...

  

What is this guy doing here?

  

 Of course the panda probably meant me!