In celebration of its fifth year anniversary, The Gardens at Texas A&M is holding a summer celebration with cotton candy, snow cones, a melon charcuterie board and activities for visitors to enjoy on Saturday, June 3.
The celebration will kick off at The Gardens at 9 a.m. and go until 11:30 a.m. Education and Outreach Coordinator at The Gardens, Kat Grier, said there will be lots of activities for families and kids.
“We will have our Junior Master Gardener program as well as the Brazos Valley Master Gardeners out there and they’ll be hosting some tables with different activities for kiddos,” Grier said. “We’ll also just have some kind of fun crafts to celebrate the birthday so folks can decorate a party hat, we’ll have a bubble station, so all sorts of stuff.”
Even in the middle of summer, a huge turnout is expected for the anniversary celebration. A sensory free quiet zone will be available for anyone who might take use of the space, Grier said.
“Sometimes at these events we can get over 600 people coming through The Gardens which can be a little overwhelming,” Grier said. “Sometimes [people] just need a space away from the hectic … mothers that might need a space for napping baby, so anything like that. The idea kind of came from that of just providing a space that is naturally already a quiet space in The Gardens.”
Director of The Gardens Mike Arnold has been in Aggieland for 31 years, he said, and first served as an advisor to the original director.
“Summer celebration has been our annual event to celebrate the birthday of the garden and kick off the summer season,” Arnold said. “It’s pretty cool that we’re coming up on the fifth anniversary and look back and see how all the plants are getting to mature and everybody that’s gotten involved and gone through the gardens.”
Arnold said he views planting as building for the future, and enjoys seeing the evolution of trees or plants throughout the years and aiding in planting pieces of history. He said that there are big plans coming to expand on what they’ve already built these past five years.
“We’re coming up on an improved expansion of The Gardens by another 20 acres,” Arnold said. “We’re really excited about that coming up and we’re making major plans and headway on that. We hope to have big announcements later coming this fall.”
The Gardens Manager Joseph Johnson, Class of ‘88, said he has been working in landscape maintenance and management for over 35 years and has seen The Gardens through its construction and grand opening in 2018.
“It’s a great time to come here and share all of our accomplishments of what we’ve done,” Johnson said. “This celebration for the most part is a community-friendly event, and for people of all ages. We always try to have some educational aspects to that and ties to agriculture and life sciences.”
Free parking is available to visitors in Lot 97, 122, or 100c, according to The Gardens’ website. If you’re unable to go to the event, there is a list of ways to still enjoy the space on their page.
“We’re a growing garden, we look different every day that you’ve been there,” Arnold said. “If you come out a month ago, come out again because we’re gonna look different as we cycle through the seasons. The nice thing is, it’s open 365 days out of the year, free of charge, so it’s a great thing to do if you’ve got a morning to spend or just a few minutes to stroll through.”
