Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden Family GardenThe Family Garden at Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden is an interactive place for both children and parents to learn about nature and gardening while having fun. The Garden features several small or pocket gardens, including a sensory (herb) garden, a pollinator garden, and a butterfly garden. The Native Shrub Cultivars Garden showcases cultivars of native shrubs suitable for use in the home landscape, rather than the commonly used and often invasive foreign shrubs. There is a large “bug hotel” in the pollinator garden which demonstrates the variety of materials insects use for shelter. There are also mini habitats for birds, bats, butterflies and toads. Examples of appropriate man-made housing for these creatures are found in each mini habitat.
Wally, the life size carved black walnut bear, happily poses on a bench surrounded by flowers, giving young and old a great photo opportunity to remember their visit. There is an interactive sign for children showing plants with “animal” names and encouraging them to “safari” through the garden to find the plants. There is a labyrinth for toddlers with a wishing well in its center. As children walk the the sidewalk and into the gazebo, there are colorful games such as hopscotch, How Far Can You Jump? and Tic-tac-toe.
A colorful friendly snake painted on the sidewalk near the entrance welcomes everyone into the garden. At the entrances are kiosks which contain information about gardening and nature, much of which may be taken home by visitors. There is a “treehouse” under the hackberry tree that provides a raised site to view many of the habitats. Additionally the Garden features a bubbling rock fountain — which is fun for the children and the birds and is an example of a water feature that conserves water, does not harbor mosquitoes or present a drowning hazard — as well as a “bug house” with a slate roof. New additions are added to the Garden each year.
NOVEMBER 2024 UPDATE: We completed our year of educational events with well over 2000 educational interactions with children. Right now, we have plans to host 8 educational events in 2025. Attendance was excellent with 213,651 visitors from May 1st – August 31st. That averages out to 1737 visitors daily for the four-month period. Our “Boo at the Zoo” was our final event of the year, with an average expected daily attendance of 1500 trick-or-treating children.
SEPTEMBER 2024 UPDATE: We have a new addition. We placed a cute penguin under the gazebo in the garden for families to have an additional opportunity for photos of their children. Our penguin does not have a name as yet – we are asking for visitors to give us name suggestions during our educational event “Butterflies” on August 24. We will let you know the new name in next month’s newsletter.
AUGUST 2024 UPDATE: We have been busy with visitors even with the heat. In July we completed the installation of a picket fence to make the walkways through the garden safer for visitors. Prior to the fence installation, it was possible to cut through from the main zoo walkway directly into the garden using uneven terrain and through an area with plants. Children especially used the short cut when they saw the popular wishing well. The Fun in the Family Garden events for July were “Bird Olympics” and “Bees Please,” with August events being “Good Bugs” and “Butterflies.”
JULY 2024 UPDATE: The Family Garden celebrated National Pollinator Week by providing shelter with the Bug Inn and a creek bed filled with zinnias! Two of our team created a habitat for bugs by filling it with leaves, wood, and more. On Saturday, June 22 the team hosted an educational event providing information on the importance of pollinators and the crucial role they play in our food supply. Four stations were set up in the garden: 1. What are pollinators 2. How can we help the pollinators 3. Flowers with nectar and pollen 4. Pollinator sticks for a children’s activity showing how pollinators gather pollen.
JUNE 2024 UPDATE: BIG NEWS – the Family Garden has been approved as a “Certified Monarch Conservation Habitat!” The team has been very busy. End of the school year field trips provided dozens of children of all ages. On one recent workday, twelve buses arrived soon after work began, making the work day that much more challenging – but also entertaining!
MAY 2024 UPDATE: Mesker Park Zoo celebrated Earth Day on a beatiful sunny day — Saturday, April 13. The SWIMGA Zoo Team held an event we called “Party for the Planet”! After visitors were welcomed into the Garden, they encountered a station about the history of Earth Day. Children could select a “wish” that they could drop into the wishing well. Choices were: turn off lights when they leave a room, don’t leave the water on while brushing their teeth, and the importance of not littering. Another station housed the “Bug Inn”, where children and adults learned about the importance of bugs. Other activities included visiting the Native Garden to learn about the importance of planting native, as well as planting zinnia seeds in earth friendly cups that the families could take home. We had a record 1,119 visitors for the event. It was a great day! Summer educational events begin with “Bird Olympics” on Saturday, June 8th from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
APRIL 2024 UPDATE: The Family Garden at the Zoo Team kicked off the 2024 season with an orientation meeting on Saturday, March 16 in the Rain Forest Café. The orientation was well-attended and all seemed excited to get started in the Garden! A shade garden is planned, complete with a trellis and colorful picket fencing that will protect plants in an area that is a shortcut for children. A carved playmate for Wally the Bear is also in the works! The first educational event planned for the season was an Earth Day Celebration called “Party for the Planet” on Saturday, April 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Various stations would be set up to teach children the importance of recycling, and the station in the Gazebo would teach children how to plant a zinnia seed in an earth friendly container that they could take home!
NOVEMBER 2023 UPDATE: 90 children built a birdhouse at a birdhouse build program on Saturday, October 14. Boo at the Zoo with the Master Gardeners occurred on October 27 and 28, with approximately 1000 children expected each night! We are looking forward to additional progress in 2024.
OCTOBER 2023 UPDATE:
Meet Wally! The Mesker Park Zoo Garden has a very special resident. Wally the Bear is a popular photo opportunity for children. The Zoo Garden Team is hoping and planning to add a sibling for Wally in the 2024 season.
Boo at the Zoo is 5-8 pm Oct 13-14; Oct 20-21; Oct. 27-28 The Master Gardeners will be decorating the garden, putting on costumes, and welcoming visitors on two Sundays in October.
SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE: SWIMGA members have been hard at work giving the sidewalk games some much-needed attention. The sidewalk game art includes a snake, tic-tac-toe, a magic carpet, a jumping game, and hopscotch, with the hopscotch game very popular for adults as well as children! Fun in the Family Garden events continued on the second and fourth Saturdays with great attendance. Saturday, August 26 featured the “naming of the snake!” Fall events will include building bird houses as well as Boo at the Zoo.
AUGUST 2023 UPDATE: The Family Garden is now home to Warbler Wings – a photo op for children with an educational message. The Warbler Wings join eight different metal (but realistic) birds that can be located using the telescope in the treehouse. A sign was posted with a photo of the eight birds so children (and adults!) will know what to look for. The Garden received three new birdhouses; with a butterfly house soon to come. The dry creek bed was newly re-done, with dirt replaced, rock and weeds gone – the creek bed is now full of pollinators. Fun in the Family Garden events in August – to be held Saturday August 12 and Saturday August 26, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. both days – featured butterflies.
JULY 2023 UPDATE:
On June 10, the Mesker Park Zoo Garden hosted the first of the season’s ‘Fun in the Family Garden” events. There are six such events planned for the summer season. This first event was entitled “Good Bugs.” There were stations set up with educational information on ‘good’ bugs such as bees, butterflies, and more. The zoo even provided some live bugs. The weather was beautiful and we interacted with nearly 400 visitors! The next event was held on June 24 with education on “pollinators”! These educational events will also be held on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of July and August featuring birds, bees, and butterflies. The time of each event is 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m..
2022 UPDATE
It was a very busy season for the MPZBG Family Garden this year. In addition to normal workdays, we were thrilled to resume special activities for zoo visitors.
The team was very busy all season getting the Garden back into shape. That included new plantings, moving some existing plants, pruning and weeding, working on the fountain, etc. With the help of United Way Day of Caring volunteers, a new limestone path was installed through the native area and preparations were made for an exciting addition to the Garden next year. The steel edging for the path was donated by a Master Gardener.
During the Earth Day celebration “Party for the Planet”, team members worked with approximately 400 children planting zinnia seeds to take home and grow. Two Saturdays each month from June through September, team members provided hands on educational activities for children in the “Fun in the Family Garden”. Sessions included “Bird Olympics”, “Germination Fun”, “Bug Bash”, “Bees” and “Flutterby”. These events were attended by hundreds of children throughout the season. Over the two Sunday afternoons we participated in “Boo! At the Zoo” we interacted with approximately 3,000 zoo visitors.
Two unusual additions to the Garden in the past several years are thriving. The Garden has a patch of Blue Ridge Catchfly (Silene ovata) raised from seed harvested from the only known wild patch of this plant in Southern Indiana, located in the woods of Burdette Park. The Franklinia Tree (Franklinia altamaha), extinct since the early 1900s in its native habitat along the Altamaha River in Georgia, had beautiful blooms this summer and was a fantastic red color this fall. We are excited to exhibit these unique plants.
The MPZBG staff provided great assistance this year. In addition to the United Way volunteers, they provided volunteers and mulch to redo the native area this spring. Staff members also did an amazing job on repairing the “old age” damage on Wally and are continuing to work on repairing the rock fountain. During the pandemic and avian flu outbreaks the fountain was turned off and apparently mischievous visitors put rocks into the opening. Zoo staff removed as many rocks as they could reach from the tubing, but the flow is still restricted and they are trying to devise a way to remove the remaining rocks.
After chairing and co-chairing the Family Garden for many years (20 for Mike, 13 for Rosemary), we are stepping down at the end of 2022. It has been a wonderful experience to work with such great team members and the staff of MPZBG. We plan to stay on the team and look forward to the continued growth and development of the Garden under the leadership of Karen Green and Vickie Detroy.
2021 UPDATE
The really big event in the fall of 2021 was the completion of an Eagle Scout project that fixed the benches and walkways properly. The walkways are now safe, can be used by strollers, and are absolutely beautiful! The Scouts raised the necessary money and obtained the additional materials needed for the improvements and brought in a team who accomplished the entire walkway portion of the project on November 6 and 7. They also rebuilt the bench and it will be repainted when weather permits before Wally is reinstalled in the spring.
October and November were busy in general. We decorated for Halloween, participated in Boo! at the Zoo on two Sunday afternoons and took all the decorations down the first Tuesday in November. We planted a Franklinia tree in the native area to replace the American Fringe tree. Wally was moved to the Maintenance shop for hibernation and refurbishing this winter. A sign is on order for the Garden to show we are a Certified Wildlife Habitat. A lovely donated bench will be placed in the native area once the new path is installed next year.
The Family Garden was a busy place the summer of 2021! Six fun, educational events were held on Saturdays during June, July and August. Karen Green set up four stations for Germination Fun — what seeds need for germination; how to make a Mr. Potato Head; a display of germinating grass for family experiments; and a make-and-take grass seed activity. Carol Pettys set up three stations for Bird Olympics — the children figured out how many hamburgers they needed to eat each day in order to migrate; how many times they could flap their “wings” in 20 seconds; and measured their “wingspan” to compare it to a list of birds’ wingspans. Karen Assenza set up four stations for Butterfly Day — the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly; a Monarch fact trail; live caterpillars and chrysalises of Monarchs and Eastern Black Swallowtails; and make-and-take butterfly jewelry (rings and bracelets). These six events averaged more than 200 people! Good crowds for a fun time in the zoo’s Family Garden. Master Gardeners were joined by Zoo Docents for these educational activities
Photo Gallery
