Visiting The Green Bay Botanical Gardens with Children

Now that my West Virginia travel series is complete, I thought in the next few weeks I'd share some Wisconsin family fun travel posts.  Every summer, my daughter, son-in-law, and four grandchildren come to Wisconsin to spend a week with us.  This year, we met them in a little town called Little Chute.  Jason, a Christian school principal was speaking at a conference there.  While Jason was busy working, the rest of us were busy playing.  The city of Green Bay was only about 30 minutes from Little Chute so I thought a visit to the Green Bay Botanical Gardens was in order.  

The Green Bay Botanical Gardens is 47 acres filled with more than 120,000 plants from Wisconsin and around the world.  The garden is divided into four zones:  Wildflower, Floral, Adventure, and Shade.   

Adventure Garden Zone

Well, I had four little kids who just spent 30 minutes in a car, so of course we headed to the Adventure Zone first.  On the way we found this cute little "Wellhouse" that overlooked a herb garden.  The well house had three circular windows that each framed a scene.

The window we're looking out at above overlooked the herb garden.

And here I am standing below the same window we were just looking out of.

In the herb garden was the sweetest fairy garden.

I fell in love with all the purple along this garden path.

There were lots of statues of garden creatures to capture the children's imaginations.

And even butterfly chairs to sit and rest a spell.

But the greatest adventure of all was yet to come: the Children's Garden!  Wow! We were just expecting to see flowers today, not this!  This children's garden blew us away!

The colorful entrance to the children's garden.

Would you believe they had a splash pad?  The kiddos weren't dress for this, so we wouldn't let them play.  It was a tad on the cool side too.

The Children's Garden was a mix of display gardens, like the Field Vegetable Garden pictured below, and fun activities such as slides, and a treehouse.  I love the Cedar Waxwing statue!

My grandson loved jumping on the trampoline.  Isn't that cool?  It's in the ground, so it's so much safer!

The treehouse gave you an above ground view of the gardens.

This one overlooked the koi pond.

There were lots of bridges to run across!

And what child doesn't like pond fish?

A joyful child statue by the koi pond.  I love the extra touches these statues make.

This was a cool water feature with fountains, and water moving in narrow tunnels.

Memorial Grove

After a few hours of play it was time to gather the gang and head over to the Visitor Center for lunch.  We decided to take a short cut and came across the Memorial Grove.  A figure eight stainless steel infinity loop has the Bible verses from Ecclesiastes ("A Time for Everything") on it.  There are seven pillars supporting the loop, and visitors who make a donation to the garden can have their loved one's name carved onto a pillar.  It was so beautiful and serene.

Loved this trellised pathway!

During the summer, the Green Bay Area Public School District offers a free lunch to all children.  How awesome is that?  Adults can also eat for $5.00

The kids were so excited to get in line for their lunch.

It was a very healthy lunch of chicken tacos, with fruit and a milk!  Little Lazarus got so excited to get food off a back of a truck!

After lunch, the kiddos played indoors at the Visitor Center while everyone took turns going to the bathroom.  They have a cute little play area filled with books and games.

Floral Garden Zone

Now it was time for grandma's turn to play...by looking at flowers!  I was so excited to see the Floral Garden Zone!

English Garden and Cottage

Of course I loved the English Cottage Garden.  Those are always my favorite!

We really liked this kaleidoscope structure.  It had two tubes which you looked through.  The kaleidoscope focused on a flower and created a really fun image of the flower.  It was really neat!

Rose Garden

I can't grow roses, so I always admire rose gardens.  I loved all the structure in this garden.   There were multiple white arches in this area that just really popped!

I love how this one frames the building in the distance.

The arches were lined up perfectly so you could see another one in the distance.

Such a cute tipped over potted planting.

There was plenty of lawn space to run and play for the kiddos.  The green grass really made the flowers stand out.

 

I don't think there is ever a garden statue the grandkids don't want to examine 😁.

So many pretty flowers in this area!

This cool structure is called "Stumph Belvedere".

Laz looks like a little man here 😂.  He is only two years old.

Well of course everyone had to go potty again, but this bathroom was unlike any we have ever seen before because it's a hobbit house!

All three boys had to have their picture taken in the little hobbit windows.

On the other side of the Hobbit House Restroom was another little play area.

The grandkids really loved this little tunnel.

                           Shade Garden Zone

Of all the gardens, my favorite was the Shade Garden.  It kinda reminded me of my own backyard, but of course it was much better.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.

It had a narrow stream running through it with stone bridges to walk across.

The ruins of an old spring house were meticulously preserved.

In back of the shade garden we found this magnificent peacock statue!

Here's a close up of its feathers.  Isn't it amazing?

Natural Area/Pond

We then walked through the woods to see the pond and natural area.  We found a family of ducks swimming in the pond!

Wildflower Zone

The Wildflower Zone features wildflowers, native plants, trees.  We didn't go far into this area, because our grandchildren were starting to poop out at this point and it was getting to be too much walking for their little feet.  We did check out the amazing structures they had in this zone.

Inside the Wildflower Zone is the Amphitheater and Terrace (pictured below) and the Wall Garden and Pavilion (pictured above).

Conifer/Woodland Garden

Also in this area is the Conifer Garden.  I loved the natural arch in this garden, and the boys enjoyed the water feature.

Aren't these conifers gorgeous?  I love the blue one!

We really loved the Green Bay Botanical Gardens, the children's garden was definitely a win for this family!  In all the garden's I have visited, I have never seen a children's garden as amazing as this one. Kuddos Green Bay!

Next week I'll be back with more adventures with the grandkids!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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