NM Biopark: Fantasy Garden

Another marvelous aspect of the New Mexico Biopark is their adorable Children’s Garden. The Children’s Garden is a child’s paradise, full of wonder and whimsy.

It is the first exhibit in the botanical gardens, and you are greeted by a giant stone dragon, covered in ivy. Should you be so brave as to walk under the fearsome dragon, a stone bridge takes you through the entrance of a courtyard, designed to resemble that of a castle.

From there, the rest of the exhibit is truly large than life. The large scale scenery makes you feel as though you have jumped down a rabbit hole with Alice to enter a world of fantasy where size is relative. Children, of course, love the idea of being shrunk down, and marvel at the eleven foot watering can, the ginormous seed packets, and the horrifyingly large ant sculptures placed throughout the garden.

When I was a child, I always adored the giant pumpkin in the center of the children’s garden. You can enter the two story tall pumpkin through an archway. Above you, across the 42 foot diameter of the pumpkin’s ceiling, hang all the sinews and pumpkin seeds you would expect in a pumpkin, but much much larger.

Everything about this garden is designed to tickle awake the imagination of children or awaken the child within us. It is truly a fun and magnificent place.