National Public Gardens Day
National Public Gardens Day is celebrated every second Friday in May and is a day to enjoy these beautiful spaces and think about what they mean for our communities.
National Public Gardens Day was created in 2009 by the American Public Gardens Association to emphasize gardening activities and highlight programs such as plant conservation, water conservation, green space preservation and home gardening.
A public garden is defined as having a physical presence that includes plant collections, buildings, infrastructure and an organization that manages these elements. They can be small pieces of land where flowers are grown or wide open spaces with a large assortment of plants. Public gardens include botanical gardens, conservatories, arboretums, display gardens, zoos, and historical landscapes.
Public gardens are important for so many reasons. They are spaces for education, research and conservation. They help improve neighbourhoods, maintain open spaces, and provide spaces for living classrooms or museums. They are also places for picnics, play dates, public gatherings, theatre, and live music.
National Public Gardens Day brings awareness to these spaces, and some campaigns draw attention to this and ensure that both tourists and locals are impacted by these locations.
How to celebrate:
- Visit a garden in your area (visit the American Public Gardens Association website to find one)
- Help build a garden or volunteer to build and maintain a community garden
- Geotag your nearby public garden on Google to help motivate people to visit
- Participate in garden tours
- Attend a lecture or workshop to learn more about gardening, plant care or conservation
- Take a photography stroll to capture the beauty of the public garden
Fun facts:
- The first greenhouse was started in Rome in 30 BC to cultivate cucumbers.
- The world’s oldest botanical garden is the Orto botanico di Padova in the northeastern region of Italy and was developed in 1545.
- The Royal Botanic Gardens in London is the largest botanical garden, which holds 8.3 million plant specimens.
- The Singapore Botanic Garden is the only tropical garden to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- The Dubai Miracle Garden is the biggest natural flower garden with over 60 million flowers.
- Some public gardens in urban areas incorporate green roofs as part of sustainable design, which provides additional green space and contributes to energy efficiency.
#NationalPublicGardensDay
