Nichols Arboretum
In mid-August, Ray’s law school group worked on a community service project at Nichols Arboretum, and since then, he has mentioned “the arb” on several occasions. Mostly, he told me about cutting down and hauling off non-native trees, but he also came home with facts about the site that I did not truly appreciate until last weekend, particularly that the arboretum encompasses over 100 acres. Sure, that sounds big, considering that it borders the campus and downtown, but I was imagining that it was mostly just trees in a protected, undeveloped area. I was mistaken. Yes, there are a lot of trees, of course, but there are also distinct areas that would be fascinating even if they stood alone – Dow Prairie, River Road, a peony garden, a fairy trail, and a wetlands boardwalk. All of the areas are connected with generous paths, which we took, but there are also smaller, secondary trails offering woodsier shortcuts and alternate routes. I counted at least seven different ground covers (grass, gravel, stone, mulch, dirt, a little bit of paving, wood), which gave a nice variation of texture. That seems like a small detail, but it was one of my favorites – because of the sound as much as the feel : the muffle of the mulch, the crinkle of the gravel, the echo of the stone...
And here it is:
In mid-August, Ray’s law school group worked on a community service project at Nichols Arboretum, and since then, he has mentioned “the arb” on several occasions. Mostly, he told me about cutting down and hauling off non-native trees, but he also came home with facts about the site that I did not truly appreciate until last weekend, particularly that the arboretum encompasses over 100 acres. Sure, that sounds big, considering that it borders the campus and downtown, but I was imagining that it was mostly just trees in a protected, undeveloped area. I was mistaken. Yes, there are a lot of trees, of course, but there are also distinct areas that would be fascinating even if they stood alone – Dow Prairie, River Road, a peony garden, a fairy trail, and a wetlands boardwalk. All of the areas are connected with generous paths, which we took, but there are also smaller, secondary trails offering woodsier shortcuts and alternate routes. I counted at least seven different ground covers (grass, gravel, stone, mulch, dirt, a little bit of paving, wood), which gave a nice variation of texture. That seems like a small detail, but it was one of my favorites – because of the sound as much as the feel : the muffle of the mulch, the crinkle of the gravel, the echo of the stone...
And here it is:
Labels: Ann Arbor, arboretum, University of Michigan
posted by yael at 6:14 PM
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