Walking Through the Garden Using my Fingers

   We have taken a road trip the Chicago. Most people go to Chicago for the music festivals or to experince big city life. We come here so we can visit the Chicago Botanic Garden.
  The garden is a lovely place located  north of Chicago. This is the best time of year to be here. Everything is beautiful, lush and green.
  One of the things that I like to do when I come here is touch plants. I know it's safe because all the plants are marked. I like to touch plants when we are at the Arboretum in Minnesota too.
  I started this habit in the herb garden. You rub the leaves between you fingers and it releases the oils in the plant that create it's scent. I love to smell the plants especially thyme  and anything with a lemon scent. Then I branched out to leaves that have interesting textures. Lamb's ear is my favourite. Depending on how dry the weather has been the leaves can vary in softness.
  Then I starting touching flowers that had interesting textures. Stattice and straw flowers are interesting to touch. They feel like dried flowers except they are not. That's the texture they have all the time. There's a lot of other flowers like that.
   Today I decided I was going to touch anything that looked inviting. It's nice to look at plants and flowers. Many of them have lovely or interesting scents. I decided that I wanted to feel them as well.
  I touched all kinds of plants today. There were ferns and small flowers by the waterfall gardens. There was the usual assortment of herbs by the kitchen and sensory gardens. There were all kinds of pines, junipers and various evergreens all over the place. I ran my hands over boxwood bushes and willow branches. I touched leaves on a bush in the Checkerboard Garden. The leaves were soft and felt good on my fingers.
   There were leaves that felt like plastic. Leaves that were hard and scratchy. There were waxy leaves and even a few slimy leaves. There were furry leaves and smooth leaves and leaves that felt just like Scamp and Colby's ears.
  I also touched flowers. I found spiky coneflowers. There were daisies and black eyed susans. I touched candleflowers and cockscombs. I found some lilies, begonias, roses and fuzzy looking blue flowers. I touched zinnias of all colours. I don't know the names of all the flowers I touched.
  I was an interesting experience for me. Before I only used my eyes and ears. I noticed how plants with complimentary colours were planted together, but never noticed that textures can also make a garden interesting too.
  Next year when I plant my garden I'm going to try to plant some things that have interesting textures.