A little spot I found – doesn’t this look like the perfect place to read a book?

I *love* to go exploring. Just finding what my local area has to offer – beautiful spaces to wander in, unique mom and pop businesses, interesting niches to discover. Of course, you already know this about me since I’ve talked about it before.  But we went exploring in a small nearby town this week and I came across this great idea I just HAD to share with you!

So, Maryville is a small town just a few miles south of us, and I definitely demonstrate that I am not native to this area by pronouncing it “Maryville” instead of “Mahr-vul”.  But its a charming little town, which I had never been to until my awesome husband Tim scouted out the historic little downtown for our last anniversary and took me to a gorgeous old art-deco style theatre turned coffee house there. Aaaaaah, SO fun! Yep, he knows just what I like.

The little area we explored – Maryville’s Bicentenial Park

We decided to go exploring there the other day and scout out an area we had stopped by briefly the day we went to the coffee shop.  The library is located in a picturesque area called “Bicentenial Park”, with a small river, lovely bridges, and walking trails. My favorite find, though, which I thinks is SUCH a great idea and really wanted to tell you about was actually connected to the library: A Shakespeare inspired garden.

Now what is a Shakespeare garden you ask?  The plants in the little garden were actually all mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays! Small signs told the plant names and in which play they were mentioned. Loving books as I do, I was in LOVE with this idea!

My mind started whirring – what other kinds of themed gardens could you do? You could choose another author or literary theme … or you could think broader.  What about a musical garden? Plants with music names (like trumpet flowers) … or plants mentioned in music!  A Coldplay garden occurred to me … I know of songs like “Violet Hill” and “Strawberry Swing”. You could do all sorts of themes!

Some more photos from wandering around this little area….

I love the old repurposed railroad salvaged materials here!

 

Fountains and the under side of bridges: LOVE!

Have you been wandering or exploring lately? Have you founds any inspiration?
If you were going to do a themed garden, what kind of theme would you do?
Tell me your thoughts in the comments!!