Murray Park Arboretum

We used to live in Murray so I have been to Murray City Park dozens of times in my life. I never knew about the arboretum on the north side of the park. When our kids were young we came to play on the playground equipment or to swim. By the way, the playground has changed completely since I last took children there decades ago. These two girls were playing on outdoor musical instruments.

This is not my picture but you can see it's the same set of drums.

We were more interested in visiting the arboretum this time. It's on the north side of the park and was established on Arbor Day 1961. It's named after the woman who first suggested it, Joan M. Hardle.

This sign is located directly west of the public swimming pool. Once you walk past it, the arboretum section of the park is directly ahead. The word arboretum means trees but there are also other woody shrubs in the collection. There is an online guide to the plants which mentions the following:

Unique and interesting spring, summer, autumn and winter displays are always observable within the Arboretum. These include a cacti garden, hybrid iris bed, water ponds, shrubbery beds, seasonal flower plantings and many varieties of trees with unusual foliage and flowers.

The online site has an index to the plants and a map to guide you. 

As usual, my husband took my picture and I took a few of him. 

I accidentally took this picture of him along with showing my own hand on my power chair controls. I liked it so much that I kept it. I could not do this on purpose if I tried. 

The park was beautiful as usual. Since it was a Sunday morning, there were only a few people around. Two men were filling sand bags in preparation for the flooding that is expected in the next few weeks. The creek is already running full. There are signs highlighting the danger of the fast water.

There is a lake near the south parking area that was new to us. It's probably meant to help with flooding but it provides a home for ducks, also. 

The original arboretum was planted on property previously owned by an immigrant family from Italy.

Unfortunately, the initial design incorporated some small concrete bridges over the rivulets. It's unfortunate because the bridges come to a point at the top. We couldn't cross over them safely. What constitutes only a few steps for an able bodied person can form a barrier to us. 

If the above picture were a video, you could see that the drive wheels on my husband's chair were spinning. That's because the bridge lifted the drive wheels away from the sidewalk.

I considered getting a run on the little bridge in my chair but I was afraid it would pitch me forward sharply on the down side. I can walk a short distance so I got out of my chair and took a few pictures. 

They take Arbor Day seriously here. There is a list of children who won contests in the past.

As we were leaving the area, I noticed one of those miniature neighborhood libraries. This one faces the park so I'm not sure who is supposed to be trading books there. 

It's always fun to discover a new place that we can explore on our chairs. My only wish is that we could look around inside the restricted area.