This Saturday we visited Cornell’s Botanic Gardens, which I vaguely knew existed, but had never visited. Though the walk there worked up a sweat, it was worth it once we arrived. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the gardens, and told us about how one of the buildings was sustainably designed so as to reach the “gold” level. I think the classification system was “Kerr’s”. As we continued through the gardens, we were shown Cornell’s “winter garden”, which is a nice green all throughout our long winters. About this time, I became aware of just how many bugs the garden attracted. Although I’m not exactly a huge bug fan, I was happy to see that lots of bees were getting use out of the herbs and flowers in the area.

Our guide showed us some of the herbs that used to be used in “cottage medicine”, and I was amazed to find out that a lot of the herbs are still used today. It makes me wonder how they discovered which herbs worked for what kinds of ailments in the past. As we passed through the herb garden, a really nice girl who was Plant Bio major showed us some of the more fragrant herbs. I was really impressed that she knew so much practical knowledge about the herbs, and even pointed out a couple of flowers that were actually comprised of many many tiny flowers. Overall, I’m really glad I visited and will be sure to go and enjoy a good book there once the weather cools down.