The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino presents “Meet Me in the Garden,” a free, inclusive program, created with feedback from families with disabilities, on Saturday, June 11, when the entire family can explore the Herb Garden through smell, taste, sight, and touch, and make art with seeds and plants.
The Herb Garden is just 20 minutes from the main entrance on a paved, accessible pathway.
First constructed in the 1970s, the Herb Garden contains many unusual herbs as well as many that are well known. Favorites from grandmother’s day, such as horehound, licorice, lavender, mignonette, and heliotrope, evoke happy memories for many visitors. The garden is arranged according to the herbs’ uses: medicines; teas; wines and liqueurs; cooking, salads, and confections; cosmetics, perfumes, and soaps; potpourris and sachets; insect repellents, and dyes.
Plantings in the culinary bed include several kinds of basil, tarragon, and thyme as well as marjoram, lemongrass, lovage, allspice, and oregano.
For your reference, there are two kinds of signs in the Herb Garden: one lists the botanical and common name of the plant. Other signs have quotations from The Huntington’s fine collection of early herbals with the author’s name and the date of publication.
Before the program, you will receive a pre-visit story about what to expect at The Huntington, as well as a visual schedule of events between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. During the program, you can expect written and verbal instructions for the different activity options.
This is a drop-in program, and you and your family can come and participate anytime between 10 a.m and 1 p.m. After 1 p.m., you will be free to explore the rest of the gardens, galleries, and library on your own.
For more information, call (626) 405-2100 or visit www.huntington.org/events/
The Huntington’s Herb Garden is at 1151 Oxford Road in San Marino.
