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Review: Giant Garden. Little Me
Rocket City Mom | Huntsville events, activities, and resources for families.
Rocket City Mom | Huntsville events, activities, and resources for families.

Review: Giant Garden. Little Me

by
May 1, 2013

The Huntsville Botanical Garden recently opened their new “Giant Garden. Little Me” exhibit, and walking through it, you can’t help but have that “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” feeling! They have super-sized items for kids of all ages (and adults) to enjoy.

When we were there last week, everything looked freshly painted and clean, and all the flowers and plants in bloom were just gorgeous! I’m a stay at home mom with a three year-old boy, so I’m just now getting into kids’ activities and finding fun things to do around town with him. The Garden has a large children’s garden full of things for the kids to explore, including water features, mazes, ponds, butterfly house, sandbox, and much more. And the Giant Garden Little Me exhibit adds to the fun!

The giant checkerboard and huge sandbox!
The giant checkerboard and huge sandbox!

You and the kids will love the giant super soaker sprinkler that oscillates, big dog house, Papa Bear picnic table, huge watering can, huge grass blades with misting and bubbling dandelions, super-sized sandbox and storybook castle, giant croquet, gigantic Adirondack chairs, and king-size checkers! They are located throughout The Garden but several are near the children’s garden.

The enormous sprinkler waters the gargantuan grass. (Hope there's no mega-mower!)
The enormous sprinkler waters the gargantuan grass. (Hope there’s no mega-mower!)

There are usually several wagons next to the model train set that you can borrow to haul your kids and your stuff. There are plenty of picnic tables throughout The Garden if you want to bring your own lunch (or eat at Clementine’s, the restaurant there), or bring a blanket and spread out your spread in the shade. Don’t forget the sunscreen! And you might want to bring extra clothes if the kids play in the water features! Note: There are great family bathrooms in the butterfly house.

Grab a nap in the herd of hammocks under the tree canopy.
Grab a nap in the herd of hammocks under the tree canopy.

If you haven’t been to the Huntsville Botanical Garden before or if it’s been a while since you’ve been, I suggest a visit be in your future. It’s beautiful, and it’s a feast for the senses! We will certainly be going back again and again.

Now you can go back as many times as YOU want too… Rocket City Mom is giving away two year-long Family Memberships to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. Just enter below before May 22nd to win! GIANT thanks (get it???) to our friends at HBG for being so generous to our readers.

Details

Location: 4747 Bob Wallace Avenue, Huntsville, AL 35805
Phone: 256-830-4447
Website: www.hsvbg.org
Admission: $12 per adult, $8 per child ages 3 to 18,
$10 per senior (55+), $10 for military or student (must show ID)
Children 2 and under and members of The Garden are FREE

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Heather Phillips and her husband are high school sweethearts originally from Kentucky. Heather worked in the fields of public relations and marketing for over 13 years before becoming a stay at home mom to their two boys. Heather has enjoyed volunteer work her whole life and is active in the animal rescue community here in Madison County.

View Comments (252)

    • The butterfly house Is my favorite, and I cant wait to take my son to the garden! The hammocks look So relaxing

  • The butterfly house is my absolute favorite! Haven’t been in a while so would love to have a family membership for my six kids!

  • Great review! I can’t wait to explore this with my toddler and 8 year old.

  • Awesome review! I wondered how this attraction at the HBG looked. Now you have me wanting go go nap in their hammocks! I’d probably take a trip there just to do that…but I’m a tired mommy to a six week old so any nap sounds awesome.

  • I’ve been DYING to visit the botanical gardens ever since we moved to the area…3 years ago! The babies are finally old enough that I think they will enjoy it along with my 7 and 8 year olds 🙂 I can’t wait to go!!!

    • Tabatha – really, in the summertime HBG is our home away from home. The grounds are huge, there’s so much to do, and you can bring your swimsuits and splash in the pools. The best part is it’s really hard for a rambunctious kid to mess up anything there. It was made to play in!

  • Sorry! That was supposed to be I am now inspired to renew our membership! 🙂

  • We love any excuse to head to the gardens… this is the perfect time of year to visit!! My four year old is really loving the new exhibits this year as well!!!

  • We LOVE the gardens. My 2,3 and 6 year old are all happy every tine we visit. All the new attractions are amazing but my little boys’ favorite is still the Choo Choo at the front 🙂

  • We’ve never been, but I would LOVE to see the butterfly garden. My youngest son loves butterflies!

  • We love going to the garden. It’s always beautiful any time of the year!!!

  • The gardens are fantastic and we do not go enough! Must take the kids to this event.

  • We Love everything about the HBG, but I think my kids love watching the train the best and playing in the Children’s Garden

  • We’ve never been to the gardens 🙁 It’s always on my list of things to do but we never make it! This summer we are definitely going!

  • I would love to win these. This looks like fun and my family and I have never been.

  • We have not be very often to the garden. But we went with my daughter to see the treehouses and that was alot of fun. They had it around Mother’s day so it made for a wonderful Mother’s day with my parents, brother and his wife and my little girl.

    We also do the galaxy of lights every year and really enjoy being able to walk through and see all the lights.

  • We love going there! Last year was the first time we discovered they could play in the water. My three kids love it! It makes me wish we lived closer to huntsville.

  • My daughter and I have enjoyed a full day at the garden, and also the annual botanical sale as she assists me in landscaping. The grounds (in the variety of planting) are very helpful for someone not from the area to determine what grows where…

  • The last couple years we haven’t visited during the summer months. We need to make it happen! The kids always love the children’s area and of course the water features. Looking forward to seeing what’s new….

  • My daughter loves to be outside and any chance I get to be out with her is a good day and a great experience for both of us. We have been to the Botanical Gardens before for the butterflies and she had a blast. She asked all the time to go back.

  • My 4 year old loves playing in the water! We haven’t been in over a year though.

  • Those hammocks are calling my name. and my kids would flip out over the big sprinkler!

  • We love the gardens! My kids cant say Botanical, so we call them the beautiful gardens.
    🙂

  • My favorite part is the peace and quiet. My kids favorite parts are running around and digging in the dirt.

  • I’ve never been but it looks like a great place to go for a fun day with the kids.

  • The Botanical Gardens is a wonderful opportunity to teach children the beauty of nature. Loved taking my daughter there when she was young and looking forward to bringing my granddaughter in the very near future 🙂

  • I have been so excited to go this year! My husband and I haven’t had the chance to make it this year yet. We are really excited to take our 8 month old daughter to see everything. I just can’t wait!!

  • I have four children ages 3 to 12 . They all love the gardens. With a family pass we could go a lot more. They are always asking to go. Their favorite parts are the children’s garden and the butterfly house. My 12 year old was just asking me what the special summer event was this year.

  • The flowers at the garden this spring were absolutely beautiful!
    With all the water features for kids to cool off in and the other kud centered things I think the garden is one of the best places to go for a family outing.

  • We’ve been in Huntsville almost a year, but haven’t made it to the Gardens yet. I am dying to check it out! It’s tricky finding things to do with a 5 year old boy and 12 year old girl that they both enjoy. I think this fits the bill perfectly! Thanks for sharing.

  • We love HBG! My son loves to dig for worms in their vermipost bin. He also loves all the waterplay during the summer.

  • As a mom with 3 kids, we would love to be able to go the gardens all the time. It is a beautiful place, and I wish we could go more often than we do! Love, love, love the butterfly house!

  • I have been to the gardens when they have free.events. I love the nature trails and i love the walk thru for the galaxy of lights.

  • We went once I think maybe two summers ago, maybe it was last year? I can’t remember but it was when they had the treehouses. My boys loved it. We’d love to go again, it was beautiful and so fun!

  • My family loves HBG! The holiday season never starts until we walk the Galaxy of Lights….absolutely beautiful! There is great food at Clementines, and my girls never want to leave the Butterfly Garden.

  • My son loves all the water features in the children’s garden. And he also loves the butterfly house. My whole family is a big fan of the Galaxy of Lights; my dog loves to go to that too;)

  • My kids love all of the water features when we visit. They also love the Butterfly Garden!

  • We’ve lives in Huntsville for about a year have haven’t made it to the gardens yet. U know my boys (4 and 2) will love it! I think this summer is going to be the year we go!!

  • We take the kids pretty often in the summer. The kids area and the butterfly house are big hits with both my kids.

  • I don’t get to go enough but my kids love the butterfly area inside. I like just walking around and watching my children discover. There are so many things at a kids eye level that an adult would pass up but they are yelling at you going “Mom Mom look”!

  • I love going to Botanical Gardens. I haven’t been to this one yet. But it looks like it would be a great place to take the kids.

  • My kids love many things about the garden, but I love eating lunch at Clementine’s.

  • It has to be the water features! What kid doesn’t like playing in the water! We love HBG!!!

  • Such an awesome blog topic! Glad to read about the HBG; and more of the awesome, family friendly activities Huntsville and the HBG has to offer. My children love it there. A definite place to add to a “to visit” list! Thank you for sharing!

  • I’ve lived in Huntsville for nearly 6 years and have never visited the Botanical Garden. That’s CRAZINESS! I need to go and a membership would be perfect. Me and my little rascal would love it!

  • We love all of the beautiful flowers! My daughter especially looks forward to the Galaxy of Lights!

  • My kiddos have multiple favorites: the pirate ship thing, the frog pond and the trains top the list!

  • My kids could live in the splash pond. 🙂 They love seeing all the flowers and birds/bugs/fish, then having the freedom to run around the Children’s Garden.

  • We love the Galaxy of Lights and would love to see what HBG has going on the rest of the year.

  • We have been wanting to go to the gardens this year. The pictures look beautiful!

  • We love to visit the gardens. Our boys love the giant lily pads and all of the water features. Can’t wait to see the new additions!

  • My little one loves coming in her bathing suit and splashing in the water features. Yep, obvious I know, but I always plan with bathing suit and a quick pull over outfit for after the water.

  • We’ve been before, my son loved the train!! and had fun in the children’s garden. I think the giant checker board would be super to see.

  • My 3 year old loves the turtles and butterflies. And anything with water that he can play on!

  • We have gone twice to see this! My boys *love* the hammocks (they have the book ‘In the Cow’s Backyard’ – “My, it feels so nice to be in the shade…lying in the hammock in the cow’s backyard”). They also love the water features and the big checkers board. Our membership is about to expire and we would love to renew but will not be able to afford it for a while, so I am glad we got a chance to see this.

  • With three boys under four, our family would absolutely LOVE having a membership. And this Mommy might even get a nap after taking the boys there to play!! 🙂 Thank you for the opportunity to win!

  • We’ve honestly never been because I thought it was just flowers and such, but the garden looks like so much fun. I know my boys would love it. I can’t wait to go!

    • It really is a not-so-secret treasure for families here in Huntsville. It’s our favorite place to take our kids and we always bring our out of town guests as well.

    • My daughter and I have been going to HBG for the last 6 yrs during the summer for the Wacky Wed., I’m affraid this will be the last year we get to take part in that because she’s reached that age were the kid stuff isn’t as fun….lol

  • My kids never get bored at the Botanical Garden. We could stay there all day and they will never complain. There is so much to explore, so many displays that are always changing, so many fun child-friendly activities, and so much SPACE to just run around without getting into trouble — perfect for my super active bunch.

  • We have been before with the kids,we loved all the tree houses! Our favorite thing to do is pinic. I would love to do the camp out they have,one year.

  • We are moving to Huntsville at the end of the month, as we can’t wait to explore Botanical garden and this new exhibit! It looks like so much fun! I love that there are water play areas, and I think I read about a dino dig area which my 5 year old will adore!

  • I would love to take my little girl to the gardens! She’s never been and I think she’d have a blast, especially now that she’s walking!

  • My kids love the scarecrows scenes in the fall and the lights during Christmas.

  • We had a chance to explore the new Giant Garden Little Me a few weeks ago….my daughter’s class took a field trip there. She loved it! It looks like a great place for the summer!

  • We haven’t been, everything looks like great fun for both big and small kids!

  • This is great! I can’t wait to take my 3yo daughter! She especially loves butterflies!!!

  • We like the open displays and walking trails. Oh and the garden area. I love to teach my boys about where food comes from.

  • We love the butterfly garden! But our favorite will always be galaxy of lights.

  • The lasy time we went I was pregnant with my daughter, so it’s defintely time to go back. My favorite was the butterfly area.

  • I hope we get a chance to take our LO to Giant Garden, Little Me. It sounds great! I just hope she doesn’t try to pick the flowers she sees! She’s never been before, but I’m thinking its about time.

  • We love the sprinklers that get set up in the summer time around the gardens.

  • I have had a membership in the past to the Gardens and my kids absolutely love it! If I let them, they would stay all day in the water features and butterfly building. I would love to be a member again but winning a membership would be the only way we could afford to go right now.

  • This looks like so much fun! We don’t go very often due to financial issues but when we do the kids love it! I have a 2 1/2 yr old this year that I’m sure would have a blast!

  • As a family of 5, we’ve only been there once, but it was so nice to get lost for the day and just enjoy the scenery and explore. We loved it!

  • We just love the Botanical Garden. My little is almost two but we enjoy the butterfly garden..just beautiful!

  • Love the photos! Makes me want to take our grandJoys to the Botanical Gardens!

  • My 6 and 3 year olds love playing at the Gardens – last time we were there the giant croquet was their favorite. We are enjoying a membership this year and would LOVE to win another year for free!! Love these giveaways.

  • I love the garden! Our kids favorite part was always the butterflies, in the house and in the garden itself!

  • We absolutely LOVE the Botanical Gardens! We have been known to go a couple of times a week to enjoy this beautiful/ kid friendly place.

  • We love going to the botanical gardens. I usually love whatever exhibit they have going, and my daughter loves the children’s garden and the butterfly house. I wish we got a chance to go more often. Nice review! Thanks!

  • Thank you for the write up. It looks like fun and we have not been to the gardens in a couple of years.

  • We love the Botanical Gardens, and this has been a fun exhibit! My boys love the giant garden. Their favorite thing is papa bear’s table 🙂

  • The best purchase I make all year is my Botanical Gardens membership! We are there at LEAST once a week during the summer. The boys wear their swim trunks, and we pack a lunch or eat at Clementine’s, which is wonderful. We always run into friends and never ever get bored. I prefer it over going to a “park” anyday.

  • We took the kids twice in the spring and once in the summer they loved all the tree houses, butterflies and the ponds, it was great to have a place where they could explore nature and run out some of their energy.

  • We love the Botanical Gardens…I was wondering how the new exhibit was. Thanks for checking it out for us :). I can’t wait to take the kids this summer.

  • We love the garden! My son just loves the water features and the Butterfly House!

  • Looking forward to taking my 4 year old to the gardens. They have had great summer exhibits in the past and based on the great review sounds like this one will be wonderful too.

  • What a great review! My boys love the butterfly house and anything with water. Can’t wait to check out Giant Garden, Little Me!

  • We love the Garden and this new exhibit looks amazing!!! Thanks for the review!

  • I have always wanted to go but it seems like I just never make it out that way. Every year I put it on my bucket list.

  • That looks like so much fun! Hopefully it will warm up and stop raining on the weekend soon so we can go check it out!

  • My kids love the water features in the kid’s park. We can’t wait to try out Giant Garden, Little Me.

  • Haven’t been to the gardens for some time, but my boy loved the butterfly garden!

  • This is so neat! My daughter and I will have to go to the botanical gardens, as this looks like something she will really enjoy! Thanks for sharing this with us all!!

  • We are new to huntsville with a 1 year old boy and this looks like the perfect place to let out little one explore while enjoying it ourselves.

  • My daughter loves the children’s garden – especially the water features.

  • We’ve only been during the drive through Christmas lights. I would love to be able to take my kids to some of the fun summer activities they have. Thanks for the opportunity!

  • Wonderful blog article about children’s activities at the HBG. Can’t wait to explore with my 2 grandchildren, age 1 and 3.

  • We lived in Hunstville for about five years and moved away. Now we are moving back (Madison this time)! We didn’t have kids the first time, so the first thing we will be doing once we are there is going to the Botanical Gardens. I have been to many botanical gardens, and Huntsville has one of the best. My favorite experience is the butterfly house. My favorite feature of the garden is the big dogwood tree by the lake. Can’t wait!

  • My kids love the children’s area, especially the dinosaur dig (sandbox) and the butterfly area.

  • I have never been and would like to see the awesome kids areas I’ve heard about. Sure beats the cactus at my hometown botanical garden in Phoenix!

  • Thank you so much for the article Heather. It was just what I needed to pass along to some family out of town. 🙂

  • I have been to the Garden before, but I’ve never taken my daughter. That’s on our to-do list for this summer! I think she would LOVE the giant sprinkler!

  • I have an autistic son who loves the gardens!! He especially loves the butterfly house and all the water features. We can’t wait to visit!

  • Love it! We haven’t been in a while, but one of mine loved the little house and we love the water stuff. Also love the Christmas Lights! 😀

  • We have been members of the botanical gardens for two years, we love it! If you are only going to get one membership in town, this is it!!!

  • I went to HBG on a field trip with my preK class a couple weeks ago and it was great! I loved the hammocks! The kids loved it all!

  • Thanks! We need to get back to the garden for this exhibit!! The kids are dying to go after seeing the pictures!

  • My husband and I took our 6 month old daughter for the first time last week. She loves being outside and we loved strolling her around the beautiful scenery.

  • Thanks for the review! Looking forward to visiting the gardens with my son soon!

  • We have only been a few times, but my kids LOVE pretty much everything in the childrens garden.

  • We are going today during the free public gardens day. We are excited to see the giant garden and the butterfly house!

  • We visited “Giant Garden, Little Me” last month. For my five year old and three year old, it was a perfect combination of fun (which is often times hard to find). The exhibit also had them talking – they were very curious and inquisitive about what was going on around them.

  • Last year my kids loved digging for worms! I’m sure they would enjoy the new features this year in the children’s garden! We would LOVE to win a family membership!

  • We Love the new Sand castle and the hammocks, we could spend all day in these 2 areas!

  • My favorite part is just meandering through the trails, forgetting that I’m in N. AL but imagining myself somewhere else 🙂

  • We went once and it was enough to convince us to consider a year long membership. With two [paying age] kids, we knew it would make sense to come back again and again. I really could have spent all day in the big garden, little me. It was my dream come true after watching “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” 20 years ago! 🙂

  • We love the botanical gardens. I take my two kids there several times a month. It is a great way to wear them out and we all have a lot of fun.

  • What a really fun thing, I have 4 young children and homeschool. This would be so nice a refreshing all while being educational!

  • My daughter has never been to the gardens! I know she would love to “mell”the flowers and the giant sandbox!!!

  • When the gardens had the treehouses, my son loved exploring them. I know he would love the Giant Garden exhibit. Looking forward to summer, and hopefully spending time at the gardens. A membership would be wonderful.

  • The last time we visited HBG, we spend an insane amount of time in the pirate ship!

  • We moved to the area a year ago. The botanical gardens have been one of our favorite go to spots in our new community. There is something new and beautiful to see every time we go!

  • The botanical gardens is our favorite place in Huntsville. My daughter loves the pirate ship and I love the herb garden.

  • We can’t wait to take our 18 month old twins to this exhibit! Sounds like fun!

  • I would love to take my kids to the Botanical Gardens to see Giant Garden Little Me!!

  • We took the 2nd graders and kindergarteners over the past 2 weeks. They all loved it! Their favorite parts were the giant croquet, the pirate ship, and anything spraying water. The funniest thing for the parents was watching them try to stay in the hammocks!

  • My husband and I have lived here for about 6 yrs and we haven’t been to the Gardens and would love to check it out. Our children went a few yrs ago with school so it would be great to go as a family

  • We love going to the garden would love a membership. We let ours expire but would love to have a year’s membership.

  • Just looking at those pictures makes me want to take the family. The hammocks and the giant sand box alone would make us happy 🙂

  • I’ve never been as I am new to Huntsville but I am definitely looking forward to taking my twins to see the Big Garden, Little Me exhibit. I think they will LOVE the idea..

  • We love the botanical gardens. I wanted to buy a family membership but cannot afford it this spring. We just bought a project of a house to make room for each of the children. My kids love the water area in the childrens garden. We haven’t been out yet for the giant garden but are looking forward to our chance. It would make my summer to win a membership.

  • I would love to have a membership to the Botanical Gardens! My son loves to explore every inch! I love how it wears him out! Plus, it’s the most beautiful, inspiring place in Huntsville!

  • I have never been to the Bontanical Gardens except for the drive through Christmas lights. I have always wondered if my 4 year old daughter would have anything to do at the gardens. After this review I see a visit in our near future.

  • We have only been once for a field trip and would love to go again, especially to see the new features. Had a great time last year, can’t wait to go again.

  • We just moved to the New Market area and love getting to know where everything is. I am so glad I found Rocket City Mom so I can keep up with what is going on in Huntsville and the surrounding area. The HBG is one of the places my family has yet to see but is excited for this summer when we go.

  • My daughter loves the garden’s water play areas. I just wish they had more things to keep tweens occupied.

  • We just moved to Huntsville about 4 months ago and we have not been yet, but can’t wait to go! We have heard wonderful things about the Botanical Gardens!

  • All of our kids loved the water activities! I was blown away by the size and how much there actually was to see and do. Can’t wait to go back!

  • We really enjoy the Galaxy of Lights and have made it a family tradition. We absoutley love the creative children’s activities that include a variety water works to stay cool. My husband, and I enjoy a nice date nigbt with dinner from Clementines too. They have a really nice variety of fun things going on all the time for all ages.

  • I have 5 kiddos who would love to spend time at HBG this summer. We had a membership last year and would put a new one to good use 🙂

  • My three year old loves the water features! Can’t keep him out of them.

  • We have never been , (other than for the Christmas light show) we would love to come play at the garden!!!

  • My three year old loves the water features. I haven’t taken my one year old yet, but am looking forward to doing so this summer.

  • My daughters love walking the garden paths and seeing the flowers in bloom…

  • We have only been to see the Christmas lights. We are excited about going this summer to see Giant Garden, Little Me! It looks like a lot of fun!

  • My son and I have never been to the HBG. We have only just moved here 6 months ago. I would LOVE to win the membership to take him!

  • We would love a membership. Our experience at the botanical gardens is at Christmas.

  • We love the Galaxy of Lights and the Scarecrow Trail! We also always enjoy the Butterfly House.

  • My kids love the butterfly house, the water play and the Galaxy of Lights. We would love to have a membership so we could visit more frequently!

  • Love the peacefulness of the gardens, it’s a great place to take a leisurely stroll with a friend

  • We would love to win! Last year, my kids loved the water features and the butterfly house the most.

  • Any time I have visited Botanical Gardens it was before my daughter who is about to be 9 months old. I would love for that to change though!

  • We have never been to the HBG, but my sons are begging to go and wonder thru everything as they love being outside and helping me with our garden.

  • I want my little one to grow up around all the beautiful flowers and plants, the butterflies, and gorgeous aspects of nature in general. I personally love the lily garden!

  • The last time we went to HBG my girls were still in a stroller. We would love to go now that they’re old enough to enjoy it!

  • My son loves the oversized chairs! Especially the blue one! He had so much fun playing in the whole garden!

  • We love the butterfly garden…so amazing. My son loved looking at all of them and the turtles too.

  • I love the Botanical Gardens and go there often in the summer! For Christmas instead of gifts I asked the grandparents to purchase memberships for various places around Huntsville…I asked and I received memberships to Earlyworks and SciQuest, but not to the Botanical Garden. I’m excited about this contest!

  • I really loved this exhibit because my two year old loves punching the buttons and running through the water

  • I have never been there before, but, I would love to take my 4 year old neice! I know she would enjoy EVERYTHING!!! 🙂

  • I can’t wait to let my kids explore this exhibit! It sounds like a lot of fun. Imagine how cute the pictures are gonna be :0)

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