Silva Creek Botanical Gardens and More University Views and Fall Colors (10/27/26)

We stayed in town today to do a stock up grocery shop at Albertson’s and then a 30 minute walk to the Silva Creek Botanical Gardens. It is a lovely fall day here, sunny and in the mid 60s, but it feels much warmer. We are taking advantage of the sun as rain chances come into the picture again later this week.

The Silva Creek Botanical Gardens are northeast of the house across Highway 180 and along Silva Creek. It’s a small garden that is owned by the town of Silver City and managed by the Gila Native Plant Society. It was developed on the former site of a town storage lot.

I was not expecting much, but the gardens contain a Habitat Thicket, a Children’s Butterfly Garden, a decorative historic water tank, and interpretive signage throughout. We would have enjoyed it even more if there hadn’t been a middle school class there “learning” about the garden (i.e., drawing flowers and playing with butterfly nets).

The route to and from the Botanical Gardens took us through campus. We walked up near the football stadium and Theater Arts Building on the way to the garden but walked through the library on the way back. We were glad we did, as we hadn’t seen the artwork on the outside of that entrance before.

I am in love with the brilliant colors of some of the trees here. When we went to hear the talk the other day at the university, Professor Thomashow mentioned that sometimes we don’t observe things that we don’t have words for. For example, he mentioned that we don’t have a specific word for a tree with multi-colored leaves (see below). For some reason that has stuck with me. I now think of that lack of word every time I see a tree that’s turning colors.