Gardens on Spring Creek

Oh what a fun place to stop & stretch your legs. Like others are saying the children’s area is not to be missed. Wish I had the grandkids with us.

A very unique feature of Fort Collins. The programs are great, I wish the entire place was designed similarly to the children’s garden which, in my opinion, has a lot of great outdoor art. The non-​children area seems more like a farm than a botanic garden, most things in it are edible vegetables not flowers.
Definitely worth seeing.

I take my daughter here almost every Monday for Read and Seed. They are read a story and then do a little craft or project that coincides.
The staff memebers are so friendly and great with the children. We always have fun. My daughter loves coming home to show her dad and brother what she made. The cost is $ 3 for the child and adults are free. Read and Seed is for ages 2 – 4 but they have programs for all age levels. I would definately recommend checking this out!

The Gardens on Spring Creek I kind of just happened to stumble across while taking a very long walk while waiting for my car to get fixed one day. I heard my brother mention gardens that you could go to for free prior to my long walk but thought it was something on the CSU campus. It was a great deal of fun to take a walk through while getting sun burnt to wait for my quirky car to get fixed for the umpteenth time that summer.
Since then I have visited The Gardens several times. There are lots of different plants to take in and it is most helpful with the signs explaining what they are. The Gardens on Spring Creek is kind of a mix between an urban garden that you see in the big cities where families grow fresh produce and plant flowers which otherwise they would not have the opportunity to do at home and a botanical garden. The facility is more high tech and not simple enough to call a urban garden exclusively but it does not house those really off the wall exotic plants that you see in the big city botanical gardens and the facility is too small to give it that term. Kind of in the middle really, and that is cool!
The Gardens on Spring Creek is operated by the City of Fort Collins government. There is no entrance fee to walk through the gardens but there is a suggested $ 2.00 donation. Whoops! Sorry, I did not know that in my earlier visits there. There are various workshops that are held here as well covering landscaping and gardening and various other topics. The main building houses a gift shop and a hot house where more of the finicky plants that even reject Colorado’s warm summers are housed as well as seedlings. There is a gift shop in the main building as well.
The gardens themselves are fun to walk through. All those signs to take in and read as to what kinds of plants you are looking at. There is a game involving water that kids and adults can play in the summer time involving damming little trickles of water and then letting them go and other cute things. There is also a very peaceful little stream housing ever hungry Koi, begging for food and wanting to show off.
Typically one does not think that botanical gardens do much in the winter time and I realize that is not the case. In December they decorate the gardens in Christmas lights and encourage people to come in and stroll through the gardens during the chilly months as well. When I mean stroll, just you and your own two feet and no dog. They discourage people to ride their bikes through the gardens and to leave them at the entrance and to not bring in your pets. The Christmas light display is held every night 5−8pm up to December 26^th. I do not specifically know their summer hours but you can go to the website,
to learn more about their upcoming events and hours. Fun place to visit!