Better Homes and Gardens Test Garden
Better Homes and Gardens’ (BHG) Test Garden is a perfect demonstration of how a company shows thoughtful regard for its loyal customers. BHG prides itself on delivering news to its readership of quality home and garden products, including well-tested recipes for the home chef, and the company applies that same approach when it comes to sharing information and recommendations on plants. BHG promotes exciting new plant products coming on the market, and what better way to look after your customers than to test the plants first in your own experimental gardens during a trial season or two?
I had the pleasure of paying a short but thoroughly satisfying visit to the BHG Test Garden in July 2015 while in Des Moines for a conference. My friend and I took advantage of a two-hour break over our lunchtime to hike the 19 or so blocks from our hotel to the BHG Test Garden. It was a scorching hot day for me; my friend from Oklahoma tolerated the heat better, but it was still an unlikely day for a power walk. Nonetheless, we were well rewarded for our efforts.
On arrival, we easily found the entrance to the park, which is only open to the public on Fridays from noon to 2 pm, from May to October. Mid-July had us on site in the final days of the rose and lily season, and in the height of the season for the heat loving plants such as coneflowers. We stepped into the dapple shade in this not-so-secret walled garden in downtown Des Moines and felt refreshed within moments.
One’s first impression is that you, the visitor, are most welcome to relax and explore within this lovely garden, with pathways and rest locations well situated throughout the garden for your benefit. At the foot of the entrance and exit steps, the walkway opens into a garden seating area with a four-tiered fountain at the core. Seated here and there were members of the public and likely several downtown office workers, possibly employed at the BHG parent company Meredith Corporation next door. Folks looked relaxed, seated at their tables in the light shade, enjoying conversation and refreshments.
Beyond the central fountain area, there are a variety of trees and shrubs, flowers and climbers, potted plants and water plants featured throughout, occupying every square inch of the outlying areas of the rectangular test garden.
We began our self-guided tour by turning to our right and following the stone path that winds through several garden “zones” – through shade, past the wall climbers, through hot sun areas, past the pond and stream, alongside perennial borders, into a small, shaded woodland, and, too soon, back through a richly shaded corner to complete the “circle.” By going back around, and looking again, I was able to satisfy my wish to see more of these gorgeous plantings.
As you follow my photo tour, you will see a few examples of the gorgeous plants being tended, photographed, and tested by the BHG garden team who take care of this small paradise. In addition to the varieties that are grown for one or two seasons only, and replaced as new selections arrive, the head gardener also makes decisions around which plants, and trees, can make the garden their relatively permanent home turf, for shade, contrast, texture, and beauty that they offer at various times in the growing season.
I have the names of some, but not all, of the flowers photographed on our tour. I asked the head gardener about the missing name tags from many of the exhibits. Her reply was that the labels simply disappear from time to time. Fortunately, the plantings are highly photographed, which is why the garden is only open to the public for a few hours each week, and a master plan is of course accessible to the gardeners themselves, ensuring that you and I can pick up future issues of Better Homes and Gardens magazines and learn the names of these beautiful specimens that you will see in my images.
If you are a visitor to Des Moines, or a local resident, I highly recommend a visit to this small, well planned, and very beautiful test garden. Knowing that the garden has come about through a commitment to examine plant attributes before promoting these to the general public makes this a particularly special garden, in my view, and a real treasure in the landscape of this attractive city.
Photos and text: Nadine Kampen
Copyright: N.Kampen/CookieBuxton
Photo location: Better Homes and Gardens Test Garden, 1716 Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50309. Tel.: 515-284-3994
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