Fort Worth Stockyards

FtW Stockyards- website

Attractions-
Cowtown Cattlepen Maze
Billy Bob's
Stockyard Museum
Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
Cowtown Coliseum
Stockyard Station

Cattle Drive at 11:30pm and 4pm DAILY!
Also, during the summers there is a gunfight following the cattle drive. 

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden (109 acres)  is open daily; an admission fee is charged for the Conservatory and Japanese Garden. The other gardens are free admission.

The garden was established in 1934, and describes itself as the oldest botanic garden in Texas, with 2,501 species of native and exotic plants in its 21 specialty gardens. In addition to wooded areas, major garden features include:

Conservatory (10,000 square feet) - tropical displays of orchids, bromeliads, and trees.
* currently closed :(

Four Seasons Garden - Hundreds of iris, day-lily, and chrysanthemum varieties.

 
Fragrance Garden - small garden with fragrant plants and fountain. 

Fuller Garden - pathways and lawn; site for weddings and garden parties.

Japanese Garden - three koi ponds, waterfall, bridges, teahouse, pagoda, pavilions, meditation garden. 
 *see previous blog for more info and pics

Lower Rose Garden - rose garden inspired by Villa Lante (Italy). 

 

Oval Rose Garden - hundreds of roses; renovated 2002. 

Perennial Garden - perennials with culinary herb collection, as well as ponds and small waterfall.

Trial Garden - evaluation site for hundreds of species of perennials. 

Water Conservation Garden - demonstration xeriscape garden.

Water Wise Entrance - entry garden with agave, Texas sage, salvia greggii, Mexican Bush sage, red yucca and Esparanza.

Water Gardens in Fort Worth

The Fort Worth Water Gardens, built in 1974, is located on the south end of downtown Fort Worth between Houston and Commerce Streets next to the Fort Worth Convention Center. The 4.3 acre  Water Gardens were designed by noted New York architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and was dedicated to the City of Fort Worth by the Amon G. Carter Foundation.

The urban park is frequently billed as a "cooling oasis in the concrete jungle" of downtown. Its focal points are three pools of water and a terraced knoll, which helps to shield the park from adjacent Interstate 30. The quiet meditation pool is encircled with trees and features a flat, still plane of water that cascades almost 90 degrees down to a sunken walkway. The aerating pool features multiple spray fountains. The main attraction of the Water Gardens is the active pool which has water cascading 38 feet down terraces and steps into a small pool at the bottom. It also has over 500 species of plants and trees throughout the park.

The active pool was originally built for people to be able to walk down the terraced steps and experience the water tumbling around them. It was temporarily closed to the public after four people died there on June 16, 2004. Three children and one adult drowned after one of the children fell in the pool. It is mistakenly believed that the child jumped in to swim. The other three jumped in trying to save the child. The water was unusually deep due to a recirculating pump malfunction and heavy rains. The park was reopened in March 4, 2007 after being made safer by reducing the depth of the main pool from 9 ft to 2 ft.

Japanese Gardens-- Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

Scott Brooks, the Fort Worth Japanese Garden's senior gardener, reports:

The Fort Worth Japanese Garden was originally constructed with materials donated from numerous individuals, businesses, and institutions in north Texas and elsewhere in the USA. In the 1990s, Fort Worth's Japanese sister city, Nagaoka, donated an authentic Mikoshi (a sacred palanquin) to Fort Worth, which is currently housed within the garden's precincts. Several trees, including pines and flowering cherries, were similarly donated. Finally, Mr. Shigeichi Suzuki, a landscape architect from Nagaoka, donated plans for a karesansui-style addition to the Garden in 1997. The addition was completed in 2000, and is now called the 'Suzuki Garden'.

The Fort Worth Japanese Garden was built into a little valley, originally a gullied bluff, that opened onto the floodplain of the Trinity River's Clear Fork branch. Enlarged as a gravel quarry, the site also served at various times as a watering hole for cattle, a trash dump, and a squatter's camp. Today, the secluded valley serves as a Japanese-style 'stroll garden' (kaiyushiki teien).

At the heart of the landscape is a system of ponds, surrounded by hills (tsukiyama), and enclosed by a network of interconnected paths, pavilions, bridges, and decks. As the name implies, the garden unfolds as an ever-changing series of landscape perspectives to visitors who stroll along those thoroughfares.