Mobile Botanical Gardens

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Mobile Botanical Gardens

            Mobile, Alabama has many public spaces and places of interest people like to frequent. I have always like visiting the Mobile Botanical Gardens, which are on Museum Drive, in the Spring Hill community.

Part 1

The gardens occupy and expansive area of about 100 acres, and has been cultivated and divided into Camellia Wintergarden, the Fern Glade, Japanese Ample Garden, the Herb Garden, the Rhodondedron Garden, and the Long Leaf Pine. The gardens are evergreen, with collections of azaleas such as Mobile, Holly Springs, Encore, to name but a few. The atmosphere is cool, and relaxed, seeing as the area is mostly covered by properly tended gardens, in which the green surrounding brings about a feeling of peace and calm. The gardens are neat, with proper demarcations of the different plant beds, which are labeled and kempt. The flowers light up the place and give it some color, which makes it all the more beautiful.

            Most of the people who come here mostly come to relax their minds, and it offers a very tranquil and serene environment. Most of the sounds are from birds chirping, and to most of the visitors, nature’s sounds are soothing and comforting. Other people visit the gardens in order to marvel at nature, and learn about the different types of plants and flowers. Seeing, as it is an attraction site, there are tourists from various parts of the state and country who come to visit the gardens as a form of recreation.

            Despite the gardens being well tended to and in great order, some aspects about them do not portray the best image of the place. For instance, the gardens are not properly protected form children and other careless person who would step on the plants. The gardens should have short walls enclosing them, in order to ensure that the plants and flowers are safe from destruction by people. The fact that there are no walls beats the logic in the purpose of the garden, which si to conserve. Another negative aspect of the garden is the fact that the entrance fee is a bit high. $5 per adult should be reduced to about $2 on the higher side.

            Sometimes it can be annoying to visit the gardens then encounter children playing and running around, making the place resemble a noisy playground. This is especially unfair for the people who come to the garden seeking some quiet time, spending it with nature. Therefore, having noisy children sometimes running around the garden is not attractive. Sometimes people may litter the garden, which is completely out of line, especially because this is a sort of conservatory, and if there is any place that they should conserve their environment, is in the garden.

Part 2

By observing, thinking about, and writing about the botanical gardens, I have realized that I am quite observant and I pay attention to detail. This means I am analytic and take everything I do seriously and thoroughly. I believe in conserving nature and the environment around us, therefore, with my beliefs, I was able to view the place, and contextualize it according to my belief system and values. It is therefore easy for me to explain why I found the fact that people litter or children make loud noise in the gardens quite disturbing and out of line.

            I am a strong believer in meditation and the need for serenity when engaged in deep thoughts. Therefore, I envisioned the place as one of the destinations one would go to take their minds off life’s problems and daily stresses. I concentrated much on looking out for elements about the garden that would be useful to someone who is spending some alone time in the garden. Viewing the place and applying my beliefs influenced me to point out some of the negative aspects of the place, therefore in turn, influencing what I consider either proper or improper use of the place. Through observation and writing, I learnt that is important to be descriptive in the writing. I also learnt that for a successfully done descriptive piece, one must place himself or herself in the particular place or space, either physically or mentally. This enables the writer to see things or objects from a different perspective.

            For this assignment, I used two major rhetoric strategies, describing and comparing and contrasting. I found these methods appropriate because they would adequately provide the reader with a clear description of the place, and properly explain the positive and negative aspects of the place. The description technique lent itself more than the comparing and contrasting. This is because comparing and contrasting requires the writer to describe and give a detail of their points, in order to show the comparisons. The describing strategy was better since it provides the writer with endless options on what to write about. One can write about something, and describe anything, without feeling limited. With comparing and contrasting, one does not get to feel the place and secondly, one is only limited to writing a comparison, and nothing more.