Dozens celebrated the opening of a Literary Garden last week at the Durango Public Library. The gardens took nearly two years to construct with the help of individuals, city donations and dozens of Durango Botanical Garden volunteers.

“Literature has always been tied to the outside and natural world,” said Luke Alvey-Henderson, executive director of library services for the Durango Public Library. “And (the Literary Garden) ties itself directly to our local presence in the natural world. It’s such a great addition.”

Creating a Literary Garden was always part of the vision for the Durango Botanical Garden, said Bill LeMaire, president of the organization.

“We wanted a literary garden here to reflect our partnership and association with the library,” he said.

The Literary Garden is made up of six sections, each dedicated to a separate literary genre.

“We’re encouraging people to find other kinds of more diverse and inclusive readings,” LeMaire said.

Sections include: Indigenous, American Southwest, Youth, El Jardín Botánico (representing Hispanic literature), Contemporary and the Classics.

Each section was curated by Durango Botanical Garden volunteers, LeMaire said. Curators were responsible for selecting plants as well as reading lists of relevant works that draw on a botanical influence.

“We’re trying to show the relationship between how nature, gardens and botany have influenced works of literature,” LeMaire said.

In addition to curated book and plant lists, each garden features discovery points, which bring attention to potentially overlooked features of the gardens, and artistic installations to help visitors learn about and enjoy each section.

Shirlee Krantz and Kandye Dille, two of the Youth Garden curators, said their section was designed to be interactive.

“Children look at gardens differently than adults,” Krantz said. “Adults mostly look; children interact with everything.”

Steppingstones and small stumps weave through the Youth Garden, providing young viewers with opportunities to get up close with all of the plants, Krantz said.

The garden also features a sensory container that invites viewers to “touch, rub and sniff” the plants.

Structures are used throughout the Literary Garden to reflect botanical and literary themes of each section.

El Jardín Botánico features arched adobe walls, reflecting traditional Southwest architectural design. The Indigenous Garden has a traditional Navajo shade structure called a Diné Chach’oh, and the Contemporary Garden is equipped with two major artworks that pay homage to nature writers.

The library is thrilled to have the Literary Garden on site, Alvey-Henderson said.

“When you look us up on Google, it says Durango Public Library and Botanic Gardens – it’s important to separate the two,” he said. “The Botanic Gardens are a destination in themselves, a lot of people stop just to see (them), then go to the library.”

The partnership between the two organizations started in 2011, he said. At that point, the library had a lot of unused green space and Durango Botanical Garden was looking for somewhere to cultivate.

Since then, the two have been working together to create a series of gardens that wrap around the building, with the Literary Garden as the newest addition.

The Literary Garden cost about $150,000 and took countless hours of volunteer work, LeMaire said.

“We call it citizenship in action, because it’s just people volunteering their time wanting to help the community,” he said.

Just because the dedication ceremony is over does not mean the Durango Botanical Garden’s work is over, LeMaire said. Plants must settle, and there is always another seed to plant or plot to be tended.

“We're very, very fortunate to have such an amazing partner in Durango Botanic Gardens,” Alvey-Henderson said. “We are just really excited not just about this, but future projects to come, and we hope everyone has a chance to come visit for themselves while things are blooming.”

lveress@durangoherald.com

A previous version of this story misspelled Bill LeMaire’s and Shirlee Krantz’s last names.