Inside the Jungle Then

Restoring McKee Botanical Garden Vero Beach, Florida By Leigh Fulghum

The Plan of Landscape Architecture for McKee Jungle Gardens developed a winding system of pathways, ponds, and water courses through the 80-acre coastal hammock. Walkway borders and stream banks were planted with a riotous assemblage of plants from around the tropics, and tree trunks and branches were blanketed with Arthur McKee's splendid orchid collection. Naturally occurring marvels, such as a crooked cabbage palm bowed by a merciless hurricane season, were treated as features worth pondering. Stone benches invited meditation upon Nature while streams flowed gently past, to the not quite Floridian screech of the monkey and cry of the macaw.

The Stone Bridge