“Social Irrigation”: Thursday Night Cocktails at The Atlanta Botanical Gardens

“And that’s what we call ‘Sex in the Garden.’” My head jerks in surprise; then I realize I’ve just overheard a grinning bartender suggest a drink recipe to a couple on my right. David and I are standing on a brick pathway in the Edible Garden, noses appreciatively sniffing at an air scented with fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, herbs, and the juicy catch of hangar steak curled in lettuce leaves and dolloped with a scoop of kimchi so spicy that my sinuses are howling ten yards away. It’s a Thursday night, part of the Botanical Gardens’ “Cocktails in the Garden,” and tonight’s alliteratively liquor-based theme is Shots in the Shade. Just ahead of us, under a black and white canopy, another bartender sits surrounded by Mason jars filled with vodka and various fruits and vegetables, explaining the difference between infused vodkas and flavored vodkas. For a dollar each, David and I purchase tastes of two different vodkas—I the sweet smelling pineapple vodka, and he the botanical vodka. A second later we swap. The pineapple is too cloying for my taste, and the botanical, David cites, isn’t sweet enough. That may be, but even my untrained nose can detect the hints of mint and rose in the tiny tasting cup. Delicious.

But we didn’t purchase our tickets simply to come and sip vodka. This find, one of my favorites on Atlanta Groupon, cost me $9, a hair of the price of regular admission ($18.95). Before moving, David and I did research and created a list of things we knew we wanted to check out in our future city. Upon arrival, we quickly had to scratch a number of them off, due to the steep prices of local attractions (over $20 to visit the zoo!) But by keeping a close eye on local deal sites, I’d finagled us in for cheap.

The gardens are plush and wildly colorful. One of my favorite sections are the greenhouses, which host whole rooms of various orchids and hot-house plants, as well as vertical greenery that makes the walls look soft and colorful. The humid air and colorful blooms make us instantly nostalgic for our time in Thailand, where every Saturday, merchants filled the sidewalks hawking the speckled flowers, and every yard had a tree hung with coconut planters filled with orchids.

A section of the greenhouses is home to an active amphibian conservation program with live displays in the Fuqua Conservatory. The collaborative amphibian conservation efforts between the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Zoo Atlanta can be seen here. We spend several minutes peeking into glass tanks to spot the tiny, neon frogs.

Outside, hidden in the foliage, are different sculptures and glassworks, part of the Garden’s efforts to marry natural art with fine art. We sip a second beverage while seated on a comfortable wooden bench in front of a frog pond bedecked in lilies, contemplating whether the “Frog Baby” sculpture in front of us is male or female. From the center of the gardens come the first strains of Lethal Rhythms Atlanta DJs. As we meander closer, we see bar tables set with roses and hydrangeas (bit of a wedding feel) surrounded by a gorgeous blown glass fountain—apparently the residing piece from Dale Chihuly’s exhibition back in 2004 (the Botanical Gardens do a fair share of art exhibitions and special events—more than I’d’ve guessed for a Garden). It is definitely whimsical, almost amphibious.

Another high point of our visit was strolling along the Canopy Walk, a 600-foot-long skywalk that allows the visitors to stroll through the treetops of the Storza Woods from around 40 feet in the air. The vantage was definitely unique, and apparently, no other city boasts such a treetop sidewalk.

Cocktails in the Garden is set to run until the end of September. Check out the Botanical Gardens website here for more info: http://www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org/events-classes/events/cocktails-garden.