Hartman Prehistoric Garden - A Garden Overview

The Hartman Prehistoric Garden
©Craig Nazor

Welcome to the web site of the Hartman Prehistoric Garden. The garden is a 1.5 acre, $800,000+ gift to Zilker Botanical Gardens and the people of Austin from the Hartman Foundation, the Austin Area Garden Council, and various local businesses and individual donors. The facility includes:

a 45,000 gallon system of four interconnected ponds and a large waterfall
one pre-existing and two constructed limestone cliffs
an eight foot tall and thirteen foot long original bronze sculpture of an Ornithomimid dinosaur sculpted by John Maisano of the Texas Memorial Museum
replicas of the original dinosaur tracks
a fossil-bedecked sun shelter
a small garden of petrified wood
stone benches and bridges
crushed granite pathways
a large collection of many rare and unusual plants that evolved by the Cretaceous period, approximately 100 million years ago
an interesting ecosystem of invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals of central Texas that have made the garden their home

Brian Larson of the Larson and Burns Landscape Architecture firm provided the award-wining hardscape design and donated a large portion of the design costs. The project manager of the construction of the garden was Bill Wilmot of L and R Construction. The horticulture design and installation consultant and ongoing maintenance and volunteer coordinator is Craig Nazor.

The Hartman Prehistoric Garden is located on the site of the discovery, in 1992, of dinosaur tracks in an old limestone quarry along Stratford Drive in Zilker Botanical Gardens. After being uncovered and displayed to the public for a few years, and due to the nature of the soft limestone substrate, the tracks were rapidly beginning to erode away. The Austin Area Garden Council decided (after consultation with fossil experts from the Texas Memorial Museum, and after extensive molds and diagrams of the tracks had been made) to protect them by burying them beneath a garden honoring their presence.

The garden has been designed to function not only as one of the most beautiful gardens in Texas, but also as a premier education facility to teach the ancient prehistory of Austin. Over 100 species of plants are located in the garden, most originating over 100 million years ago. Some are ancient yet familiar natives. Many are new to the Austin area from exotic places around the world. The garden provides a great opportunity for the scientific and horticultural study of some of these plants. Primitive types of animals have been encouraged to live there. An extensive list of plant and animal species found in the garden is located on our flora and fauna web page. The total effect is designed to give the visitor a suggestion of what Austin looked like at the time the Ornithomimid dinosaur left her ancient signs in the earth.

Please come and enjoy the Hartman Prehistoric Garden. While you are visiting, remember that this garden is a gift to the people of Austin. Very little tax money was used in the construction of the garden. Volunteers provide much of the materials and labor for maintenance, and donations provide virtually all of the money for new plant acquisitions. Treat this garden with the respect it deserves, and Austinites will have a wonderful place to visit for years to come.