If you haven’t been up to the UNBC campus to see Phase 2 of the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society project, it’s worth checking out.
The garden space has been logged, levelled and covered with topsoil and volunteers have planted bulbs, trees and shrubs in the new display garden adjacent to the UNBC daycare facility.
The project also includes the Rotary community garden, a series of raised rectangular beds positioned on a plateau above the display garden. Gravel pathways connect the gardens and they will eventually lead to a trail network in the forest that makes up most of the 23-acre site earmarked for further expansion.
Landscape architects from Vancouver radically changed the original layout of the new gardens to create a more appealing experience for visitors.
“We had done quite a linear design, a walkway with beds off to the sides, but they did their homework and changed it to a more organic flowing pattern,” said DDBGS president Linda Naess.
“As you come into the entry there are two paths that join and that symbolizes the confluence of the two rivers, which is what Lheidli T’enneh means. So the garden reflects that flowing confluence.”
Winton Global donated a small passive energy building which will be hooked up to utility lines (water, sewer and electricity) that run from UNBC. The garden areas will be wired for lights. The extended summer-like weather in October allowed much of that work to proceed ahead of schedule.
The Recycling and Environmental Action Planning Society (REAPS) has moved its composting operation and office to the garden site.
The $1.2 million project is being funded by grants from the province and Northern Development Initiatives and through proceeds from the society’s annual plant sale at UNBC.
The society plans to eventually build a visitor centre/office, which will be available to rent for weddings, meetings and conferences to generate revenues. Estimated to cost $2 million, Naess says that will be the priority of future fundraising efforts.
A space has been set aside to build a folly - a focal-point tower which will offer visitors a birds-eye view of the garden. A greenhouse is also a priority for the society.
