Sometimes people just have to touch the dirt, said newly appointed president of the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society.
Corrine Gibson, a flight attendant whose regular route takes her to Australia, volunteers at a botanical garden there, and here.
"After getting out of that tin can, sometimes I just have to put my hands on the ground," said Gibson. "It's really therapeutic."
This year everything seems to be coming together at the botanical garden at the University of Northern BC.
"This is the year," said Gibson. "Absolutely. There have been two huge projects that have been completed and now it's just a matter of continuing to plant around them. The bridge and the water feature have made a significant difference and it's now become a destination place."
Grads and wedding parties have taken advantage of the beautiful landscape, using the site for photo opportunities. Gibson said she sees mothers bringing their small children up there to enjoy the surrounding beauty. The bridge was built in 2010, the water feature followed in 2011.
"This week we're putting pavers in part of the walkway so that will be more user-friendly for people using wheelchairs and buggies."
Gibson emphasized all work done at the botanical garden is by volunteers.
"Sometimes I feel like I came in as president after all the hard work has been done," said Gibson, who moved to Prince George three years ago. "But now with that being said, we really can focus on the education part of the display garden at the university until such time that there is a bigger botanical space for us to develop."
Gibson said providing a bigger area for the David Douglas society to develop at the university has been in the works for years.
"We learn a lot here with this garden and then move forward in hopes of offering something more," she said about future plans. "I think that's where I come in, by elevating our presence we can get more people on board that feel this is a worthwhile cause to champion."
More and more young people have become interested in gardening and sustainability, she added. There's so many uses for plants and it's nice to share that knowledge with youth.
"I did my master gardeners class this winter. There was 12 in the class and I believe there was four that were under 25 years old," Gibson's optimism shone through.
Gibson talked about some of the founding members of the society, like Anne Martin, who started the botanical society.
"Anne Martin, who was the instrument to get this going 20 years ago, has been a terrific resource," said Gibson. "She is a wonderful woman and I've been able to talk with her and find out how this all came about and it's just amazing that it started as just an idea and now we have almost 200 members and we'd really like to increase those numbers."
There are volunteer parties that go out to the garden to maintain it throughout the week and most times there's a master gardener out there that can answer any questions the public has about gardening.
"We've got a Facebook page now and information is posted on it regularly," said Gibson.
