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April 30, 2007
UBC Botanical Garden Earth Day Celebration!
On April 22nd, 2007, the UBC Botanical Garden held its first Free Community Earth Day Celebration. This event included garden tours, a BBQ, “pollination street” kids education and activities, a sustainable magic show by the Solar Power Roadshow, and an indoor and outdoor information expo that included the following exhibitors:
- The Bug Factory
- Greenheart Conservation Company
- Ener-Guide Consultant
- Your Local Farmers Market Society
- UBC Sustainability Office
- UBC Waste Management
- The Land Conservancy
- The Greater Vancouver Invasive Plant Council
- My Living Canvas Organic Gardening
- Bring Your Own Bag
- The Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition
- TransLink
- The Cooperative Auto Network
- Segway BC
- UBC Supermileage Team
- The AMS Bike Coop
- The Renaissance Bicycling Company
This event was proudly sponsored by:
- UBC Campus and Community Planning – to build cohesiveness in University Town and the community
- UBC Food Services – as part of its commitment to sustainability and social responsibility
- UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research – as part of its mission in education and conservation
The event was a great success, as 676 citizens (adult and children) from various parts of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland attended the event. We've also received some great feedback about the event, including:
- “Earth day was wonderful : really well done and lots of fun for the kids.”
- “With respect to the Earth Day Celebration, I thought this event went very well. My daughter, 3 1/2 years old, enjoyed the activities very much. She particularly enjoyed making the masks, pollinating the flowers and learning how to make the pine cone bird feeder. We had a wonderful time and found the day and the activities both fun and educational.”
- “I completed the scavenger hunt with my friends, even though we are all adults. I liked the fact that there was an adult prize and a children's prize at the end. I also was pleased to see a place where you could become a Garden member and took the opportunity to join. The highlight of the whole event was having a ride on the battery powered bikes and the segway. That was awesome! One item that particularly stood out was the concept of “food miles” and the notion that sometimes it is better to buy local even if it is not organic.”
The Garden staff and volunteers look forward to offering this Earth Day event in subsequent years!!
A special thank-you to the volunteers that included: UBC employees, Garden staff and UBC students!
Posted by Nadine Diner at 3:50 PM | Comments (3)
Vegetable Gardens For Beginners Course
In late Februrary, garden members and the general public visited the Garden for a beginner's course on vegetable gardening offered by Tony Maniezzo, the UBC Botanical Garden Horticulturist associated with the Food Garden.
Tony's course was a perfect way to green the thumb of novices with basic information on raised beds, fertilizing, liming, composting, seed sowing, planting and more.
Course registrants were also treated to a walk through the Food Garden, a demonstration and lots of opportunities for questions and discussions.
This Vegetable Garden course is just one of many informative UBC Botanical Garden Courses, Lectures and Seminars offered throughout the year (Courses and Lectures Listing). A new list for fall/winter 2007-2008 and spring/summer 2008 will be posted this August.
Posted by Nadine Diner at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)
April 9, 2007
Peter and a Mountain Ash
Photos of Peter Wharton once again, this time demonstrating a bit of adventurous gardening.
Peter is definitely not afraid to make the extra effort if the situation calls for it. Last week there was quite a lot of new planting going on in the David C. Lam Asian Garden including a number of mountain ash (Sorbus sp.). This particular species is epiphytic, which means that instead of growing in the soil, it prefers to perch on top of other plants. So Peter clamoured up the side of this old stump and planted the young tree directly into the soft, rotting wood. Pretty cool. When you walk through the garden look up once in a while and you'll probably be surprised to see how many times he has done this over the years.
While I was photographing this I was able to make a couple of short videos with Peter explaining what he was doing. These turned out fairly well and as we update our software I hope to be able to share clips with you on this blog. Stay tuned.
Posted by Andy Hill at 11:07 AM | Comments (2)
April 1, 2007
Peter and a Magnolia
Peter Wharton at the garden entrance next to Magnolia sprengeri 'Eric Savill'.
There are nearly a hundred magnolias blooming in the garden today, creating great washes of colour with other flowering trees and shrubs such as rhododendrons, camellias and linderas. Peter Wharton curates the David C. Lam Asian Garden and has this to say: "the first major flush of spring flowers is upon us, for visitors right now it is a visual feast."
Peter is very well known for the work that he has done at the garden and for his plant explorations. He makes regular trips to Asia to make scientific collections of important plants for study and conservation. This time next year he will be in China examining these magnificent magnolias in their native environment.
Posted by Andy Hill at 8:41 PM | Comments (1)
Cherry Blossoms at Nitobe Memorial Garden
This is absolutely the best time to see the cherry trees blooming in the garden. Don't miss it. Seriously, don't miss it!
Here are some pictures of visitors enjoying the trees, and of Horticulturist Junji Shinada who takes care of Nitobe Memorial Garden. Junji takes care of the entire garden on his own -- can you believe that?
On Saturday April 7th between 3:00 and 7:00 pm the Vancouver Mokuyokai Society will be holding their 24th Annual Ohanami Cherry-Blossom Viewing in the garden. This will include candlelight viewings, tea ceremonies, musical performances and traditional obento dinner boxes. Go to their website here or send an email for information or to make tea ceremony and obento reservations.
Posted by Andy Hill at 7:52 PM | Comments (1)
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UBC Botanical Garden Blog is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department within the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at The University of British Columbia.