A place for learning and leisure

Students, alumni and guests celebrate Dalhousie’s 200th birthday in the Botanical Garden

Dalhousie Agricultural Campus has o cially launched its Bicentennial Botanical Garden at the Bible Hill campus.

e garden is inside the existing Alumni Gardens, developed by Dal AC in the 1970s, and has now been handed over to the campus.

Dal AC grad Laura Lowe’s job as a horticulture technician is to maintain the garden in her alma mater as a living lab for current students learning botany.

“I want to further my career working here and running the gardens and taking over my boss’s job, maybe,” said Lowe Saturday. “ is is a great place to work, this is a great place to come and visit, it is beautiful. We maintain it, everybody who works here loves it. It’s a great environment.”

Lowe said the gardens are home to a range of ora including Scots pine, chestnut trees and owering plants such as rhododendrons, hibiscus and dahlias, among the 3,000 types on display.

ree people enjoying the tranquil environment were Zeng Huaping, Liu Min and Zhuang Peifen from the southern Chinese city of Fuzhou, who attended the launch as guests of Dal AC.

Totaling 26 acres of extensive plant collections, the Dal AC grounds are also home to rock, shade and herb gardens, a butter y meadow, an apple orchard and other plant collections and tranquil havens that o er students a break from their studies. One sapling on display is the Wisqoq or Black Ash, once used by Nova Scotia’s original Mi’kmaw First Nation inhabitants for making baskets and other

household items.

It was planted Saturday to coincide with the Bicentennial Botanical Garden launch.

“We’ve been slowly developing some of the areas to keep up with public use and student demand as far as lab activities,” said garden manager Darwin Carr.

e Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture is also an institutional member of the American Public Gardens Association and follows best practices in the management of its botanical garden.

e Bicentennial Botanical Garden is open to the public and is sta ed and maintained by professionals trained in their given areas

of expertise while managing active plant records systems.

The garden reaches its peak throughout spring and summer and into the fall and garden visitors can identify plants through labels, guide maps and other interpretive materials.

FRAM DINSHAW/TRURO NEWS Visitors enjoyed taking in the beauty of the Bicentennial Botanical Garden at Dal AC during a special event to mark the milestone of the institution’s 200th anniversary.

FRAM DINSHAW/ TRURO NEWS Horticultural technician Laura Lowe is at home among the 3,000 species of plants and trees that serve as a living lab for students at Dalhousie Agricultural Campus in Bible Hill. A graduate of Dal AC, she now works on its grounds and was on hand Saturday as the Bicentennial Botanical Garden was o cially launched.