Reconstructing an ecological wonder
Baddeck museum unveils re-created Mabel Bell garden
BADDECK — Had Alexander Graham Bell observed today the ecosystem his wife created on the grounds of their Beinn Bhreagh estate, he likely would have heard her say, ‘I told you so.’”
That’s according to Alana Pindar, Cape Breton University’s Weston family visiting professor in ecosystem health and food security, who feels that Mabel Hubbard Bell was just as much an innovator as her telephone-inventing husband, albeit leaning toward the likes of sustainability, preserving her environment and food security.
“At his core, he was all about global thinking and innovation and going fastand-furious forward. So I don’t know what he would’ve thought,” said Pindar. “But I think she would’ve said, ‘I told you so. You have to slow down and think locally, and make sure you conserve as much as possible.’”
Tuesday marked the 100th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s death, but the commemorations also extend to his wife’s environmental leanings thanks to a Pindar project in collaboration with Parks Canada, Bell family members and the Alexander Graham Bell Foundation.
The project involves a recreation of Mabel’s Beinn Bhreagh gardens on the grounds of the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck, which were unveiled during an afternoon ceremony at the museum, which included descendants of the Bell family.
“It’s been such fun to try to have all that Mabel had for this,” said Mabel’s greatgranddaughter Joan Sullivan, 95, who was on hand for the ribbon-cutting of Mabel’s Garden. “I think she’d be very pleased to see this.”
ENCLOSURE ON ESTATE
For Pindar, a North Sydney native who returned to Cape Breton from Ontario, the project began earlier this year with a focus on researching pollinators — including bees — currently within Cape Breton, how their diversity has changed over the years and how people can begin to incorporate ecosystem diversity back into our own gardens and backyards.
Pindar guided an exclusive tour of the gardens at the Bell estate, particularly one area which revealed an enclosure surrounded by pine trees, wild plants and berries, birch trellises and ground areas where bees make their home — all stemming from the years Alexander and Mabel Bell lived on the estate more than a century ago.
“Everything that she would have planted here would have been a delicate flower,” Pindar said. “She had another kitchen garden (nearby) for more heartier things; things that could tolerate or needed wind.
“But where we’re standing now, you can feel the heat — all of a sudden it’s hot here,” Pindar said. “There’s not a breath of wind. That’s because they’re protected (in this one area). Honeybees would be able to travel eight to 10 kilometres to pollinate and do all this ecosystem service — for free.”
‘PAID ATTENTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS’
Pindar said the most fascinating revelation during the project was Mabel’s ahead-ofher-time thinking on ecosystems and plant growth.
“I don’t think I’m going out of my reach when I say this might be one of the only parts in Cape Breton that is a great area for pollinators because it is so untouched.
“She paid attention to the environmental conditions and made sure where she put things and oriented things to work together,” Pindar said. “And then her growing season (in one part of the area) became extraordinarily longer, in comparison to the season in the village of Baddeck.”
The idea behind the garden re-creation is to demonstrate how to best maintain food security within a small space, rounded in size and roughly 700 square feet — emulating the size of a small backyard in Canada, she said — and includes hydrangea bushes and blueberry bushes. Two, 700-square-foot garden recreations can be found at the back of the Bell museum.
“This is to show we can produce our own food safely — and economically,” Pindar said. “And you can produce them among flowers.
“The more Mabel thought of things ecologically, the more she produced in the name of food security.”