A Spring Walk Through The Garden

It has been my habit to feature the Landscapes Of Canada Gardens at least once each season, and since my last time was in the winter, I wanted to walk here in spring time, when things are just waking up. I got a chance to on the first warm weekend in the latter part of April. The Gardens are found on the west side of the property at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and opened in 2016. It features plants from four distinct ecosystems in Canada. Boreal Forest starts things off, with evergreen trees and small bushes planted along the pathway.

That includes this, creeping juniper, just waking up after a long winter.

Prairie Grasslands is the central section, with the Museum as a background. We shall see what summer does for the grasses as they start to grow.

Arctic Tundra is another section, with grasses and shrubs found in the Far North planted here. Glandular birch is one of those, and it was starting to show the first hints of spring buds.

The pathway leads through this art installation. Artist and inventor Bill Lishman created this iceberg sculpture out of steel.

There are paving stones on one section of the path; the names of those who have donated, or have donated in memory of another for the museum, are marked.

The path takes us on from here, with Prairie Grassland to the right, and one of the signs, marking the last section, the Mammoth Steppe, at the left.

A few steps back from the above shot gives us a view of the path. Note the dog walking its human.

A family of wooly mammoths are found here along the path in sculptural form. They were moved up this way from their original place, about where the iceberg sculpture is now, when the gardens were created.

I stopped inside the Museum to look in at the gift shop, and photographed one of the stained glass windows in the entrance before I left.