Garden

Each season, I stop by the grounds at the Canadian Museum of Nature to visit the Landscapes of Canada Gardens and show how they look. Four distinct ecosystems from the country have trees, flowers, plants, grasses, and shrubs here. starting with Boreal Forest as we approach from the southwest. 

Evergreens are a signature of the Boreal Forest, which covers a vast swath of the country. This time of year, snow was to be found.

The path leads on.

Prairie Grassland is the central section, with grasses and flowers from that region transplanted here. They are beneath the snow, waiting on spring.

A sculpture crosses the path, an iceberg in steel, made by the late Canadian artist and inventor, Bill Lishman.

Arctic Tundra is the next ecosystem. During the rest of the season, rocks are visible, with grasses and shrubs growing between them, from the far north. Taken from the west side of the property, all we see in winter is the shrubs, bare and waiting on spring.

A park bench bears a plaque dedicated by two visitors. Other such plaques are in cobblestones at the entrances, and largely obscured by snow this time of year.

The last of the ecosystems is on the left side of the path, buried by snow. It is concentrated around a series of three sculptures of mammoths. Entirely appropriate, as the plants come from the Mammoth Steppe- plants of the end of the Ice Age that such animals would have known, and which survive today.

This view includes the Queens Lantern, with a model of the Moon hanging inside.

And one more look at the family of mammoths.