One down, a few thousand to go.
The first bit of greenery has been planted at the David Douglas Botanical Garden, located across from UNBC’s residential buildings.
“It is a small beginning,” Linda Naess, the President of the David Douglas Botanical Garden
Society, told the crowd of onlookers this afternoon (Friday).
“We have had it levelled and grated, some selective logging, and here we are.”
The tree is the start of 2.8 acres that will be planted in this second phase. After the ceremonial planting Naess told My PG Now the garden will start to be installed in July, with a hopeful grand opening in September.
“I am just delighted. Relieved, excited, delighted. Here we are, finally,” she said, seeing ground broken on the project.
Phase 2 has a $1.2 million dollar budget.
“We started with ‘lets build a botanical garden,’ we have all been to them and seen them,” she explained.
Then, the “nitty gritty;” Naess said research, applying for grants, engineering, and planning took the Society between 7 and 8 years to get to the point where they could plant this tree.
This is just the second phase, and the four acres of garden is just the start – Naess said when it is all completed, the garden will span 23 acres.