THE DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY Bicentennial Botanical Garden is located on the Bible Hill campus of the Faculty of Agriculture about 60 miles (100 km) northeast of the main campus in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The campus grounds encompass 26 acres (10.5 ha) of sweeping lawns, a large collection of trees and shrubs, as well as various feature gardens that are used as a living laboratory for the landscape horticulture and agricultural technical and degree programs offered at the Faculty of Agriculture.
In 2018, Dalhousie University marked its 200th anniversary with a year-long celebration. As part of this celebration, the campus grounds were officially named the Dalhousie University Bicentennial Botanical Garden. Several feature gardens attract visitors and showcase the work of the garden staff and work projects by landscape horticulture classes past and present. The six main feature gardens are the Pollinator Garden, Berlin Wall display, Alumni Gardens, Herb Garden, Rock Garden, and the Limestone Alpine Garden. Other features of interest on the Bible Hill campus are the heath and heather beds and the collection of rhododendrons and azaleas throughout the campus left, to our benefit, by hardiness trials performed by the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
The rock garden has been the main drawing feature since it was developed in the early 2000s. This garden began as a project to replace the previous small rock garden which was lost to building upgrades on the adjacent horticulture building. We were very fortunate to have access to Dr. Bernard Jackson, past director of the Memorial University Botanical Garden, as our Friends of the Garden coordinator on the campus at the time. He was eager to help rebuild the new rock garden display.
With a generous donation of rock from a local quarry and a small budget provided from the Friends of the Garden for excavation and stone placement, the project commenced in June of 2002. Earth shaping, stone trucking, and placement was completed by then end of July under the direction of Bernard and his mantra of “We need more rocks!” The former small rock garden of 40 by 40 feet (12 by 12 m) grew to its present size of approximately two thirds of an acre (0.25 ha). The main rock garden was built using approximately 800 tons of red granite boulders, gravel, and crusher fines.
The main body of the rock garden, with its ridges and valleys, cliffs, scree garden, and dry stream bed, was completed by the end of the first year of construction. Alpine plants, ground covers, dwarf evergreens, and small flowering shrubs were installed by the Friends of the Garden and students in landscape horticulture labs.
Over the first winter, we planned to add a main entrance and courtyard to the rock garden to create a gathering area for this new campus feature. We applied for funding from North American Rock Garden Society’s Norman Singer Endowment Fund. Thankfully, our application was approved, and we were granted enough to acquire the cut limestone pavers for the courtyard project.
As the garden was starting to take shape, local rock garden enthusiasts wanted to get involved. With Bernard’s encouragement, the Nova Scotia Rock Garden Club was formed in the winter of 2003. We started with a small core group of eight to ten members. We applied to NARGS to become the Nova Scotia chapter and were warmly welcomed. The group has become a constant source of support for the garden’s evolution ever since.
In the summer of 2003, Dr. Jackson did some politicking and was able to secure 25 large hand-cut sandstone blocks from a building demolition that were being stored by a local municipality. We employed local stone mason, Heather Lawson of Raspberry Bay Stone, to carve out eight stone troughs to add to the new courtyard display.
Additional plantings and a woodland walk were added by the Friends and the master gardener summer school in July of 2003 to prepare for a connection between the main garden and the courtyard entrance.
That September brought a flurry of activity. With Bernard’s direction, students in our horticulture programs did the site preparation for the courtyard. A two-level display paved with limestone sourced in New Brunswick, two flanking crevice gardens, island beds with troughs strategically placed for display effect, and dry-stone walls all came together to give this garden the look of age and provide ample areas to grow alpine flora.
We were very fortunate to have many students and instructors involved in the embellishment of this amazing garden. The engineering wood construction class got involved and throughout the winter constructed two cedar bridges, garden benches, garbage receptacles, and a grand shingled entrance structure.
A cedar look-out deck on the upper cliff area, providing a panoramic view of the main garden, was built with funding support provided by the Environmental Sciences student club.
This rock garden was officially dedicated to Dr. Bernard S. Jackson in the summer of 2006. The bulb garden and seed sculpture were installed in 2011. In memory of one of the founding rock garden club members, and with the help of horticulture students, we also installed a large circular seating area to accommodate visitors in the rock garden. In the lead-up to the 10th anniversary celebration in 2012, we added a barrens garden and a small peat bed to the woodland area to provide specialized habitat for blue poppies, orchids, fall gentians, dwarf rhododendrons, and other choice plants.
In 2017, an exciting new limestone rock garden was proposed as part of the Bicentennial Botanical Garden launch and Dalhousie University’s bicentennial celebrations for 2018.
This new garden includes an outdoor classroom, supported by alumni donations. This new limestone habitat creates a different environment than our existing granite rock garden and provides a whole new learning experience for the students in the horticulture program.
We were very fortunate to have another local quarry provide material support in the form of boulders and gravel for our rock garden construction. Approximately 450 tons of limestone rock and gravel were used in this new garden build. Ground breaking commenced in the fall of 2017 to make way for the student involvement in fall 2018.
The new limestone garden has various features unique to our campus: an outdoor classroom, limestone ledge cliffs, large crevice beds, a limestone pavement, talus slope and scree, a pond supported by a dry-stacked wall, and bio swales to control runoff entering garden from the adjacent parking lot.
In the 2019, we added a small alpine meadow plot surrounded by complementary paver walkways. It was an exciting year for putting the finishing touches on this new garden display as well as placing lots of rock garden treasures. We are very fortunate to have Wrightman Alpines Nursery only a few hours away in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Esther Wrightman has been a great source for choice alpine and rock plants, as well as giving sound advice on how to grow a multitude of alpine gems.
So, if you are ever in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, why not stop by our beautiful campus and see one of the best kept secrets of the rock gardening world? Everyone is welcome to visit the garden and explore the rest of our beautiful campus. For more information about the garden and planning your visit: https://www.dal.ca/about-dal/agricultural-campus/about/gardens.html
