Toronto Botanical Garden | |
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Type | Non-profit, public |
Location | 777 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Coordinates | 43°44′03″N79°21′30″W / 43.73427°N 79.35824°W |
Area | 4 acres (2 ha) |
Opened | 1958 |
Open | 7 days a week, sunrise to sunset |
Building hours | 9am to 5pm daily |
Website | Official website |
The Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) is located at 777 Lawrence Avenue East at Leslie Street, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Termed "The little garden with big ideas", the TBG is nearly four acres and features 17 themed "city-sized gardens". [1] Located in the north-east corner of Edwards Gardens, [2] the TBG is a non-profit horticultural and educational organization with a mission to connect people, plants and the natural world through education, inspiration and leadership. [3]
Formerly known as the Toronto Civic Garden Centre founded in 1958 by the Garden Club of Toronto, the TBG opened formally with the designation of a botanical garden in 2003. [4]
Raymond Moriyama designed the Civic Garden Centre's main building that opened in 1965. [5]
Unlike many other large botanical gardens in North America, the TBG does not receive funding from the provincial or federal governments, and it produces over 95% of its operating budget from self-generated income through membership fees, fundraising events, course revenues, and from the generosity of individual and corporate donors.
Approximately four acres make up the 17 themed gardens of the Toronto Botanical Garden. The newest, and largest, addition is the Woodland Walk [6] made up of native trees, shrubs, perennials, and a wildflower meadow, representing the Carolinian forest and prairie savannah native to this region of Toronto. Next is the Entry Garden Walk, [7] sponsored by the Garden Club of Toronto [8] and designed by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. This garden is made up of perennials & ornamental grasses which have self-sown to create the sophisticated meadow that greets visitors. A water curtain and water channel are two key features complementing the Arrival Courtyard [9] and West View Terrace, [10] respectively. The building has two green roofs, one flat space planted with native perennials, the other slanted and planted with sedum varieties. Part of the TBG's Silver LEED Certification [11] includes the collection of rainwater from the water features as well as the building, which is stored in two cisterns found in the perennial borders. Garden staff work from a straw bale shed also with a green roof of native perennials.
Since 1998, Toronto Botanical Garden has offered a variety of programs designed to stimulate children's curiosity about nature and gardening through hands-on experiences. Each year TBGKids educates over 6000 children through school visits, summer and March break camps, family programs, and outreach initiatives. Children learn in the beautiful and unique Teaching Garden which incorporates demonstration plots and an organic vegetable garden sown and harvested by children. The TBG donates produce from the Teaching Garden each year to the North York Harvest Food Bank. [12]
The TBG's Weston Family Library is the largest private horticultural library in Canada. The library's resources surround themes of domestic horticulture, such as landscape design, flower arrangement, plant species, growing herbs and vegetables, urban agriculture, and many others. Collections include children's titles, reference materials, magazines and journals, DVDs, historical and rare books. Only members may borrow materials from the Weston Family Library, but the space is open to the public and anyone is allowed to browse and use materials within the library. [13] The library offers courses and programming for adults and children, and features an art gallery with rotating exhibitions with horticultural themes.
Toronto Botanical Garden offers 20 courses a year for adults in botanically related disciplines such as gardening, urban vegetable gardening, container gardening, urban beekeeping, botanical art, floral design, nature, photography and wellness. Special events include the HortiCULTURE Salon Series, TBG Lecture Series, Royal York Rooftop Tour and Lunch, bus tours, and Grow, Cook and Relish Series. Classes offered include elements such as lecture-style instruction, discussions, and in many cases, hand-on elements. Course offerings vary each season, and are designed to provide TBG members and the public with seasonally appropriate information to help them in their own gardens, as well as fulfilling the mission of connecting people with plants and the natural world.
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits, and herbs, are grown for consumption, for use as dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use.
Longwood Gardens is a botanical garden that consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the United States and is open to visitors year-round to enjoy native and exotic plants and horticulture, events and performances, seasonal and themed attractions, as well as educational lectures, courses, and workshops.
VanDusen Botanical Garden is a botanical garden situated in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the Shaughnessy neighborhood. It is located at the northwest corner of 37th Avenue and Oak Street. It is named for local lumberman and philanthropist Whitford Julian VanDusen.
Seed companies produce and sell seeds for flowers, fruits and vegetables to commercial growers and amateur gardeners. The production of seed is a multibillion-dollar business, which uses growing facilities and growing locations worldwide. While most of the seed is produced by large specialist growers, large amounts are also produced by small growers that produce only one to a few crop types. The larger companies supply seed both to commercial resellers and wholesalers. The resellers and wholesalers sell to vegetable and fruit growers, and to companies who package seed into packets and sell them on to the amateur gardener.
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill is a 171-acre botanic garden and arboretum located in Boylston, Massachusetts, approximately 8 miles (13 km) north of central Worcester in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The Garden features 18 distinct gardens, preserved woodlands, and miles of walking trails.
The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens are located in Lions Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with an associated High Plains Arboretum located five miles (8 km) northwest of Cheyenne at an elevation of 6,200 feet (1,900 m).
The California State University Northridge Botanic Garden or CSUN Botanic Garden is located in the northern San Fernando Valley, in the southeast section ("quadrant") of the California State University, Northridge campus in the community of Northridge in Los Angeles, California.
Powell Gardens, Kansas City's botanical garden, is a 970-acre (3.9 km2) botanical garden in Kingsville, Missouri, United States, 30 miles (48 km) east of Kansas City. It features 6,000 varieties of plants, with 225,000 plants in seasonal displays, and is open to the public, for a fee, during daylight hours.
The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is 67.5-acre (27.3 ha) of botanical gardens located adjacent to Lane Park at the southern foot of Red Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama. The gardens are home to over 12,000 different types of plants, 25 unique gardens, more than 30 works of original outdoor sculpture, and several miles of walking paths. With more than 350,000 annual visitors, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens qualify as one of Alabama's top free-admittance tourist attractions. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is also a part of the American Public Gardens Association.
The Idaho Botanical Garden, located in the historic Old Penitentiary District of Boise, Idaho, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting people, plants, and nature. The Garden serves as a gathering space in the Boise community and advocates environmental stewardship. Spanning 15 acres, the Idaho Botanical Garden is a premier collection of plants cultivated for the unique sagebrush steppe ecosystem of the Treasure Valley aimed at showcasing the region's biodiversity.
The Michigan State University Horticulture Gardens are horticultural gardens, with a landscape arboretum, located on Bogue Street on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan. The gardens are open to the public daily without charge.
The Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre (156 ha) living plant museum situated on nine islands in the Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens and five natural habitats including Mary Mix McDonald Woods, Barbara Brown Nature Reserve, Dixon Prairie, the Skokie River Corridor, and the Lakes and Shorelines. The garden is open every day of the year. An admission fee has been approved to start in 2022, not to exceed $35.
Fellows Riverside Gardens are public botanical gardens, part of the Mill Creek Metro Parks system. The gardens are located at 123 McKinley Avenue, in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. They are open daily with no admission fee.
This is an alphabetical index of articles related to gardening.
The North Carolina Botanical Garden is a botanical garden operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The primary goal of the Garden is to research, catalog, and promote the native plant species of North Carolina.
Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and arboretum located within Tuckahoe State Park at 12610 Eveland Road, Ridgely, Maryland. The grounds contain five miles of paths through meadows and native plant gardens on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Its gardens contain a "living collection" of more than 600 species of native shrubs, trees, wildflowers and grasses, used to promote land stewardship practices in the Chesapeake Bay region.
Urban horticulture is the science and study of the growing plants in an urban environment. It focuses on the functional use of horticulture so as to maintain and improve the surrounding urban area. Urban horticulture has seen an increase in attention with the global trend of urbanization and works to study the harvest, aesthetic, architectural, recreational and psychological purposes and effects of plants in urban environments.
Auckland Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden in the New Zealand city of Auckland. It is located in the suburb of Manurewa, in the Manurewa Local Board Area. The gardens cover 64 hectares, and holds more than 10,000 plants.
The Royal Danish Horticultural Society's Garden is a garden in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark operated by the Danish Horticultural Society as a source of inspiration for its members as well as other people with an interest in gardening. It is situated on Frederiksberg Runddel, just left of the main entrance to Frederiksberg Gardens.
Foodscaping is a modern term for the practice of integrating edible plants into ornamental landscapes. It is also referred to as edible landscaping and has been described as a crossbreed between landscaping and farming. As an ideology, foodscaping aims to show that edible plants are not only consumable but can also be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. Foodscaping spaces are seen as multi-functional landscapes which are visually attractive and also provide edible returns. Foodscaping is a great way to provide fresh food in an affordable way.