Mole Hill Community Housing Society

All photos were taken in August 2014.

Mole Hill Community Housing Society occupies the block bounded by Comox, Pendrell, Bute & Thurlow Streets, adjacent to Nelson Park in Vancouver’s West End. The Mole Hill Community Housing Society provides affordable housing for low & middle income people in houses dating back to the late Victorian era. Mole Hill is the highest point in the West End & is named after Henry and Elizabeth Mole, original settlers to the area. The City of Vancouver started buying properties around Mole Hill in the 1950s. Those houses were razed to create Nelson Park. The houses of Mole Hill were to be the next stage of the park’s creation. Friends of Mole Hill was formed by Vancouver citizen activists in response. They were successful in preserving these houses & having them converted to affordable apartments. The work was done between 1999 & 2003. Mole Hill Community Housing is a very pleasing urban landscape: vintage houses combined with attractive landscaping. While Nelson Park is not particularly interesting, a community garden is located there. This community is very near Davie Street in Davie Village, filled with shops & restaurants.  

VanDusen Botanical Garden

All photos were taken in August 2014

There is a lot to see at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver BC.  It's a more traditional botanical garden than the UBC Botanical Garden in Vancouver, or the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle, which are more forested & informal.  VanDusen Botanical Garden reminds me of botanical gardens in New York & London.  The RHS Garden at Wisley comes to mind.  There is a beautiful visitor center, plant collections from Asia, the southern hemisphere including Chile, Australia & New Zealand, the Mediterranean, eastern North America, redwoods & other conifers including members of the cypress family, also lindens, maples, ashes, mountain ashes & rhododendrons.  The diversity of plants is quite amazing.  The are also interesting features including 5 lakes, a meditation garden, an Elizabethan maze, a tiny farm with vegetables, bees & medicinal plants. a formal rose garden, a rock garden, a fragrance garden & even more.  It's really quite a beautiful, diverse & interesting place, well worth a visit when you are in Vancouver.  The garden opened in 1975 & has had plenty of time to grow impressively.  It covers 55 acres (22 hectares) & is open every day of the year, except Christmas Day.  

UBC Botanical Garden & Centre for Plant Research

Kirengeshoma palmata (Yellow Wax Bells)

Rodgersia in the David C Lam Asian Garden

Eucalyptus coccifera 

Alpine Gardens

Physic Garden.  All photos were taken in August 2014.

The UBC Botanical Garden is a charming place to visit at any time of year.  The garden was established in 1916 at the University of British Columbia.  Plants of every type cover the garden more than 100 years later.  The David C Lam Asian Garden is forested with Asian trees.  Quite large Rhododendron of many species expand beneath them.  Areas near this garden are also forested with species of Acer, Cornus, Magnolia, Sorbus &  the family Styracacia from North America & Asia.  The Greenheart TreeWalk is suspended between the trunks of tall BC native evergreen trees.  The E H Lohbrunner Alpine Garden, with many small shrubs & rather few trees, is a stark contrast.  Xeric plants from around the world live here.  A pedestrian tunnel leads from the shaded forest to this sun-drenched part of the botanical garden,  Here you will also find a physic (medicinal) garden laid out in a formal pattern of concentric circles.  The entire botanical garden covers 110 acres.  Allow at least an hour to walk its many paths.

Nitobe Memorial Garden

 

All photos were taken in August 2014.

The Nitobe Memorial Garden covers 2.5 acres (1 hectare) at the edge of the University of British Columbia just above the Salish Sea.  The garden is one of the most beautiful Japanese gardens I have seen, not as fine as the Japanese garden complex in Portland, but perhaps better than the Japanese gardens in Seattle & Bellevue.  It's not a large garden, but invites you to linger.  The style is said to be Shinto.  It combines traditional Japanese garden plants with native plants from British Columbia.  The garden was designed by Kannosuke Mori, a professor at Chiba University in Japan & named after Dr, Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933) an influential Japanese educator & diplomat at the League of Nations.  He studied in Japan, Germany & at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  He has no direct link to Vancouver, but died in Victoria on his way home from a conference in Banff Alberta.  Other nearby sites of interest to the public are the UBC Museum of Anthropology, the UBC Botanical Garden & Wreck Beach.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

 Outside the 1. China Maple Hall.  Numbers correspond to the map below.

2. China Maple Hall Courtyard & moon gate in the 4. Double Corridor

Bridge between islands.  The pebbles used for paving were brought from China.

3. Ting.  'High on a pile of weathered rocks, emulating a mountain, sits an elegant pavilion representing humans in their natural setting.'

stools

 6. Jade Water Pavilion.  'Pitted & convoluted Tai Hu limestone rocks from Lake Tai near Suzhou are highly prized.  The pine symbolizes strength because it can grow in treacherous conditions.'

 Two arrangements from inside the 8. Scholar's Study.

8. Scholar's Courtyard

On 11-25-10, Rusty & I drove from Seattle to snowy Vancouver, British Columbia.  On the following rainy day, we found remnant patches of snow in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.  I thought it was stunning.  Rusty likes plants, but isn't a great garden enthusiast.  He said, 'This doesn't look like a garden.  There are so few plants.'  I replied, 'Gardens can be about pavement & structures.  Ask any landscape architect.'  The classical Chinese scholar's garden consists of 4 main elements & represents the Daoist philosophy of yin & yang.  1. Architecture is Ming dynasty classical design.  A main hall is a tang (yin).  A pavilion or gazebo is a ting (yang).  2. Rocks reflect rugged landscapes.  3. Plants are selected for symbolic value: willow for feminine grace, winter-flowering plum for renewal, pine for strength, bamboo for quiet resilience.  4. Water creates a tranquil atmosphere.  The garden was constructed by a 52-member team of experts from Suzhou.  It opened in 1986.
 

Map of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden