HALIFAX – The Halifax Public Gardens has been open for a few hours each day since the beginning of April, but starting today, it’s open from 8:00 am, until dusk.
“We get really positive comments from our visitors, ” says Bev MacPhail, the horticulture supervisor at the Public Gardens. “We get visitors now from all around the world because over 250,000 people visit Halifax off of cruise ships every year.”
The gardens are one of the rare surviving Victorian Gardens in Canada.
“It’s a wonderful place for people to come and gather and I really enjoy coming here. I go out of my way to make sure that I take the path to go look at the flowers and things and it’s really impressive,” says passerby Neil Burns.
“I always take the shortcut through the Gardens by choice and it wakes me up in the morning and this time of year it’s great because you see everything just starting to come up,” says Halifax resident Jill Rogers.
It’s almost ten years since Hurricane Juan knocked down several trees in the gardens. At that time, a million dollars was raised for the restoration of the gardens. New growth is quickly taking place says Tim Reid, who’s been a gardener at the site for 35 years.
“As you look down the walkway you get a very nice effect with the newly planted trees with that nice row.”
As staff returns to work today, they’ll be busy cleaning up the winter mess. Last year there was a major restoration of the Victoria Fountain, including a new paint job.
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“All of the internal plumping was replaced. So we feel the fountain is going to work much better,” says MacPhail.
Two years ago the bandstand was restored and this year the 140-year-old urns around the bandstand will be replaced.
“They’ve experienced quite a bit of damage and they’re starting to chip away, so we’re hoping to get new moulds created for them and get new concrete urns.”
The crocuses have popped up, but it will be some time before the perennials are planted.
Reid says she would like to remind the public not to feed the birds, ride a bike, or smoke in the gardens.
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