Planting the Future!

By Rachel Davey

This week an exciting project is underway in the Haven grounds. We were very fortunate at the end of 2015 to receive a generous donation from Scott Poole and Laurie Kelley which will enable us to replace some of the trees that were taken down in creating the new parking lot.

The intention of this project is not just to replace the trees, but also to diversify the kinds of trees that we have on the property. Most of our trees now are Douglas Fir and Cedar. We know that cedars will not do well as the climate gets warmer in the coming decades, so we are planning for new trees that are more climate change resilient, primarily Garry oaks. We are also planning to include some native understory plants and have already seeded the open areas in the new parking lot with native grasses, California poppies and lupines.

We have been busy preparing the area by Cormorant and Seagull and have restored one of the decommissioned septic fields to its natural state, and taken out some invasive blackberry bushes. The area is now more open and ready for 20 new trees to be planted this week.

We have a great team working on this, including of course Haven gardeners Don and Roz, Louise Amuir as well as Cameron and Laura-Jean from Topographics Landscape architects. Laura Jean wrote the Landscape Management plan which accompanies the Facilities Masterplan. This team, working with volunteers, will be planting the new trees this week, so watch this space!