RECLAMATION SUCCESS

The Butchart Gardens

 

Once a productive limestone quarry on Vancouver Island, Canada, the Butchart Gardens have been developed into fifty acres of floral finery offering spectacular views as you stroll along meandering paths and expansive lawns. The quarry was the source of limestone for the Portland Cement company owned and operated by Mr. Robert Butchart in the late 1880’s, whose home was also on the property. When the quarry was exhausted in 1904, an unprecedented plan for refurbishing the pit was devised. Tons of top soil from nearby farmland were used to line the floor of the pit. Under Mrs. Jenny Butchart’s supervision, the former quarry bloomed as a spectacular Sunken Garden. Next the Butcharts created a Japanese Garden on the sea-side of their home, and later a symmetrical Italian Garden. The Rose Garden followed in 1929. 
The exquisite Sunken Garden. Note the kiln chimney from former cement plant in the background.

By that time, more than fifty thousand people each year were coming to see their creation. The plant stopped manufacturing cement in 1916, but continued to make tiles and flower pots as late as 1950. The only surviving portion of the former cement factory is the tall chimney of a long vanished kiln. The chimney may be seen from the Sunken Garden Lookout.

The Butchart Gardens have grown to become the premier West Coast display garden, while maintaining the gracious traditions of the past. Nearly one million people visit each year, enjoying the floral beauty, entertainment and lighting programs. Each year over 1,000,000 bedding plants in some 700 varieties are used to ensure uninterrupted bloom from March through October. Still under family ownership, the Gardens have been delighting visitors from all over the world for nearly a century.

Mineral Information Institute - www.mii.org
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