VIU Horticulture Technician Foundation program students and instructors take a break from working on the Hawkins garden meadow project.
Industry support provides VIU students with opportunities to investigate environmentally sustainable lawn alternatives and become certified Allan Block installers.
With help from a variety of businesses, students in the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Horticulture Technician Foundation Program are in the process of converting an established lawn and garden area at the G.R. Paine Horticulture Training Centre into a drought-tolerant, pollinator-friendly meadow.
"The meadow project will expose students to changing trends, new technologies and people's desire for ecologically responsible yards and gardens," says Jessica Gemella, VIU Horticulture Technician Program instructor.
Students in the program study landscape design, soil and water management, arboriculture, habitat enhancement and historic land-use as well as landscape the property at the Paine Centre as part of their class projects.
Gemella is interested in connecting the meadow project to ongoing research.
"It is an adaptive management approach that will evolve over many years with students studying and documenting environmentally sustainable lawn alternatives and adapting to climate change," she adds.
Students have removed the existing turf in the spot known as the Hawkins garden, a fenced, decorative area that was built about 25 years ago. Gemella says in recent years the irrigation ponds have completely dried up, leaving the facility with no capacity to water the area in the summer season. The meadow project will allow students to explore an option that an increasing number of people are interested in learning more about or trying.
