The Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden Society is delighted to announce that Sunshine Coast Credit Union has come on as a major sponsor with a $25,000 donation.
The donation will be used to market the grounds and its beautiful Sparling Pavilion meeting facility, and in developing the new native plant garden.
"With this sponsorship, we can expedite work on the rainforest portion of the native plant garden, and improve our marketing so more people take advantage of the Botanical Garden and everything it offers," said society president Paddy Wales. "It's an exciting opportunity for us, and an affirmation of what we are creating.
The Botanical Garden encourages people of all ages and abilities to take advantage of educational programs, in addition to the simple enjoyment of the garden.
From the gardeners preschool program to the raised beds of the seniors garden, elementary and secondary school students, families, garden clubs and many others, the garden has attracted a broad spectrum of participants and admirers.
Once complete, visitors to the native plant garden will see plants of the Pacific Northwest in distinctive plantings of the rainforest, the sub-alpine (mountainside), dry rain-shadow, and wetland areas. The first phase of this garden is the rainforest, and work has already begun preparing the land for planting this fall among Douglas firs and Western red cedars. Many native berry bushes - salmonberry, salal, huckleberry and thimbleberry - will produce enough berries for eating and preserving with lots left for wildlife. The native plant garden will demonstrate how to incorporate pleasing native plants into low-maintenance home gardens. The magic of a botanical garden is that something like a demonstration native plant garden inspires the creation of a vast patchwork of home gardens all over the peninsula, each one a healthy habitat contributing to the beauty of the Coast.
"Education is a key principle of the co-operative system," said Shelley McDade, CEO of Sunshine Coast Credit Union. "The Credit Union and the Botanical Garden share similar values in our commitment to serving our members as well as the community at large specifically in the area of education. We are very pleased to be able to support the garden's vision for the future."
For more information about the Botanical Garden, visit www.coastbotanicalgarden.org.
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