If you follow me, you know that my most recent posts were about gardens. Well, no surprises there ! Since COVID-19, searching for gardens has been my past time. And no surprises, I made it to the largest one in Canada - the Royal Botanical Gardens. Ontario’s Royal Botanical Gardens is Canada’s largest botanical garden. Designated as a National Historic Site, the garden covers over 2400 acres of wetland, field, forest & escarpment ecosystems across the two cities of Burlington and Hamilton. Not to mention, the Gardens are a registered charitable organization.  The scale of the gardens is palpable even at the entrance when you are provided a map. We weren't able to see all of it, but did see some parts. 

The main building, which is known as the RBG Centre, is the place to start! An interesting fact is that a third of the building’s materials were sourced locally and almost 100% of the demolition/construction waste was diverted from the landfill. 

At the main entrance, there is also a gift store and restaurant at the indoor center. A number of halls can be seen throughout the building, and they are used for presentations or events, it seems. We went past these halls to make a visit to the main Hendrie Park.

As soon as you exit the center, you arrive at the gorgeous Hendrie Park, which has a number of things to see including the Rose Garden, which features a spectacular display of roses and companion plants. There is a cute little gazebo for photo opps. Right next to it is also the Turner Pavillion Teahouse where you can enjoy a drink or snack. 

Within the park, is a wood paved walkway known as the Morrison Woodland Garden, which has woodlanders and native plants. There is a Story Walk just before it. It reminded me a lot of my time in Korea, where most of the trails were wood paved.

Other sites within the Hendrie Park include the Healing Garden, which is a small area featuring a collection of medicinal plants, the Medieval Garden, which features plants of ethnobotanical value used in medieval times for medicinal, culinary, aromatic and dye purposes. This garden also features an analemmatic sundial (the visitor becomes the gnomon and casts the shadow). Other gardens in the Hendrie Park incthe Helen M. Kippax Garden which features native trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses along with their cultivars to add extra colour, the Lily Walk, which has a lovely display of lilies and popular perennials, the Veggie Village, the Hendrie Gates which lead to the Scented Garden.

One could spend an entire day in Hendrie Park, but alas, we had more ground to cover.  After roaming the park, we made a lunch pitstop at the Greenhouse Cafe in the RBG Centre, which offers delicious food. Within the RBC centre, we quickly checked out the Mediterranean Garden which has plants from all the five Mediterranean climate zones: the Mediterranean Basin, South Africa’s Western Cape, southwestern Australia, central Chile, and southern California and Baja.  Two landscaped levels showcase cultivars of native and exotic Mediterranean plants. 

The other collection right next to this is the Cactus and Succulent Collection which showcases some thorny plants, as well as a small koi pond.

We had already spent a few hours doing this, so we knew we wont be able to see all of the garden. The next thing on our bucket list was the Rock garden, which was nothing short of spectacular, though reminded me of Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Park. The Rock Garden has its own visitor center, amazing water displays, and other rock pathways.

Unfortunately, four or five hours had passed and we had yet to touch the surface of this giant garden. However, it is well worth it to get an annual pass and spend some weekends exploring this gorgeous garden(s) which also has its own nature trails, an arboretum, a playground for kids, a multitude of cafes, and many conservation areas within the gardens. 

 Its surprising how life changes when you have kids, and where once you were chasing dance clubs and lounges, you are now chasing farms. Yes, you heard me right. Farms.

Turns out, kids love farms. Of course kids love the animals in the farm but they also love all the mud! Our tot is no different.

And if you want a fun Sunday with your tot, take them to Maplewood Farm in North Vancouver. Years ago, Maplewood Farm was a real dairy farm, but now it is more like an activity farm with a range of animals from pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits, a miniature donkey, chickens, ducks, geese, horses and cows. In most of the cases, you can pet these animals.

It's entirely safe, so there is no need to worry about the kids interaction with the animals. Some of the amazing animals you will see are the small stature Pygmy goats, lambs and the pure white New Zealand Rabbits which you can pet as well as feed. 

The Farm has many other farm animals too, from the largest, the Belgian Draft Horses, which my husband called a "power couple" because they were GORGEOUS!

There are also lots of tiny bantam Chickens, and these are smaller than crows! Also some creepy looking turkeys with their long necks.

If you call and book in advance, you can also enjoy some pony rides, which are available April through to the end of October. They cost $65 per hour, but for birthdays are worth it. You can also request to have a milking demonstration, which usually happens at 1:15pm, but you can probably request it for a birthday.

The Farm is located on 5 pastoral acres, land that has been agricultural since the early 1900's. There is a beautiful pond there as well full of lovely ducks!

The last time we checked the price for adults was slightly more than $8 after taxes. Children between 18 months and 16 years were around $5, which was the same for seniors (ages 55+). Special event days usually cost about a dollar or so more. Horseback riding is also available at around $115 an hour and booked in advance. Parking at the farm is free. If the parking lot gets full, there is also street parking in the area.

Maplewood Farm is best when it isn’t raining, although it’s still okay if you bring an umbrella, or borrow one from the farm. We want when it was raining and still had a ball of a time!

Among the many beautiful gardens in BC, is the Darts Hill Garden Park, a 22.5 acre private estate located just a little off White Rock in South Surrey. Though the estate itself is fairly large, only a smaller part is the garden which is accessible to the public. 

The lady, Ms. Francisca Dart was an avid gardener, and it was her vision and 60 years of dedication and work that resulted in the variety of plants seen today. Francisca transformed what was originally a logged area of land into an award-winning orchard, filled with apple, pear, apricot and walnut trees. After seeing an exhibit by the Alpine Garden Club of BC at the Pacific National Exhibition, she joined organizations devoted to horticulture, including the Royal Horticulture Society, where she received the seeds of many rare and unusual plants, shrubs and trees, transforming the landscape into what is now Darts Hill. 

After bequeathing Darts Hill to the city – and losing her husband the following year – Francisca continued to live on the acreage and oversee the garden until just last month, when she moved to a retirement facility.

The main horticulturist who manages is the garden is Randal Atkinson, who is also the chair of the board at Darts Hill. The horticulturist has been involved with the board at Darts Hill for five years, but spent many years prior to that visiting the lush garden looking at the rare plants inhabiting more than seven acres. During those visits, he learned about the history of the garden and the people behind it.

It probably has taken an army to keep up the Darts Hill Garden Park, where almost all the plants are labelled and categorized, including some lichen. Not only that but you see some interesting items, such as this random totem. 

Presently there is still a private residence on the property and the garden remains semi-private, opening only on designated days. Based on my experience, it is open usually on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with an admission of $5. You can go on the website to see their open days.

Definitely worth a visit. This can be combined with a trip to the Surrey Museum.

 In case you are wondering what to do on a rainy day, you could check out many of the museums that UBC has to offer, from the Museum of Anthropology to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The latter had a great Groupon deal which we grabbed to check out what the Museum was all about. Its probably not worth the full price so definitely go if there is a discount on the tickets.

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a natural history museum which first opened to the public in 2010. It isn't an enormous museum, so expect to spend an hour there unless you want to really review each and every collection. 

As soon as you enter the museum, you'll see the museum's most prominent display - a 25-metre (82-foot) skeleton of a female blue whale buried in Tignish, Prince Edward Island, which is suspended over the ramp leading to the main collections. This is Canada's largest blue whale skeleton.