Arboretum History
Arboretum History
Pink flowers and green bushes run alongside either side of a dirt path which recedes into the background. Large conifer trees are seen in the background behind a wooden fence.

Gosling Wildlife Gardens – Garden 3

Header image: Garden one of the Gosling Wildlife Gardens, 2007.

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The third garden in the Gosling Wildlife Gardens has undergone the most changes since its opening in 1988. Initially, this garden was known as The Prairie and featured a variety of native prairie plants. However, this garden was quite impractical for homeowners due to its high maintenance and prescribed burns. In the early 2000s, Garden Three was transformed into the Native Plant Garden. The Native Plant Garden features native Ontario plants in a formal backyard-style display, showing visitors that they do not need to look much further than Ontario plants to create a beautiful backyard garden.

Yellow flowers bloom in the middle of the Prairie Garden. Tall grasses can be seen behind the blooms. Behind the field, a wooden building with a slanted roof is surrounded by tall conifer trees.

Garden Three (The Prairie), 1990.

Tall prairie grasses tower in front of a green bush and a wooden fence.

Garden Three, 1990.

Three individuals stand at the edges of a controlled burn of prairie plants. The individual closest to the camera is wearing blue plaid shirt and navy pants. Two men walk along the edge of a wooden fence in the background, one is wearing a green coat and the other is wearing a navy jacket open over a blue button up shirt. The prescribed burn has burnt half of the field and is burning the rest of the tall grasses.

Burning the Prairie in Garden Three, 1998.

A man in a striped sweater and blue denim jeans pushes a red lawn mower through tall prairie grasses, cutting them down.

Past Arboretum Manager Ric Jordan cutting the Prairie, 1997.

Eight people sit on a picnic table in the background. The picnic table sits on a slab of concrete in the middle of a garden. The garden surrounding them is barren, only soil that has been ploughed for future plantings.

Arboretum staff in Garden three partway through its transformation from the Prairie to the Native Plants Garden, 2003.

A large green bush grows in front of a wooden fence. At the base of the bush is a long narrow steam surrounded by rocks and reed plants.

The Native Plants Garden (Garden Three), 2020.

This is a sampling of some of the many photos that have been taken and people that have been a part of The Arboretum’s 50 years of operations. Do you have some photos you would like to share? Upload them to our Arboretum History Kudoboard.

The land where The Arboretum now grows has been home to plants and animals for thousands of years. It was home to Indigenous peoples before settlers arrived. We recognize the Dish with One Spoon territory, the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Between the Lakes Treaty 3 lands on which the University of Guelph and The Arboretum now sit. We are honoured to work on and care for this land.