Garden Tour

Welcome to your Ecology Lab Garden tour. At the University of Waterloo, the Ecology Lab team has worked diligently to maintain and expand the naturalized gardens surrounding our buildings. Throughout this tour, we will be virtually visiting these 6 gardens which you can find on campus.

A number of garden areas have been modelled after different vegetation communities. The Dorney Garden was among the first naturalized gardens on a Canadian campus, and the first at UW. A number of student naturalization garden projects have been implemented around the Environment buildings since.

A naturalized garden can serve as an alternative to a manicured lawn, which can require large inputs of water, fertilizers & pesticides in order to maintain the look that many desire. These gardens are composed of perennial native plants which are adapted to the climatic stresses of the area, making them drought tolerant and lower maintenance.

These Gardens are often modelled after a particular plant community, such as a sunny meadow garden or a shade-loving woodland garden.​

The Arts and Environment Garden, first established in 2012, was made possible through the ongoing collaboration of the Arts and Environment faculties. Located in the area between EV1, HH, and PAS, this evolving space includes a number of different themed gardens to explore, including a Xeriscape garden, Native plants garden, Butterfly garden, Wind garden, Spring garden, and Japanese Zen garden.

Students and Faculty are encouraged to be stewards of this space and take advantage of the opportunities to utilize this space to eat, relax, teach, and reflect with the campus community. Plans are in place to place signs at each garden with a description of the garden and names of some of the species planted.

Due to the nature and scope of the project, the place is in constant change as more gardens are planted and existing gardens evolve. Volunteers are always needed! 

This naturalized garden was established in 1988 and is located outside of Environment-1. This space acts as an outdoor classroom for plant identification and observation. It was created to commemorate Robert Starbird Dorney, a professor in the School of Planning. This low-maintenance landscape consists of plants native to Southern Ontario's Carolinian forests and prairies, and requires no mowing, fertilizers, pesticides, or watering. It was designed as a tall grass prairie in the west, and deciduous woodland in the east, however, succession has occurred and much of the prairie area is now shrubs and trees. Also found in the area is a collection of native spring wildflowers. Bird feeders in the garden attract a variety of birds, squirrels and even geese. All this makes the Dorney Garden an excellent place to sit and relax among the trees.   

Tallgrass prairies and savanna landscapes once flourished throughout Southern Ontario. The Prairie-Savanna Garden located on the south side of the Environment-1 building began as a senior honours thesis project. The garden helps to shed light on the conservation of prairie savanna landscapes, and offers visitors a lively display of native grasses and wildflowers. The garden continues to expand with ENVS 200 Field Ecology students planting wildflowers as part of their lab activities.

The woodland fern garden is the area between the Environment and Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology (PAS) buildings. The presence of native ferns, short woodland flowers, and colourful drought tolerant wildflowers creates interest and depth. Planting of this garden began in the summer of 2009 with the help of volunteers from the Natural Landscaping Team. ENVS 200 Field Ecology students have added plantings over the past years. 

On the roof of Environment-3 building, a 1400 m2 garden patio features native and drought tolerant plantings. To create a diverse ecosystem, its design included varying the depth of the growing medium, using a variety of materials and planting a diversity of plant species. A variety of native, drought-resistant plants were used so that once established, only minimal irrigation will be required.

The stormwater that falls on the roofs of Environment-3 and Environment-2, as well as nearby graded parking lots, is directed into the constructed wetlands systems. This stormwater runoff is discharged into a vertical flow system. As the runoff slowly flows through the system, wetland plants act as natural filters to cleanse the water and remove contaminants. The recycled non-potable water is then stored in a cistern that sits below the wetland, before being pumped into EV-3 to flush toilets and water the living wall and garden courtyards. This innovation reduces the need to use potable water.

That concludes our tour of the gardens around campus, thank you for joining!