New garage opens at St. Albert Botanic Park

St. Albert’s botanic park now has a huge new garage that should give its gardeners more space to work.

About 40 volunteers and guests were at the St. Albert Botanic Park Sept. 13 for the grand opening of the new East Park Garage. The garage was funded with $75,000 from the province, $60,000 from the City of St. Albert, $6,000 from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and money raised by park volunteers.

While most of the improvements made to the garden in the last 30 years have been for visitors, this new facility was meant to help volunteers, said park president Lynn Rusnak.

“We have a beautiful place to work on equipment. We no longer will have to go into the garage and step over the Gators [utility vehicles] and lawnmowers to get the string trimmers [weed whackers].”

Rusnack said volunteers used to store and maintain equipment in two garages and a sea can on the park’s grounds. One of those garages was unheated, while the other was attached to the park’s rental room, which meant renters could be exposed to various fumes. The garages were so packed that volunteers had to empty them out entirely if they ever wanted to work on a vehicle in them. When city council banned the use of sea cans in town in 2018, park volunteers started plans to build this garage as an alternative.

Rusnack said work on the garage started in March and was now complete apart from a few shelves and workbenches. The project ended up costing roughly $280,000 because crews needed to replace more dirt for the foundations than expected.

The garage is an insulated 1,200 square-foot building equipped with two garage doors, LED lighting, and a bathroom. Half of it is heated. Botanic park volunteers will use it for training, plant-potting, and equipment maintenance/storage.

“We plan on being able to use this year-round,” Rusnack said.

St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron thanked park volunteers for their efforts and noted how the garden had become a major tourist attraction.

“St. Albert is so proud of what you guys have all built.”

Rusnack said park volunteers will spend the next few weeks getting the grounds ready for winter by cutting back flowers, spreading compost, and replanting the lily beds (which were removed this year due to a fungal infestation). Volunteers hoped to start work on an extension of the memorial path next spring.

The botanic park is open year-round and is at 265 Sturgeon Road. Visit stalbertbotanicpark.com for details.