Robin Smith Meditation Garden

More than a decade ago, Robin Smith, a past president of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society, as well as a landscape architect by profession, visualized the creation of a meditation garden within a public space. He passed away before his dream could become a reality, but the Saskatchewan Perennial Society wanted to make Robin's dream come true. The City of Saskatoon, the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park, agreed to let us use the site that used to house the Foreman's residence and its adjoining vegetable garden.

In 1998, the Meditation Garden was opened on a third of this space (building site) after many hours of volunteer labour, earth moving by the City of Saskatoon staff, donations of plant material, and overall management by the Society. Grace Berg, a local landscape designer and active Society member designed this garden by taking Robin's concept drawing as a guide.

During creation of this garden, volunteers learned about gardening on a grand scale; how to combine plants for colour, texture, shape, size and form; and they also learned more practical and simple things, like how deep to plant, how to divide perennials and the importance of mulch.

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