South Saanich Indian Reserve 1

We caught the bus out to Butchart Gardens and our first stop was, of course, at the coffee shop and we bumped into a couple from Australia who had been on the cruise with us (fancy that!). We thought the gardens were magnificent and we loved some of the planting designs which were simple but effective. Many of the plants were ones we see in our gardens in England but beautifully maintained. The ethos of the garden is a Victorian planting scheme of replacing the flowers every season, apparently they plant over 30,000 daffodils and 80% are composted at the end of the season.

Jennie Butchart created the gardens over a hundred year's ago. The gardens were created out of the worked out lime quarry which had supplied her husband's nearby Portland cement plant. The gardens are still operated by the family and a team of 70 gardeners. The garden receives over a million visitors every year.

When we returned to the garden we had a quick whirl around our apartments neighbourhood which is China Town. The Chinese came to Canada in the gold rush days but were treated very much as second class and were not allowed to make claims. Some worked on the railways and were paid much less than other workers, when the work was done they were sent back to Victoria where they had entered Canada. They didn't have enough money to return home so wooden houses were erected and that was the birth of China town.Read more