algaegarden celebrates the beauty and productive potential of algae through a design that underlines its diversity and meaning. This garden stands between the landscape, the artistic and the scientific world, presenting algae organized by colour and species in curtains of tubes hanging from steel frames. The spectrum ranges from reds to greens to bioluminescent algae, which can glow a bright blue. The algae, often considered a nuisance in the garden pond, here become an object of beauty and curiosity. The garden leads the visitor to appreciate algae both as an alternative to oil and other energy sources and a source of food and nutrition. Referencing a pond edge, the garden is lined with pond grasses, and will display algae specimens, most that can be sourced locally. The garden will explore the diversity of an often-overlooked plant, and demonstrate possibilities for how algae might become an evocative and productive part of our daily lives.
The garden was selected to be part of the 2011 Metis International Garden Festival in Quebec. It will be open to the public from June 25 to October 2, 2011 on the site of Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens. Prototypes of the algaegarden can also be found in Summer 2011 in the Urban Physic Garden in London until August 25, 2011.
The project has been realized by Heather Ring, Synnove Fredericks and Brenda Parker, with the support of the Canadian Phycological Culture Centre, NutrOcéan Rimouski, and the Society for General Microbiology, and the collaboration of Martin Cooper, engineer. Photos (c) Louise Tanguay.