Garden Designs and Themes

The Ore Dock BotEco Center’s gardens will include both permanent and temporary themes, including displays based on educational topics, events, and art installations. 

Proposed Spaces

• Vertical wet wall garden designed as a living mosaic.
• Sequential gardens which demonstrate stages of biogeomorphology on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, including flora from the pre-glacial tropical clime, vegetation from the present era, and ecosystems that may be present in future millennia. These gardens would focus on the way ecosystems shape our landscapes and our lives.
• Horticultural therapy garden with professionally-led therapy programming.
• Seasonal show gardens with spaces for small events such as photo shoots, weddings, and other celebrations.
• Educational exhibits such as an invasive species display, a phytoremediation presentation, an aquaponics demonstration, or a replica of the International Space Station's garden.  
• Advanced illumination garden.

Diversity of Life-forms 
In additional to plants, botanical gardens include a population of organisms from every domain of life. Temporary animal guests may also be present on certain occasions. The BotEco Center is likely to host:

• Bees, butterflies, and other insects
• Interesting spiders
• Diverse microbial ecosystems
• Fungi 
• Birds
• Fish and other freshwater organisms
• Amphibians and reptiles
• Helper dogs and helpful cats