Scientist to recreate Mabel Bell’s 100-year old gardens in Cape Breton
There’s no doubt Alexander Graham Bell has left an indelible mark on history, but his wife Mabel was also a trailblazer. Now, almost 100 years after her death, a Nova Scotia scientist is recreating her ecologically significant gardens.
Located between Beinn Bhreagh Mountain and Bras D’Or Lake, Beinn Bhreagh is a 19th century mansion and the historic home of Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell.
In the back of the grand estate is where some of Mabel’s gardens grew. In fact, apple trees she planted more than a century ago are still standing.
Alana Pindar, a research scientist, says Mabel’s understanding of ecology and the environment was well ahead of her time.
"I've learned that she has been probably one of the strongest women in science that has not been celebrated as much as she possibly should be,” said Pindar.
Pindar is working on recreating Mabel’s gardens.
Mary Tulle, chair of the Alexander Graham Bell Foundation, says the project is possible thanks to lessons from the past.
"The trustees of the Bell family gave us the opportunity to have a number of documents scanned and looked at,” explained Tulle.
Among those documents were some of Mabel old journals, which include detailed landscape plans. Tulle says they are being used as a template to replicate the old gardens at the Bell Museum.
"If she was to comment on what was happening today, 100 years later, how thrilled she would be. Humbly thrilled that the future has caught up to the past,” Tulle said.
The idea is that this century-old project can positively affect the next 100 years. The goal is to help teach people about conservation and growing their own food, in an effort to try and stave off things like climate change.
"The first seed is literally being planted on recreating a garden,” Tulle said. “(The hope is) that for generations, and starting with our children of today, to be able to come and learn how to plant, how to harvest."
Pindar says she can almost feel the scientist's guiding presence when she's at Beinn Bhreagh working on the garden restoration.
“Her journal entries and her designs of her landscape are so precise, it is almost like she wanted this replicated,” Pindar said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Invasive and toxic hammerhead worms make themselves at home in Ontario
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
I just don't get Taylor Swift
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'oesn't get' the global phenomenom.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Tornadoes collapse buildings and level homes in Nebraska and Iowa
Tornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the Midwest, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many around Omaha, Neb.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
opinion RFK Jr.'s presidential candidacy and its potential threat to Biden and Trump
Although it's still unclear how much damage Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy can do to either Joe Biden or Donald Trump this election, Washington political columnist Eric Ham says what is clear is both sides recognize the potential threat.
Cisco reveals security breach, warns of state-sponsored spy campaign
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
It's 30 years since apartheid ended. South Africa's celebrations are set against growing discontent
South Africa marked 30 years since the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy with a ceremony in the capital Saturday that included a 21-gun salute and the waving of the nation's multicolored flag.