Sanctuary: Halifax's Parks and Public Gardens

Pleasance Crawford is a Canadian landscape and garden-history researcher
and writer, and the co-author of Garden Voices: Two Centuries of
Canadian Garden Writing.

This books consists of illustrated essays about four of Halifax’s
public open spaces: the world-renowned Halifax Public Gardens and the
less widely known Fleming Park, Point Pleasant Park, and Hemlock Ravine,
containing 16, 95, 186, and 200 acres, respectively. Armstrong, a
professional actor, magician, and journalist, interweaves interesting
details from the parks’ histories with vivid descriptions of their
present-day layouts and uses. He observes them at all hours, in every
kind of weather, and at each season of the year. He celebrates the
glories of nature, the generosity of public benefactors, and the
achievements of landscape designers and horticulturists. John Davis, a
professional photographer with nearly 20 years’ experience,
contributes color photographs that depict everything from sweeping
panoramas to minute details. Most impressive are several back-lit
scenes, shot at mid-range, that capture the glow of late-afternoon
sunlight filtered through mist and trees.

Unfortunately, Armstrong’s text has the impressionistic, free-ranging
quality of a personal journal that never was intended for publication.
The book would not be a satisfactory guide for tourists. Its one-page
introduction offers only a general notion of how to find each of the
parks, while the maps that appear on the opposite page lack scales to
alert potential visitors to the fact that Hemlock Ravine is more than 12
times the size of the Public Gardens, and that the two other public
spaces fall somewhere between.

For those who want to explore this heritage landscape in person, The
Halifax Public Gardens, a 40-page booklet published in 1989 by the
Friends of the Public Gardens, provides a detailed history and an
excellent fold-out map with tree and shrub identifications.