Center for Urban Horticulture
Green Features of Merrill Hall
Merrill Hall was the first LEED™ Silver certified building on the UW Seattle campus. Green Design Flyer
- Solar panels
- Natural light
- Recycled building materials
- Sustainable wood
- Bamboo floor
- Low VOC finishes
Seattle Green Power - Solar Project, including link to live data
The Center for Urban Horticulture, founded in 1983, is now part of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens. It includes a 16-acre landscaped site with buildings and gardens, and the 74-acre Union Bay Natural Area, which provides publicly accessible wildlife habitat (more than 200 bird species have been sighted there) and an outdoor laboratory for UW research.
Over sixty horticultural and environmental groups meet in its buildings, which are also available for rental to the general public. The newly rebuilt Merrill Hall, the first certified “green building” on the UW Seattle campus, houses the UWBG headquarters, the Elisabeth C. Miller Library and the Otis Douglas Hyde Herbarium . Greenhouse space is also available for rental.
At the Center for Urban Horticulture you may stroll through the:
- Soest Herbaceous Display Garden
- Goodfellow Grove
- McVay Courtyard
- Seattle Garden Club Fragrance Garden
Directions and Maps
Audio Tour of the gardens
Update from the Horticulture Staff
CUH Update – December 2011: New Garden Features & Season’s Greetings
It has been an incredibly busy autumn here at CUH as we have several new projects underway. Our entire horticultural team has been involved with 2 major projects we’d like to highlight as these are pretty significant changes that might raise a few eyebrows.
Earlier this autumn, our arborist crew took down a large specimen of Parrotia persica that’s been growing in a raised planter in the Orin and Althea Soest Herbaceous Perennial Garden. You can read our notice about it from a few weeks ago.
If you’ve visited UWBG-CUH in the last two weeks or so, you probably couldn’t help but notice a small broadleaf evergreen tree standing by itself on a “pedestal” with soil excavated from it. This is the first phase of what should be an extravagant perennial border to be design, planted and maintained by the Hardy Plant Society of Washington. HPSW and UWBG have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and we’re moving forward to assist them in preparing the site. The first step was to remove as much of the existing soil as possible to help eradicate the horrendous horsetail that has inhabited the bed after years of mediocre maintenance as this section of CUH has always been a low priority, yet it’s really our front door. We are ecstatic to have a group that can take this on (and also take over the Blooms of Bressingham evaluation program and its maintenance.
It will be awhile before both these projects really come into their own, but because we are the CENTER for urban horticulture, we will aim to provide our visitors with ongoing interest, color and at this time of year, festive decor such as our lovely Christmas tree donated by City People’s Garden Store and decorated by one of our many generous supporters, Charlotte Behnke and our containers in the Seattle Garden Clubs’s Fragrance Garden where members flanked containers with scented pansies and primoses accented with bright gold sweet flag grass.
On behalf of the UWBG staff, we want to wish you Season’s Greetings and a very Happy Holidays and may the upcoming year bring with it much joy, good health and, hopefully, more frequent visits to our gardens!
Cheers,
Riz
Posted on 21 December 2011 | 3:29 pm
Last modified:
February 03 2012 12:54:12