Jennifer Ryan, Horticultural Instructor |
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Jennifer Ryan is often found standing in gardens, drinking coffee and either talking about the superiority of large floppy plants, or the superiority of plants in general.
Currently, she works at GardenWorks' Burnaby location, in the 'Shrubs and Trees Department'. Jennifer also teaches "Plants in the Landscape (Ag. 220)" at the Chilliwack campus of the University College of the Fraser Valley. She gets to fill the heads of students with lots of Latin. The other frequent topic that she brings up while in a garden or garden centre is compost, and the worms necessary for the compost. The coffee is necessary for the Gardener, who is necessary for the worms, which are necessary for the compost, and the coffee grounds are necessary for the compost as well… See how well this works? |
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She also writes for the stage (a handy thing that she's married to an actor). One year she wrote, directed, stage managed, and produced a show at the Vancouver Fringe Festival called Jane's Ovaries. Her most recent play is A Sink Full of Dishes which was produced by the Out to Lunch Players at the Vancouver Little Theatre in May of 2000. She also is working on a short story collection, but they have not as yet been published (a handy thing that she's married to a publisher). |
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Here's Jennifer doing the other thing she enjoys: lying on the couch watching a video. It can't be all work and still be a life, can it? |
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This is one of the cats that owns Jennifer. Her name is Toast. Notice her colouring: mostly brown, with little white paws, and some black tips - rather like a piece of toast. She is rarely seen, but you can see in this photo that she frequently writes great works of fiction on the computer. If you add this page to your list of "Favorites" in "Explorer", you get to see a teeny-tiny picture of her marking this page. And in Netscape 6.0 or higher, or in Mozilla's "Firefox", you can already see it up there in the address bar. Maybe even in Internet Explorer 7. |
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This is the other cat that owns Jennifer; Ms Shaft. She adopted her new family July 22nd, 2000, having being born around February. Ms Shaft is a short-haired domestic with black colouring. It took awhile, but she finally slowed down enough for Ian to take some pictures. These days, she constantly proves herself to be thick and gets larger by the hour. |
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Here's Jennifer trying to determine how she can hide a Clydesdale under her jacket and sneak it back home without anyone noticing. |
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This is Jennifer explaining about particular plants to her U.C.F.V. Ag. 220 class. The big leaf in her hand is from a plant who's Latin name means "Big Leaf Plant". Where do they get these names from? I ask you! |
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So, go out and plant something that grows really tall and flops all over the place, then write about it, and then do something nice for a cat, because that's what Jennifer loves to do.
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The Windsor Estate' Windsor Great Park - Jennifer worked here the year the castle had the fire, and helped in the clearing the library during it. |
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UBC Botanical Garden - Jennifer worked here for awhile. |
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The VanDusen Botanical Garden - a fine place to go for a walk with your favourite someone. |
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The GVRD's Compost Demo Gardens - Jennifer worked at one in Burnaby for several years |
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The Greater Vancouver Regional District - Jennifer's former employer & the Regional Government |
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City of Burnaby - the folks who own the garden now |
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GardenWorks - B.C.'s biggest garden retail outlet, and where Jennifer now occasionally works |
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University College of the Fraser Valley - Jennifer teaches "Plants in the Landscape (Ag. 220)" at the Chilliwack campus for years now |
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Kwantlen College - where Jennifer also taught a couple of courses one year. |
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The Evergreen Foundation - "working to create healthy cities through innovative community naturalization projects across Canada - on school grounds, on public lands, and on the home landscape." |
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City Farmer: Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture - "promotes urban food production and environmental conservation" |
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List of Shakespeare's Plants - "complete list of the plants mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare" |
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Environment Canada - is it worth trying to get some weeding done this weekend? Find out here! |
