Maker Projects for Kids Who Love Greening Up Spaces
Make It Green From an apartment balcony to a patch of earth in the backyard almost any space can be made green Landscaping is the hands on act of combining plants and other materials to make a space more beautiful or functional It is a unique art form that combines art science and nature Greening up a space can be as simple as planting some colorful flowers in a pot It can also involve more planning and teamwork such as starting an urban garden that provides the community with fresh food Landscaping is big business too According to the National Gardening Survey in the United States 36 1 billion was spent on lawns and gardens in 2015 In May 2016 alone Canadians spent more than 769,000 on lawn-and-garden products Get OutSIde It pays to play outdoors Time spent in the fresh air reduces stress makes people more caring and sympathetic improves critical-thinking skills increases attention span and makes it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle Fun entertaining and beautiful green spaces help draw us outside Make your dream landscape into a reality Where will your creativity lead 4
a MAkeR mOVemENt The people who green up spaces are makers They learn how to tackle any project through hands-on real-world experience Makers risk failure but they keep working to find innovative solutions to problems Landscapers are makers who create build and grow living masterpieces both big and small Makers gather together in makerspaces Here they share resources and knowledge and work on projects Collaborative workspaces allow for the sharing of ideas Make your makerspace a green space GroWInG gReEn Orca K-8 School in Seattle Washington is filled with budding green thumbs The school has an organic gardening program in which students learn about nutrition by cooking and eating what they grow Extra herbs vegetables and fruits are shared with a local food bank and food waste from the school cafeteria is made into compost The best way to learn about all things green is to roll up your sleeves and dig in Be a Maker Makers can create special places outdoors in any space big or small What appeals to you about your backyard or neighborhood park Why do you think you prefer one green space over another 5
Great Landscapes People have been greening up spaces for more than 3,000 years Gardens in ancient Egypt were formal and symmetrical spaces Early Italian gardens were built like open-air buildings Everything was structured Trees were pruned into artificial shapes called topiary In the 1700s in England there was a switch to a more natural free-form look GreENinG Of a COnTinENt When Europeans traveled to North America they brought their gardening styles along Landscapers now had a choice of styles Frederick Law Olmsted is often called the father of American landscape architecture He helped design New York City’s Central Park and the Capitol grounds in Washington D C Olmsted believed parks should be functional green spaces for public use In 1900 his son taught the country’s first course in landscape architecture at Harvard University A GarDEn By ANy oThER naME There are formal gardens food gardens water gardens roof gardens gardens for entertaining and gardens for wildlife Calming Japanese-style zen gardens are made up of a large area of raked sand with a rock or two and a few plants They are built on the idea that humans are part of nature In a zen garden rocks symbolize mountains and raked sand represents water 6
The Renaissance garden is inspired by the belief that humans are the masters of nature The elaborate gardens at Château de Versailles in France include 250 acres 100 ha of paths flower beds statues and even a canal once used for gondola rides British Columbia’s Butchart Gardens was created on the site of an abandoned rock quarry It now boasts more than 700 different species of plants The High Line is an elevated green space that stretches about 1 5 miles 2 4 km above the busy streets of Manhattan in New York City It is built on an old railway line GoInG biG Houston Texas is the latest hotspot to watch when it comes to landscape design Makers and shakers in the United States fourth-largest city are going green Once called a concrete wasteland Houston is transforming itself with the development of connected greenways and redeveloped parks Be a Maker If you had to choose a landscape design would it be formal or informal Why What appeals to you about this style What elements of this design could you use in your own green space 7
