February 15, 2014
Green for Life comes alive at Canada Blooms
Visitors to this year’s Green for Life garden at Canada Blooms will learn about the benefits of outdoor activities.
This year’s Landscape Ontario feature garden at Canada Blooms will demonstrate how members can positively impact the lives of our clients, families and communities in very meaningful ways.
The experiential display will create awareness of the significant effects of our sedentary lifestyle has upon us, encourage people to build the intention to get outside, and learn of the opportunities to live a healthier lifestyle outdoors — to Come Alive Outside.
The display will take the public through three distinct zones within the 2,200 sq.ft. area. The first of these is the Awareness zone. This area will present the alarming statistics related to the health impacts that have resulted from our decrease in actively enjoying the outdoors. This will be presented on several display screens modified to reveal their information through a special lens.
Visitors will then be led through a 14-ft. diameter hut that appears to have been constructed from willow and dogwood branches. Displays encouraging people to develop the intention and gain the benefits of living healthier, active lifestyles outside will be presented within this Intention zone. This primal-looking structure will be one of the key thematic elements reinforcing the Canada Blooms theme of Wild!
Moving through the hut, visitors will be led through the Opportunity zone. This consists of three individual wooden opportunity pods. Each pod will present information on how individuals may benefit from living healthier active lives outdoors for themselves, their family and their community. This information will be presented in a dynamic, multi-media format, showing real examples of how individual and public landscapes which focus on outdoor living draws people from the sedentary, plugged-in, electronic world toward the beauty and benefits of being in nature.
Other key elements within the display are a curved drystone wall ranging from three to six ft. in height, with two additional curved walls constructed from cedar logs, and central recognition walls. The walkways will be constructed from a detailed quilting of paver styles. A rich palette of flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants and a raised sodded lawn area will provide visual and sensory appeal. Extensive lighting, as well as subtle natural sound elements, will enhance the experience. The display will be topped with large kites flying overhead, providing a sense of childhood whimsy to the space.
Once again, we invite Landscape Ontario members to assist with both the build, and in helping to raise awareness of the importance of outdoor living. The Come Alive Outside message is completely aligned with the Landscape Ontario Green for Life brand. It offers one more profound reason why communities should invest in green infrastructure. Please contact Sally Harvey at sharvey@landscapeontario.com if you would like to join the Build Team.
Scott Wentworth has taken on the task of designing and supervising the build of the Landscape Ontario garden at Canada Blooms.