Canadian Tire Eh!

June 2nd, 2010, 7:22 pm

Today we purchased items to assist the Wildflower garden group to begin cultivating the land. Staying within the Green Corridor we went to the Canadian Tire on Huron Church. We purchased 2 large shovels a large pack of gloves and a nozzle to attach to the hose. The products were not difficult to find but we were faced with a difficult decision on whether to sacrifice price over quality. In the end we went with quality. An update on another part of our project is establishing a volunteer base to maintain the garden after we have gone. Manjot contacted “A Place of our own”. They gave us some promising news that the possibility of them assisting with volunteers is high. We also called a number of other community organizations where we left detailed voicemail messages explaining who we are and what we are aiming to do. The signs for both the eco house and wildflower garden are well on their way. All they require is approval from Rod and Justin and a little editing in Photoshop. After class with tools in hand we headed down to the Ecohouse to assist the wildflower group in cultivating the land. There were number of areas on the land that have ingrown weeds. We assisted them in removing the weeds. Today was a far cry from the complete project but a productive day overall.

Working hard or hardly working?

We're not scared of getting dirty!

From Mind-Mapping to Reality

February 10th, 2010, 10:33 pm

Creativity and innovation continue to flourish among greenhouse project team members. Beginning with the fundamental requirements of a greenhouse, the team developed several mind-maps branching out into regimes that would appear to have little to nothing to do with greenhouse design. From these branches a list of one hundred seemingly unrelated words was compiled, including terms such as: globalization, discovery, stereotype, fashion, rubber duck, waste, parachutes, community and non-profit. The group will take many of these terms and work to integrate the ideas into our design proposals.

Aside from turning the creative wheels, the entire team has been hard at work planning, designing and researching. By the midterm report on February 25, 2010, the team will be prepared to present five exterior design proposals along with proposed floor plans and options for sustainable systems integration. One of the proposed designs follows the theme of a lady bug as depicted. Elementary research will also be completed on recycled or renewable materials that may be used for construction as well as vegetable or herb crops with the optimum potential for output given the climate in Southwestern Ontario. An initial list of potential sources for project funding will also be identified.