Get Outside!

Summer is fleeting like childhood, so let's make the most of both at the same time! People are often looking for things for kids to do during the summer when school's out, but what about things to do with kids? Here's an activity that people of all ages can participate in.

 

Neighbourhood Plant Mapping

I wanted to do this several years ago when I was living uptown and never did, and now I have land of my own and want to do it again! Have you ever heard of asset mapping? It's essentially taking an inventory of and mapping out all the "assets" of a certain area. It can be a street, a neighbourhood, or a whole town. This activity has you do the same thing, but for plants!

 

What You'll Need

1. A smartphone or book about plants (head to the library on a rainy day to prep!)
2. A sketchbook or notebook
3. Writing utensils
4. Drawing utensils
5. Some tools to create labels (we'll talk about this below)
6. A sense of adventure & creativity

 

Getting Started

Choose a reasonably sized area to work in. You may want to start smaller than you envision, depending on how much time you have or how intricate you want to be with this. For example, if you have a garden maybe you want to pick one small corner of the garden. If you are mapping your neighbourhood, maybe start with one block at a time. If you like being around people, consider mapping a park or location where an outdoor market is held!

Go to your area with your book and writing/drawing utensils, and draw out what you see. It doesn't need to be precise, even some simple shapes to represent different plants or building or other items will do. It's just to give you a sense of where everything is. Mark each plant that you want to identify on your page, and create a separate page for each species of plant.

Your Next Trip 

The next time you go out, bring your encyclopedia, smartphone or resource book from the library: anything that will help you identify what the plant is that you are looking at. Write the plant's name down on your map, and add it as a title to that plant's individual page. 

 

Art Time!

Next, you can bring your drawing utensils out with you and draw a picture of the plant while outside (or en plein air)! This is a fun experience and if you're in public it might garner the interest of the neighbours. Get creative! You can choose how you want to represent the plant: is it a collage, a representational pencil drawing, an impressionistic painting, or a finger painting? You could even make a chalk drawing on the sidewalk in front of each plant! Let your creativity bloom.

 

For A Rainy Day

Now that you have the plants organized, named and represented in your book, it's time to create markers for the plants. This way, when you go to your garden or on walks down the road, you'll be able to remember what the name of that plant is. Here, you get to be creative as well. Just keep in mind the health of the plant and don't tie something around the branches or trunk. If you can find a way to make a name tag or sign that sits in the ground next to the plant or on a wall or structure behind it, that's the best. Additionally, it should be water proof, because you want it to last! 

Are you learning a new language, or do you have a neighbour with a different mother tongue than you? Maybe you'll want to get some input and include the plant's name in multiple languages! The options are endless.

Here's an example of a simple and fun plant label you can make.

 

Conclusion

Getting outside is a wonderful part of summer, and this activity can bring you joy over several days as you complete it and several years as you utilize the resource you've made! If done in public areas it can also be a conversation starter and a way for more people to connect to the earth around us in a new way.